It’s usually on the government website, you apply for it and they send you a code via email. When you know what nursery your little one is going to then just let your nursery know the code and they will sort everything else out for you. This is what happened in our case anyway ☺️
I was wondering the same thing, my lo currently goes to Private nursery but I want her to go to school nursery from 2026, the school told me I have to register in January 2025 for a start in April 2026 so I guessing that is for the free hours too? Hmm
I found the whole thing to be a bit of a minefield too, and found the best thing was to speak to the nursery as they can often help with it all/ when it needs to be done, what their deadline is for the codes etc