Confused about 15 hours free grant

jasonmav

I am hoping someone can shed some light on my situation. We send my child to a nursery for just 1 session on a friday afternoon (1pm-6pm). She turned 3 on the 16th August and so now will be entitled to the 15 hours grant from the new term starting in september. The nursery has offered that she can have a full day now on the friday using 10 hours. Great. I then asked if another session (half day) was available so as to utilize the full entitlement as was told that "it doesnt work like that". I have been told that I would have to pay for 3 full days (30 hours) and be discounted the 15 hours worth from the grant. I cant get my head around this and feel that they are trying it on. I thought it was a simple matter after reading up on the direct.gov website but the nursery seem to have "extra" policies.

Can anyone shed some more light on this? Surely I should be able to send my child to 1xfull day and 1xhalf day or even 3xhalf days with the grant and only have to pay for say non-term times/lunches/etc?

Please help me! :think:

MsShorty

Sorry, I don't know the definitive answer to your question.

It does sound to me as though they are trying to pull a fast one, though. I can't see how 15 hours free nursery means you have to pay for another 15 hours yourself.

I am willing to be corrected if wrong.

Perhaps you could contact your local Family Information Service as per the link below:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Preschooldevelopmentandlearning/NurseriesPlaygroupsReceptionClasses/DG_10016103


Hope this is of some help.

heleng27

I believe that private day nurseries can charge a top up fee on the 15 hours. For example (I'm just guessing figures) they receive £3.50 per hour from the government funding but their normal rate is say £6 they can charge you a difference per hour or you can take the lower hours instead.

clearingout

I think you'll find day nurseries can do what they want - my middle child attended one for about 6 months and the policy there was that you couldn't attend for less than 3 days. However, it was in a busy commuter area and had a good reputation so they could probably afford to be picky over who did/didn't attend, if that makes sense! The Government sets high children to staffing ratios and all salaries must be funded through fees (not like school nurseries where there is a Government grant in place which a head teacher and governing body need to work out how to cover all their costs) so I think you'll find it just doesn't add up for them.

del76

heleng27 wrote: »

I believe that private day nurseries can charge a top up fee on the 15 hours. For example (I'm just guessing figures) they receive £3.50 per hour from the government funding but their normal rate is say £6 they can charge you a difference per hour or you can take the lower hours instead.

My understanding is they cannot charge top up fees. HOWEVER as they consider the local authority's payment to be too low they can change their admission policy. So a nursery could say, if you want to have 15 hours "free" then you must take 15 hours paid.
It seems the government were going to allow top up fees to be charged such as the local authority pays £3.50 per hour for up to 15 hours per week and the parent tops this up to whatever the rate is they want. This has so far been resisted hence why nurseries are having to maintain profitability by fully filling all places.
A large amount of private nurseries now no longer sign up to the free nursery places scheme as if they can fill all their spaces with people paying £5 an hour why would they wish to allocate "free" spaces which only attract £3.50 per hour.

So not pulling a fast one just using the rules. Can you not try some different nurseries? many do offer totally free places at very flexible times such as 3 hours per day 5 days a week.