How does free 15 hours Surestart funding work?

missk_ensington

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it.

DS qualifies this April for 15 hours funded nursery for 3 year olds, which is fine howeve the forms have to be submitted on Friday and nursery are saying that he has to pay for 3 mornings and the Surestart thengives three afternoons for free. Basically, the minimum I send him is 3 full days to get the funding.

Is this correct? I've been led to believe in the past that you can use these 15 hours as you like. I has originally wanted to send him for 1 full day (10 hours) and 2 half days (10 hours) thus only paying for the 5 hours surplus, but they say I can't do this.

I was wondering if they're trying to pull a fast one because they are short of kids and have a lot of places. I read that this funding is meant to be flexible, but I can't see anything more inflexible that having to choose 3 full days minimum from a possible 5 working days!?

Any advice? Cheers

Sazere

I have a 4 yr old and a 3 yr old and in my experiences (couple of different nurseries as moved house) we have always been able to pick which sessions we want. If we required any more than the free amount we just paid the extra.

Many of the mums at the current nursery only send their children 1 & 1/2 days or 2 whole days, or 5 mornings, etc

scope

Does the 15 hours start this April? I wouldnt be surprised if it starts next april.

We can only use 2 sessions every day (£16), and pay the difference. Altogether you get £40 you can use in a week.. Sessions are normally between 9-11, and 1-3, or something like that. Some nurseries might be different though

liney

Funding is 12.5 hours currently and is probably increasing to 15 for 2007/2008 but is not confirmed.

You are entitled to have 5 x 2.5 hour sessions per week. As your Daycare facility is not a 'nursery' it will have a morning and afternoon session which are longer than the 2.5 hours respectively. You can use one voucher per session, ie morning or afternoon. If you sent your son for 1 full day and 2 mornings you can use 10 hours worth of funding, as he is in for 4 sessions.

Thats how it reads to me, and is how my sons nursery works it out too.