Flexibility to use early years entitlement funding to secure childcare for children of critical workers and vulnerable children

Local authorities will, in exceptional cases, be able to redistribute their free childcare entitlement funding differently to ensure sufficient childcare places are available for the children of critical workers and for vulnerable children, where their usual arrangements are no longer possible as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19).

We have updated our guidance on early years and childcare closures for local authorities, early years settings and childminders to include this information.

The guidance can be found here:

Aldi joins free school meals national voucher scheme

Aldi has joined the list of supermarkets that will redeem vouchers secured through the free school meals national voucher scheme. Supermarkets available also include Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, M&S, Asda and Morrisons. Schools will be able to order vouchers for Aldi through Edenred from the week commencing 27 April.

This announcement can be found here: