Expansion to early childcare entitlements: eligibility codes issued and validated
March 2025

Description

Codes Issued and Validated relating to the childcare expansion (staggered from April 2024 to September 2025), with termly updates.

Coverage

All codes issued and validated nationally, regionally, and at local authority level. We also present Local Authority termly returns combined with school census data to present headcount and funding PTE figures from the midpoint of the term.

File formats and conventions

See methodology - data is split into the term, the child's age (at the start of the relevant term), the geography, and more recently whether the code is new for that term or had been eligible for a previous term as well (existing).

Data files

Autumn 2024 Local Authority Codes Issued and Validated

Filename: issued_codes_autumn_by_age_and_user_type.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
Time period: 2024
Content summary: Codes issued and validated for Autumn 2024, by LA/Region/National, by age of child and by whether the code was newly issued or had been eligible in a previous term.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name         |  Variable description
--------------------  |  -----------------------------
age                   |  Age
codes_issued          |  Codes issued
codes_validated       |  Codes validated
percentage_validated  |  Percentage of codes validated
user_type             |  User Type

Footnotes:

1. Eligibility Checking Service data was aggregated to local authorities using the child's postcode, and the ONS November 2024 postcode directory. This means that codes validated will not align with the total aggregated using the provider postcode, which is relevant to funding. This also means that validation rates can only be between 0% and 100%.
2. Small drops in the validation rate can occur as the number of codes issued can exceed validations by more than the validation rate, but this won't happen for long into the term. This trajectory of validation rates is consistent with other terms and with data on three and four-year-olds.


Autumn 2024 termly headcount local authority returns

Filename: 20250223_autumn_term_headcount_data.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National
Time period: 2024/25 Autumn term
Content summary: Termly headcount and PTE data from Schools and PVIs, as collected from local authorities.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name  |  Variable description
---------  |  -------------------------------------
age        |  Age
headcount  |  Headcount of users in the autumn term
pte_count  |  Number of PTEs in autumn term


Autumn 2024 time series

Filename: local_authority_autumn_time_series.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
Time period: 2023 May to 2025 February
Content summary: A monthly time series of codes issued, validated, and percentage - from the start of the offer (January 2024) to the last month.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name         |  Variable description
--------------------  |  -----------------------------------------------------------
codes_issued          |  Codes issued for 9 months to two-year-olds (Autumn term)
codes_validated       |  Codes validated for 9 months to two-year-olds (Autumn term)
percentage_validated  |  Percentage of codes validated (Autumn term)
user_type             |  User

Footnotes:

1. Eligibility Checking Service data was aggregated to local authorities using the child's postcode, and the ONS November 2024 postcode directory. This means that codes validated will not align with the total aggregated using the provider postcode, which is relevant to funding. This also means that validation rates can only be between 0% and 100%.
2. Small drops in the validation rate can occur as the number of codes issued can exceed validations by more than the validation rate, but this won't happen for long into the term. This trajectory of validation rates is consistent with other terms and with data on three and four-year-olds.


Spring 2025 Local Authority Codes Issued and Validated

Filename: spring_issued_codes_by_la.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
Time period: 2025
Content summary: Codes issued and validated for Spring 2025, by LA/Region/National, by age of child and by whether the code was newly issued or had been eligible in a previous term.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name         |  Variable description
--------------------  |  -----------------------------
age                   |  Age
codes_issued          |  Codes issued
codes_validated       |  Codes validated
percentage_validated  |  Percentage of codes validated
user_type             |  User Type

Footnotes:

1. Eligibility Checking Service data was aggregated to local authorities using the child's postcode, and the ONS November 2024 postcode directory. This means that codes validated will not align with the total aggregated using the provider postcode, which is relevant to funding. This also means that validation rates can only be between 0% and 100%.
2. Small drops in the validation rate can occur as the number of codes issued can exceed validations by more than the validation rate, but this won't happen for long into the term. This trajectory of validation rates is consistent with other terms and with data on three and four-year-olds.


Spring 2025 time series

Filename: monthly_time_series_spring.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
Time period: 2024 January to 2025 February
Content summary: A monthly time series of codes issued, validated, and percentage - from the start of the offer (January 2024) to the last month.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name         |  Variable description
--------------------  |  -----------------------------------------------------------
codes_issued          |  Codes issued for 9 months to two-year-olds (Spring term)
codes_validated       |  Codes validated for 9 months to two-year-olds (Spring term)
percentage_validated  |  Percentage of codes validated (Spring term)
user_type             |  User

Footnotes:

1. Eligibility Checking Service data was aggregated to local authorities using the child's postcode, and the ONS November 2024 postcode directory. This means that codes validated will not align with the total aggregated using the provider postcode, which is relevant to funding. This also means that validation rates can only be between 0% and 100%.
2. Small drops in the validation rate can occur as the number of codes issued can exceed validations by more than the validation rate, but this won't happen for long into the term. This trajectory of validation rates is consistent with other terms and with data on three and four-year-olds.


Headline national codes issued, validated, and percentage validated by term and age of child

Filename: headline_stats_2025.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2024/25 Autumn term to 2024/25 Spring term
Content summary: National figures for codes issued and validated to be used in headlines.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name         |  Variable description
--------------------  |  -----------------------------
age_of_child          |  Age of child at start of term
codes_issued          |  Codes issued
codes_validated       |  Codes validated
percentage_validated  |  Percentage of codes validated

Footnotes:

1. Data includes new and existing codes, where a child has a code that has been reconfirmed for the most recent term, the code that was first validated and its issue date have been counted.
