Change in Nursery Funding Hours

abcmum123

My little ones nursery previously allowed the 15 hours funding to go against his half day sessions.
They have now changed their policy to state that the 15 hours funding will only apply to full day sessions IF your child attends nursery for at least 2 full days
Can they do this?
There isnt anything in the terms and conditions suggesting that they can change the way they give parents access to their 15 hours funding entitlement

sheramber

 abcmum123 said:

My little ones nursery previously allowed the 15 hours funding to go against his half day sessions.
They have now changed their policy to state that the 15 hours funding will only apply to full day sessions IF your child attends nursery for at least 2 full days
Can they do this?
There isnt anything in the terms and conditions suggesting that they can change the way they give parents access to their 15 hours funding entitlement

How does that affect you if your child attends half days or are you wanting to change to full days?

abcmum123

Sorry - should have been clearer. LO does half days (where funding was applied). School has now changed funding structure and will only apply funding to Full Days - meaning my LO will no longer get any funding applied

beckstar1975

Nurseries are running at a dramatic loss already, and these is going to push many under. I suspect they can do what they like,some are refusing to accept the vouchers at all or only hold a v small number of funded places. I think your options are to pay and stay or move and try and find somewhere else that will accept the funding. Around here only nurseries attached to primary schools do, the rest are fully private

Spendless

These  free hours have been existence for many years (assuming you are talking about the ones you get term after 3rd birthday). My 2 got them and they are now in their 20s, though the entitlement then was 12.5 hours per week.

I used a private nursery for them and the Nursery I used rules were you could take a half day session which was for 5 hours and funding was  applied  for 2.5 hours or if you took all day you got 2.5 entitlement for the AM session and 2.5 for the PM session. In order to get all 12.5 hours you'd therefore have to have your child booked into to do 2.5 sessions per week. So there's always been these sort of restrictions. There wasn't the option to send for just the funded hours (5 x 2.5 hours) that only happened in a school nursery. Whether they can change the rules to the way you're describing I don't know. Can you clarify is your child attends for just 15 hours a week or more? 

abcmum123

My Child attends for 25 hours a week (5 half day sessions) - previously these were partially funded but now they will not be funded at all as non of this sessions are full day sessions

Spendless

Do you need your child to attend in this way eg for work/study purposes or can you move child over to either 2 of 3 full days whichever suits your circs more?

I'm unsure who'd know the answer to your question. Maybe your local authority  would know?

mark_cycling00

How much if the total cost is "funded" ? I can't find that info 

Eg if the nursery costs £60 a day, is £50 funded and you pay the rest? Or are nurseries only going to be allowed to charge £50 and then go bust 

sheramber

mark_cycling00 said:

How much if the total cost is "funded" ? I can't find that info 

Eg if the nursery costs £60 a day, is £50 funded and you pay the rest? Or are nurseries only going to be allowed to charge £50 and then go bust 

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8052/#:~:text=As a result of the,to £7.95 per hour.

As a result of the additional funding, the national average funding rate for the three and four-year-old entitlements increased from £5.29 per hour to £5.62 per hour from September 2023. The national average funding rate for two-year-olds increased from £6.00 per hour to £7.95 per hour.

mark_cycling00

Thanks, 
So the nursery gets £57 for 7 hours per day 
Can they charge £65 and we pay the rest?

I'd rather pay the extra than have them go under.

I don't want to have to opt out of the government funding in order to use the nursery place
Thx 

sheramber

mark_cycling00 said:

Thanks, 
So the nursery gets £57 for 7 hours per day 
Can they charge £65 and we pay the rest?

I'd rather pay the extra than have them go under.

I don't want to have to opt out of the government funding in order to use the nursery place
Thx 

https://www.pacey.org.uk/working-in-childcare/spotlight-on/30-hours-funding/information-for-practitioners/#:~:text=You are not permitted to,or require a registration fee.

 Are any additional charges are permitted? You are not permitted to charge parents top-up fees (the difference between your private fees and the hourly rate you receive from your local authority) or require a registration fee.