Question on 15 hours free childcare for 3yo

hermante

We have a child who has recently turned 3 and we enrolled him in a nursery.

The government website says "All 3 to 4-year-olds in England can get 570 free hours per year. It’s usually taken as 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year, but you can choose to take fewer hours over more weeks, for example." (I know there have been some changes in the recent budget but I'm talking about the current rules.)

We have enrolled our son for exactly 15 hours per week, so I thought the base childcare should be completely free. However they are still charging us about £1000 per term (not including the "extras" such as lunch that they are allowed to charge.)

On querying the demand for this £1000 the nursery said that 15 "free" hours per week actually means 15 "discounted" hours. Their normal fees are £15 per hour, and the council gives them £9 per hour per child, meaning that we still have to pay £6 per hour.

I could not find anything on government/council websites to support this, so I queried it further and they then said that only 1 child per nursery is "fully funded" for 15 hours per week. The government website clearly says "all" 3yos qualify so again I don't understand where this is coming from?

We have paid the £1000 demanded for the current term, as we can afford it and we would have paid it anyway if there was no government funding. Furthermore I do understand that the government funding may not be enough for them to cover operating costs, especially when 2yos and younger kids will also be getting free childcare soon - and if they don't get enough money they may have to close.

However I wanted to ask if the nursery is correct to claim that the "free hours" are merely a discount, or are they making something up to get more money?

Tezap

No this doesn't sound right see below article
https://www.bumpbabyandyou.co.uk/bloggers/can-nurseries-legally-charge-on-top-of-early-years-funding/

HampshireH

At 3 are you not entitled to the 30 free hours?

If you can afford £1k a month in addition to loving costs presumably your income meets the threshold?

ZaSa1418

Government guidance states top-up fees - the difference between the nursery's normal fee and funding received from the local authority - cannot be charged for. 

Nurseries are allowed to ask for payments from parents and carers for nappies, snacks, nappy-creams and extra-curricular activities to try and make up the difference but they 100% should not be charging you the difference. 

I would complain to them in writing and then go to the LA if it continues. 

3hilton

Our local LA have just increased the funding to providers by 1% ..yet minimum wage is going up 10%…I can see that a lot of parents will be unable to take up these new hours as providers will limit the number of places available…also if they offer the hours say Mon-Fri 7am to 10am, how useful will thatbe? Most parents will have to still pay to access other times