Anyone have any ideas on how to withdraw from free school hours?

[ACED]

Hello
I'm hoping someone can help either from their own experience or just because they are in the know. My daughter is currently at preschool for two mornings (as part of the free 15 hours). The problem is things aren't working out for her for a variety of reasons. We have found another school which should be a better fit but how do we go about removing her from the first school? I can't find anything that says we have to give notice or are locked in until a specific date but don't want to cause problems with funding for the school or mess them about unnecessarily. I know I can always ask the school when I go in but it would be more helpful to have the information before hand.

Can anyone point me in the right direction - all help gratefully received.

[insancerre]

Most places ask for a minimum of a months notice though some may ask for a halfvtwem or even a full term
You can take her out and enrol elsewhere but the original setting may keep the funding.
That means that you may not be able to claim the finding at another setting till January

[Littlefish]

I am a pre-school teacher. We don't have a notice period. However, in our local authority, we have a "headcount week" during which children using funded hours are recorded with the local authority. After this time, it is not possible to move the funding from one setting to another until the start of the next term unless you can prove one of the following:

The first nursery is not meeting your child's needs.
You have moved and it is not possible to get your child to the first nursery.

I don't know if this is the same in every local authority though, so I suggest you ring your local authority and ask to speak to a member of the early years funding team to check whether there are any restrictions on moving funding. I suggest you do this asap!

[ACED]

Thanks insancerre and Littlefish I will try and speak to the local authority tomorrow and then sort things with the school as soon as possible after that. I know they definitely do have a head count week operating so will be prepared that we might possibly be locked in until January.

We currently only use 6 of the 15 hours so I will also check with the LA if she could start somewhere else using the current unused hours?

Thank you so much for your advice - I feel like I have a positive direction to focus on.

[insancerre]

You should be able to use the 9 hours at another setting.
Your preschool should only haveclaimed for the 6

[Littlefish]

Good point insancerre - I hadn't noticed that she's only doing 9 hours at the moment.

[ACED]

Thank you both again for the excellent advice - I spoke to the LA Early Years team first thing and she confirmed that there are no fines and no problems if we withdraw from existing provider other than not being able to use any hours already claimed until next counting period. But Littlefish you were right about headcount week coming up (29th) so will make sure we have spoken to everyone early next week to enrol and or disengage as soon as possible. Thank you