annoyed with pre-school provision in Wales and wish we had English system!

[inamaymaybewrong]

Where I live in Wales, children are entitled to a part-time place at school nursery from the term after their 3rd birthday. This is for 2 hours a day. If there's no place at a nursery within 2 miles of home, they can get funding for equivalent provision at a small number of playgroups, mainly Welsh language ones (cylch). You can't routinely claim hours of childcare that you pay for at a private nursery that you may already be using, nor can you group the hours together to get a day of free childcare at such a nursery. For working parents, especially those with no family near by to help out, the school nursery places become almost irrelevent, as you still need to arrange wraparound childcare to allow the child to attend. It's mostly childminders who provide that service, with the odd private nursery linking in to a nearby school but that's very much an exception. And you more or less pay for a full day of childcare from childminder or private nursery anyway. So, unlike in England, childcare costs do not drop significantly, if at all, when the child reaches age 3. I think this is the same all across Wales. So, there is less take up of these scholl nursery places by working parents or would rather avoid the organisational nightmare that taking the place up would lead to and so the overall cost for the Welsh Government goes down...

In England, as I understand it, most areas allow the 15 free hours that all children are entitled to to be used at private nurseries and grouped together to be a day and a half of childcare for free.

Am I alone in finding this situation very annoying? And it was the same when Labour was in Government in both Westminster AND Cardiff Bay!

[PatriciaHolm]

There is no compulsion on providers in England to offer the hours; some private nurseries do, some don't. If those that do, very few will allow the pattern you suggest; most require a split over several days, sometimes all 5 days. So it's not that great an offer in England, honest! Plenty of people struggle to use the hours as their carers don't offer them, or only offer them in blocks that aren't that helpful.

[gaahhnonicknamesleft]

That does sound rubbish, in England here and private nurseries I have used and all I am aware of allow you to use 3 hours in each half day session, so 6 hours max a day, as long as you are using nursery 2.5 days you get to take it all. Can also use some hours at one nursery and some at another nursery or preschool. 15 hours makes a dent in the childcare cost (though as a proportion of my 50 hours it is quite small!).

I feel your pain though as I have to pay wrap around childcare for dc who uses school preschool some days (as it gives preference in admissions).

[cartoonsaveme]

I guess the Welsh government choose to spend money funding different things. I have lost touch but don't you get some stuff free that we don't?

[inamaymaybewrong]

We get free prescriptions for all, though in reality, even in England, very few people pay for theirs (children and elderly exempt, as are many with long term conditions and those on certain benefits) so making them free for everyone is not such a big step and cost.

And free car parking in most hospitals but not the main one in Cardiff and a couple others.