Checked against gov.uk: 6 September 2026
Don't put a date that isn't true, even if your nursery is the one asking. Your actual return to work date is what determines when your funded hours can start, and giving an inaccurate one can create real problems later, even if the nursery's intentions are just about their own paperwork.
Funded hours for the working parent entitlement only start once you're actually classed as back at work, not from the day your child first attends nursery. If you're still on maternity, paternity or shared parental leave, you can apply and get a code ready, but the hours themselves don't switch on until you've returned. Using annual leave straight after the end of that leave counts as having returned to work for this purpose, which is why some parents can bring their start date forward slightly by using annual leave rather than waiting for leave to run its full course.
Nurseries have to submit their own funding claim to the local authority for every child, and that claim depends on the parent's return to work date lining up correctly with the funding block they're claiming for. A nursery might ask you to confirm a date that fits neatly with their own submission deadline, or that matches the date your child is actually starting, rather than the date that's legally true for you. This is administrative convenience on their side, not something set out in gov.uk guidance, and it's worth being upfront that I couldn't find this practice described or endorsed anywhere in official guidance.
Your eligibility for funded hours is checked against your real circumstances, not against whatever date happens to be written on a nursery form. If the date on the nursery's paperwork doesn't match your actual return to work date, and that gap is ever queried, it's your eligibility record that's affected, not the nursery's. Putting an earlier date than the truth risks claiming funded hours before you were actually entitled to them, and putting a later date than the truth can mean losing funded weeks you were genuinely entitled to.
Give your real return to work date, and if a nursery pushes back or asks you to change it, ask them plainly why the date matters to them and what they're using it for. There's often a legitimate administrative reason, matching a funding deadline, for example, that can be solved without you giving an inaccurate date. If a nursery insists on a date you know to be wrong, that's worth raising with your local authority's family information service, since it's their funding claim process that's ultimately affected.
It's worth keeping your own note of the date you actually returned to work, separate from whatever a nursery form says, alongside any correspondence about it. If your funded hours are ever queried, having your own accurate record makes it far easier to sort out than relying on memory or a form you didn't fill in yourself.
Once you know your real return to work date, the back to work calculator can show the actual financial picture of returning on that date, rather than one shifted to suit someone else's paperwork.