Can someone PLEASE explain funded nursery places for 3 year olds to me !

LizzieandThomas

Ok, i know when there 3 you are entitled to upto 5 funded nursery sessions a week.
A friend has a little boy go to a pre school for 2 swssions on the same day but has to collect him in between for lunch - is this the same at all as i cant do this?

My son currently goes to nursery which i pay for and he attends from 8-5, the grant leaflet tells me the sessions are for only 2 and a half hours each so how would this cover his day ? nursery have said i can use 2 for the same day but that still isnt enough - any time i have asked questions they give me the same leaflet which isnt helping now i feel to silly to ask AGAIN !

What sort of setting does your child go to and how does the funded sessions work for you ? are they term time only ? how are funded places allocated ?

mum2one

My daughter went to the nursery at the school, but basically ur entitled to12.5hrs a week, 5 x 2 1/2 hrs, thefunding is for 38 weeks out of 52 weeks.

Basically on a full day 8 -5,(9 hrd), you could use 2 of the vouchers and have to pay for 4 hrs.

I dont know if private nurseries work at term time onlyin relation to vouchers, ifyou cant get much sense from the nursery, contact your local council, therehave child care services, they would be able to fill in thegaps x

kj*daisy

You will pay for the extra hours that aren't covered by your 2.5 X 2 hour sessions per day. My DD will be doing this after xmas, it cuts my nursery bill in half almost during the term time. hth.

Spendless

You also need to ask how the nursery adminsters the scheme. The first I used did have funded and non-funded weeks, but the second took the monetary value as a whole and divided it equally into 4 months (till the funding happened again.

RoxieW

You have to pay for the non funded hours. Our nursery used to charge us in full and give us a cheque at the end of term but now they spread it across the term weeks. You have to pay full in holidays though. My kids were in 8-5 too and tbh honest the funded sessions are a drop in the ocean to a £300 a week bill. If they stay for meals, you still have to pay for them, you just get 12.5 (in my area this is now 15 so check this i'd imagined it had changed nationwide??) money either n#knocked off or back at end of term. If your kids are in nursery 40 hours a week its just over a 1/4 cheaper.

BernadetteN

When our 2nd youngest child left nursery a year last August, each 2.5 hour session funded had a monetary value of £8.50 off a private nursery bill (but the parents are not supposed to see this on their bills).

Now I have our youngest in nursery, I have just been informed that the funding is 12.5 hours per week and no longer has to be split into 5 * 2.5 hours (this is Kent County Council funding, but because this is a national funding for England and Wales, it should be the same rules everywhere). It's great news for the parents who send their children to the nursery we use because sessions there are 3.5 hours long with a 1 hour lunch - now a child who stays for 2 sessions a day plus lunch and extra hour at the end (total of 9 hours) can be funded for all these hours, not just 5 hours in a day.

The maximum funded hours per week is nationally still 12.5 hours but some pilot areas of England and Wales get 15 hours already.

I would guess that £8.50 for 2.5 hours is now around £9, so full funding would £45 per week. Times that by 38 weeks maximum and that is £1710 a year off your nursery bill, if your child attends 12.5 hours or more per week.


PS £300 a week for a nursery, I don't earn that much! Our children's nursery is increasing its charges to £27.50 a day, or £137.50 a week, for a 9 hour day, 45 hour week. It only charges 47 weeks of the year it is open and NEVER charges children for bank holidays, even if they would normally attend on Mondays. It also gives 10% off for payment termly in advance and accepts child care vouchers - it means effectively that you can have your toddler attend 45 hours a week for just over £100 a week. It is also one of only 2 nurseries that have consistently scored a GOOD mark in the area.

shirlgirl2004

The rule that your friend has to pick her child up for lunchtime is set by the pre-school it has nothing to do with funding.

My daughter's pre-school is £10.50 a session so after funding I pay £2. Her nursery is £20 a session (£40 a day) so I have to pay £11.50 per session (£23 per day) extra.

At her nursery the morning session ends at 11:45 and the afternoon session starts at 1. If she stays for the day then the lunch hour is effectively a freebie. At her pre-school there is no care for between 11:45 and 12:15 so there are no children staying all day or even doing a morning and then afternoon session.

minimoneysaver

I am a lone parent in receipt of child/working tax credits, who I believe pay 80% of my nursery fees at the moment as she is almost 2 1/2. What happens when she turns 3? I noticed that someone said that the school holidays aren't covered. Do I have to keep on calling up to change the amounts with inland revenue? This seems very confusing to me! x

thinkginge

can somebody explain the system in usage in scotland and if i could do this with a council run nursery up here?my ds is due to start in january

mum2one

minimoneysaver wrote: »

I am a lone parent in receipt of child/working tax credits, who I believe pay 80% of my nursery fees at the moment as she is almost 2 1/2. What happens when she turns 3? I noticed that someone said that the school holidays aren't covered. Do I have to keep on calling up to change the amounts with inland revenue? This seems very confusing to me! x

Basically its more paerwork and phone calls, basically if its a school hol then you can apply for some extra money to cover the nursery placement, not exactly sure how it works, but theres the just of it to start you off. x

RoxieW

minimoneysaver - you dont get funded sessions in the school holidays but you would still get the tax credit money paid so you wouldn't be worse off then you are now. You just have to work out an average for the tax credits so add the weeks you get funding and the ones you dont together to get an average and that is the figure the tax credits will go on for the year.

bernadette - £300 is for 2 so not much more expensive. Unfortunately they also charge for every single day of the year whether they were open or not (yes including xmas!!), bank holidays, when child is ill (with something they picked up at nursery!), holidays (we went on hol for 3 weeks and still had to fork out as usual) and, the cherry on the cake, charge £5 for every 5 mins of lateness :eek:.

Not hard to figure out why I left work to be a SAHM - if the government want mums at work paying tax then I'd suggest they bring in some guidelines as to what nurseries can and cant reasonable charge for.