The Government has published updated guidance supporting councils to ensure childcare providers make all additional charges clear and upfront to parents.
These include costs such as nappies, wipes or lunch, and a requirement that these charges must not be included as a condition for parents accessing their hours.
The Government says the guidance aims to ensure no family is priced out of the support they need and puts transparency at the heart of how the funded hours should be delivered.
Cllr Arooj Shah, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “Making sure that every child can access their early years entitlements is vitally important if we are to achieve the Government’s ambitions of getting more children ‘school ready’ every year.
“We know that charging for consumables has made access to places more difficult for some families, with complex guidance making it difficult for councils to effectively challenge providers in this area. It is extremely helpful that guidance is now being clarified.
“Moving forward, we must make sure that both councils and providers are in a strong position to play their part in giving every child the best start.
“That includes using the Spending Review to fully fund early entitlements so that providers can deliver high- quality early education to every child, and making sure councils have the right levers, powers and resources to manage local childcare markets for the benefit of all children and families.”