does anyone understand free funded nursery placements?

Anthillmob

what are children who are entitled to this entitled to? is it 5 half days per week? or worked out hours wise?

chops gets this @ nursery but i still get an invoice for her every month minus the figure worked out for the free funding. she does 2 full days a week, i assumed that 5 and a half days per week would equate to 2 full days per week.

touch*my*food*feel*myfork

Im sure there will be people along who no more indepth info, but i thought it was 15 hours per week.

My niece used to go two days a week, where as my friends boy used to go 2.5 hours 5 days, so can be used as a combination as far as i know.

PS I know that doesn't add upto 15, but that is what they wanted

freyasmum

I dunno about England, but up here children are entitled to 5 x 2.5hr sessions per week.

irish_eyes_r_smiling

15 hours it is now, well thats what i was informed this week by my childs nursery!!!

Anthillmob

cheers. im having a nightmare with n ursery fees atm.

pinkcandyflossprincess

its 5 free mornings or afternoons or 2 1/2 days here in birmingham, starts the term after their 3rd birthday so born in aug/starts sept x

Jo_R_2

Okay, this is what I know...

The free funding varies from area to area, some still do only 12.5 hours per week but some do 15 (my DD2 who has just started nursery is entitled to 15 hours per week.)

When DD1 used to go to private nursery, I used her funded hours there but they worked it out as a child would only be entitled to use a certain amount of their funded hours per day. Ie if a child was in for say one day, they could only use a certain proportion dependent on what hours their child attended, so you couldn't tot up 10 hours for an 8am-6pm session and expect the equivalent price of 10 divided by 2.5 (ie 4) to be taken off your bill if that makes sense...?

IIRC I think then you were entitled to subtract the equivalent price of one 2.5 hour session for each nursery session DD1 then attended. So when DD1 was in nursery for two days, I could take off 2 x 2.5 hours for Monday (morning and afternoon session) then the same again for Tuesday. But would still have to pay for all the hours left in each day after those 5 hours were taken off.

Okay so that makes sense to me, hope it reads okay and I've understood the question correctly!

Janepig

I wanted to do like you Ant, get the nursery to deduct if from my bill, but would they do it? Would they $hite. They wanted me and another mum doing 3 days like me to do an extra day for free. Well I wasn't going to do that because on the 2 days that DS wasn't in nursery he was going to a welsh playgroup for 2 and a half hours in readyness for welsh school. I also didn't want to move him from the nursery because he was happy there and (other than this) I was happy with them. So I had the two sessions at the welsh playgroup free instead. And the way they did that was that I paid for the sessions up front and then they sent me a cheque back at the end of the two terms he got free (iykwim).

So it seems to me that notwithstanding the fact that you get 15 free hours, it's up to the provider how they work it.

And a top tip is not to have a child born in late April - DD was and because she started school full time the September after she turned 3, I got no free place for her. And actually, had DS not been 5 weeks early and arrived on Boxing Day, I'd have only got one free term for him!

Jxx

jackomdj

Jo_R wrote: »

Okay, this is what I know...

The free funding varies from area to area, some still do only 12.5 hours per week but some do 15 (my DD2 who has just started nursery is entitled to 15 hours per week.)

When DD1 used to go to private nursery, I used her funded hours there but they worked it out as a child would only be entitled to use a certain amount of their funded hours per day. Ie if a child was in for say one day, they could only use a certain proportion dependent on what hours their child attended, so you couldn't tot up 10 hours for an 8am-6pm session and expect the equivalent price of 10 divided by 2.5 (ie 4) to be taken off your bill if that makes sense...?

IIRC I think then you were entitled to subtract the equivalent price of one 2.5 hour session for each nursery session DD1 then attended. So when DD1 was in nursery for two days, I could take off 2 x 2.5 hours for Monday (morning and afternoon session) then the same again for Tuesday. But would still have to pay for all the hours left in each day after those 5 hours were taken off.

Okay so that makes sense to me, hope it reads okay and I've understood the question correctly!

What you have said agrees with my understanding. DD did 2 full days at creche (7:30 till 5:00) & we could claim a morning & an afternoon session each day. Then she did 3 sessions at pre-school (attached to her new school) & I claimed for one of these (had to pay for the other 2).

Creche I paid in full (well via salary sacrifice) & got the money back into my bank account every quarter. Pre-school it was deducted from the fees.

Janepig - how come your DD went to school in the Sept after she turned 3? Youngest DD is 3 in March but won't start until the Sept after she turns 4, so she gets a year & a term funded.

Anthillmob

my kids go to private nursery all day thursday and all day friday.

we arrive between 8-8.30am dependant on the busses and i pick them up at 5pm.

forgetting boris, can anyone make sense of whats going on with chops who gets the free placement?

every time i enquire about anything with nursery i get a confusing bundle of words.

they make me laugh. they have recently over the past 2 months been callijg saying i owe them such and such after paying the monthly fees which i have scraped together and paid to get us straight and owe nothing and then it turns out that i have to give them over £600 this month because we owe them for last month.

ive looked at the print outs of their accounts today for a long time, got a stress headache, neck pains from stress but if my maths is correct then it looks as though they are right.

so why not tell me the first time you said i owed. id rather be straight than get walloped like i have been, esp when i was told we were clear on both accounts.

all to be paid by 01/10/09. they can whistle, we dont have that kind of money to spar atm due to the 2 weeks out of work mr mob had. i can only payt them boris' fees and then chops when i manage to screape the rest together.

flea72

you get five sessions, lasting between 2.5 - 3hrs (depending on area)

as long as the nursery has separate morning and afternoon sessions (must be split with a lunchtime session, or closed over lunch), then you can claim for two sessions in one day

however, if you do claim for a morning and afternoon, and your nursery stays open at lunch, the nursery will charge you for the lunchtime session, and for any hours that fall outside of the funding

most nurserys that open school hours will tend to have a morning session from 9-11.30, then a lunch sessions 11.30-12.30, with an afternoon session from 12.30-3pm - this means the morning and afternoon session would be paid for via the funding, with you paying for the lunch session

also if your nursery charges more per session, than the nursery funding covers, then you will have to pay the difference. i think the current funding paid is about £8 per session, so if your nursery charges over £16 for a full days, then you will have to make up the difference

hth Flea