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moving my child from full time nursery placement to free early education placement only

13 replies

arwa · 11/03/2014 11:02

Hi All,

I would be grateful for your advise as I am sure some might have been in a similar position.

My daughter, who is currently three months and 4 months old, is attending a nursery as full time. When she first joined the nursery, we signed a form to use the 15 hours free early education entitlement as 3 hours daily (which I totally understand is available only during the 38 week term period). Since I am starting maternity leave in the next few weeks, I wrote to the nursery manager to ask to only use the free three hours daily starting from the summer term. The manager informed us that currently only free entitlement places are on Monday and Friday, which we find a bit confusing since our daughter already has a free funded place daily. Only things I am requesting to change is not to send her to the nursery for the remaining hours of the day that I won't be able to afford when I am on maternity leave.

Thanks

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insancerre · 11/03/2014 13:04

the nursery can offer the funded hours whenever they want

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FunnyBird · 11/03/2014 13:08

Perhaps talk to the manager in person. She may have misunderstood your request.

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grumpalumpgrumped · 11/03/2014 13:55

The nursery won't want to do it as they will have a space empty for the other 7hrs each day. However I am not sure they can refuse, understand they can offer the free entitlement for the hours they choose but not sure about if parent reduces. I guess that as its a new term they can.

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arwa · 11/03/2014 14:06

Thanks for your response.

The nursery allows the use of free early education entitlement only as 3 hours daily from either 9-12 or 1-4 pm, which is OK. What i find confusing is how can they tell me that they only have available places for the free 3 hours on Mondays and Fridays only while my daughter already uses daily free hours while being there full time. Do they have the right to combine the paid 7 hours per day with the free 3 hours, so the only way for me to make use of my daughter's 3 free hours entitlement is to pay for the remaining 7 hours? That does not sound right!

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Coveredinweetabix · 11/03/2014 14:26

At our nursery, you can only reduce to a part day if there is no one on the waiting list as, obviously, it doesn't make sense for them to only have someone there for three hours a day.
In your situation, I would see if you can do 9-12 and 1-4 and pay for lunch twice a week. That way, your DD will get to spend the whole day with he friends rather than dip in & out. At my DD's nursery, 9am is when they're usually out for a walk & 12.00 is midway through lunch & 1.00 is during quiet time so they wouldn't appreciate anyone coming or going at that time. Likewise, those 3 hours will go by in a flash for you. I started ofc with DD out from 9-12 four days a week but found it much easier when I switched to longer days as otherwise I was constantly checking the time, trying to work out if I had time to feed DS and do X or Y and get back in time. When I started weaning, I had to pick DD up at 12 a couple of times and it was impossible as finishing givong DS his lunch by 11.30 was far too early but not starting until 12.30 & having to get DD lunch at tge same time was too chaotic.
Also, check the terms of your nursery contract. All of the ones around here require a minimum of 12 weeks notice for any changes once EYFS is being claimed although in practice they tend to accept less provided the claim for the subsquent term's funding hasn't been submitted.

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arwa · 11/03/2014 15:07

Thanks for your helpful response and advise.

I agree that three hours per day will pass in a flash, but these are the nursery's rules (I feel they are deliberately making it more difficult for parents to make full use of the free early education entitlement). The nursery does not allow the option to send the child from 9-4 and pay for lunch and the extra hour in between the 9-12 and 1-4 slots. Alternatively, I can send her for the whole afternoon (1-6pm), use 5 free hours of her FEE entitlement and pay £25 per day, which i think is very expensive.

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TiggyCBE · 11/03/2014 18:59

I feel they are deliberately making it more difficult for parents to make full use of the free early education entitlement

Well maybe it's because they're in the 80% of nurseries that make a loss when providing the "free" hours?

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insancerre · 11/03/2014 19:10

exactly, tiggy
the nursery is hardly going to give you just the free hours when they could have a fee paying child instead, paying for the full day
taking the free hours will be in effect blocking that place- they can't fill those hours with another child
which is why many nurseries place limits on how they offer the free hours
the nursery will be losing money, you know, what with it being a business and needing to make profits to pay it's staff

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jaabaar · 12/03/2014 08:19

How can a nursery make a loss when a full time place is gbp 1,200 per month and the employees are teenagers on minimum wages?

I was always wondering.....

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insancerre · 12/03/2014 12:09

I'm not a teenager on minimum wage

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TiggyCBE · 12/03/2014 15:06

Nurseries full of dim teenagers on minimum wage with poor resources, poor food, and poor buildings can make a profit. A great start for the future generation!

I'm an experienced top quality nursery nurse who does supply in lots of settings. I know I can walk into half the nurseries around me and instantly spot stupid 'I can't be bothered' practices from lazy or rubbish staff.
-I was in a nursery this morning. A member of staff in the toddler room sat like a big useless beanbag and didn't talk to any of the children for at least 15 minutes. Ofsted grade Good.
-A nursery I was in last week got the car tracks out for the children. They didn't get any cars out. Graded Good.
-A nursery I was in was using their computer to dry socks and gloves on. It was broken and it wasn't worth mending, but they didn't get rid of it because they wouldn't have a computer. Graded Outstanding.

You get what you pay for. It's so hard to get good staff that most nurseries try to get a good manager, deputy, and maybe room seniors, then fill up with any old cheap staff and hope they don't to too much damage. Until nursery places start getting subsidised properly, I don't see much changing.

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jaabaar · 13/03/2014 08:13

Insancerre

I was not talking or referring to you.

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TiggyCBE · 13/03/2014 17:33

Insancerre,

Don't worry. Nobody would ever confuse you with a teenager.

Grin

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