Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) places

Information for the registration of children - school session 2022/2023

All children who will be 3 years of age between 1 March 2022 and February 28 2023 are entitled to a nursery place during school session August 2022 until June 2023, some before depending on birthdate and availability of places.

The funding eligibility dates for school session 2022/2023 are:

• Children who will be 3 years of age between 1 March 2022 and 16 August 2022 may start nursery from 17 August 2022. Some children will be placed earlier in line with our policy for admissions.
• Children who will be 3 years of age between 17 August 2022 and 28 February 2023 can start nursery the month after their 3rd birthday.
• The Cross Boundary Protocol will apply to children from another Local Authority who take their ELC placement in West Dunbartonshire. This arrangement applies to Funded Partner Providers only.

If your child will be eligible for a nursery placement in session 2022/2023 you should complete and submit your first choice council nursery establishment or partner provider nursery who provides a service for the council no later than Thursday 31 March 2022.

Letters notifying parents/carers of nursery placement decisions will be issued following the 2022 Spring break and no later than end of May 2022.

For children residing within West Dunbartonshire, places will be allocated in accordance with the following priority criteria:

• Priority 1 - Child Protection, Prevention, Looked After and Additional Support Needs
• Priority 2 - Any child born January to February, whose parents have exercised the right to defer entry to primary school
• Priority 3 - Pre-school children within their allocated community as indicated by address
• Priority 4 - Ante pre-school children within their allocated community as indicated by address
• Priority 5 - Admission will be given to children resident out with West Dunbartonshire whose parents make a request for this.

All children will be entitled to at least 4 terms of early learning and childcare with some older children being entitled to a maximum of 6 terms. All services offering statutory early years and childcare places will follow the council procedures/policy to ensure uniformity in the allocations process across the authority.

The admissions process will take place each year for the allocation of nursery places for the following academic year. Where an establishment has more applications than capacity a laid down procedure will be followed for balloting.

For further information on early learning and childcare provision including partner providers visit the ELC for 3 and 4 year olds page.

Eligible 2 Year Olds

Early Learning & Childcare places are available for eligible 2 year olds. To check the criteria for eligibility and to find out how to apply visit the ELC for 2 year olds page.

Apply

You can now apply online for a nursery place using the form below.

Apply for a Nursery place

Find out more information on early learning and childcare provision including partner providers and entitlement to early learning and childcare for 3 to 4 year olds.