Childcare

chemer

Hi,
my douther is 18 months old, we are from Latvia. As my partner will try to search for work, we start thinking about childcare. Something like nursery or smth similar. Is there sime help from the goverment? We just complitedly new in that question and any advice willbe highly welcomed. In a fact we dont know anything about pre-school education in UK.

Sorry, I can't find where to place a thread, so I choosed Benefits&Tax credits.

rozmister

Are you going to be working as well as your partner?

chemer

I am working in the UK for almoust 2 years now...all that time since the birth of my daughter they lived in Latvia. Now they rejoined me in october of 2010. All that time till now my wife spend at home, caring about our daughter. This is to hard for her to sit at home with the child. That country is complitedly new for her, and she haven't got any friends yet. So wi decided, that it will be better for her to go and find work to do. So we need somekind of nursery or smth...As I wrote we don't know anything about pre-school education in the UK.

rozmister

I don't know much about childcare in the UK (best to start with honesty) but two good places to start looking at are...

Ofsted approved nurseries in your area. Ofsted are regulatory body that check and rate the standard of schools and nurseries. An ofsted approved nursery with have to have met a list of standard to be awarded approval and this means you have some level of reassurance about the level of care and education they'll offer your child.

Childcare vouchers. Martin has written a very helpful guide about them: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/childcare-vouchers/ Basically although you still have to pay for your childcare you get the vouchers out your PRE-TAX pay packet. So you don't pay any tax on the money you spend on them.

Childcare tax credits. Martin's written another helpful guide on them: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/childcare-costs These are income based, I'm not sure how benefits work for people from outside the UK but in the EU but if you speak to the benefits office they will be much wiser than me.

These are just pointers based on my limited knowledge but a benefits advisor or your local Sure Start centre would be much better positioned to help you!

chemer

Thank you. We will try