Childcare Offer for Wales: terms and conditions for parents

1. The Childcare Offer for Wales (the "Service") is a funding scheme established by the Welsh Government to provide eligible parents of three and four year old children with 30 hours a week of government-funded early education and childcare for up to 48 weeks a year. During term time (39 weeks of the year) the Offer builds on the existing universal commitment to early education which provides all 3 and 4 year olds with a minimum of 10 hours per week of provision. For the remaining 9 weeks the Offer funds 30 hours of childcare per week.

1.2 Parents can apply for the Service via the Welsh Government's online digital platform (the "National Digital Service"). In order to create an account to apply for the Service, you must first read and agree to the Terms and Conditions set out below.

1.3 Please note that parents using the Service are bound by the Terms and Conditions for Parents and if it is found that any information supplied in support of an application or during the term of this agreement is false or incorrect then funding may be withdrawn and further action may be taken to recover any costs.

In these Conditions:

"Childcare Provider" refers to a childcare provider registered with Care Inspectorate Wales (or Ofsted in England) that is also registered to deliver the Childcare Offer in Wales.

"Childcare Offer for Wales" or "Childcare Offer" refers to the Welsh Government funding scheme to provide eligible parents of three and four year old children with government-funded childcare for up to 48 weeks a year.

"Conditions" refers to the terms and conditions set out here.

"National Digital Service" refers to the Welsh Government’s online digital platform where parents can apply for the Childcare Offer for Wales and Childcare Providers can manage the hours of childcare provided under the offer and claim funding.

"we", "us" or "our" refers to the Welsh Ministers.

"you" or "your" refers to the parent, guardian, step-parent or long-term live-in partner within a household.

3.1 By registering an account on the National Digital Service and applying for the Childcare Offer, you agree and confirm that:

3.1.1 the information you provide to us in support of your application is complete, current, true and accurate;

3.1.2 you have disclosed to us all material facts or circumstances which need to be disclosed to enable us to obtain a true and correct view of your eligibility;

3.1.3 you will inform us immediately of any change of circumstance that might affect your eligibility for the Childcare Offer at any time;

3.1.4 if your application is successful and you are in receipt of the Childcare Offer, you may be required to re-confirm your eligibility from time to time; and

3.1.5 all childcare hours in addition to the maximum allowable under the Childcare Offer will be provided through a private arrangement between you and your Childcare Provider.

3.2 Where, due to a change in your circumstances, you become ineligible to receive funded childcare through the Childcare Offer, a temporary exemption period of 8 weeks will be applied. If you do not become re-eligible for the Childcare Offer by the end of the exemption period, we will no longer fund any childcare hours and you will be responsible for any future payments for childcare taken up after the exemption period has ended.

3.3 We may, at our absolute discretion, withdraw the award of funding under the Childcare Offer if:

3.3.1 you commit a serious breach of any of the Conditions; or

3.3.2 we suspect that any act of fraud has been committed by you

and in either case, we may require you to repay all or part of the funding already awarded.

In the event that we suspect that any act of fraud has been committed we reserve the right to take appropriate legal action. This may include reporting the matter to the police.

4.1 You acknowledge that we are subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “FOIA”), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the “EIR”), the Data Protection Act 2018 (the “DPA”) and the retained EU law version of the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (the “UK GDPR”).

4.2 You acknowledge that we are responsible for determining, in our absolute discretion, whether:

4.2.1 to disclose any information which we have obtained under or in connection with the Funding to the extent that we are required to disclose such information to a person making a disclosure request under the FOIA or the EIR; and/or

4.2.2 any information is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA or the EIR.

4.3 You acknowledge that we may share any data you provide to us with fraud prevention agencies and third parties for the purposes of preventing and detecting fraud.

4.4 Local authorities are appointed by us to undertake certain functions on our behalf to deliver the Service, for example, assessing eligibility of parents for the Childcare Offer and assisting with queries relating to parents' applications. By registering an account on the National Digital Service and applying for the Childcare Offer, you acknowledge that we may share any data you provide to us with your local authority for the purposes of managing your application.

4.5 Any personal data we collect will be managed in accordance with our Privacy Notice.

4.6 We will process information about you in accordance with our cookies policy. By using the Childcare Offer for Wales digital service you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.