New 30 funded hours Scotland

[YappityYapYap]

Hi, I just thought I would start a thread to discuss the new change in funded hours for some 2 year olds and all 3 and 4 year olds in Scotland from August 2020.



The applications open on the 27th of January and close a week later for the area I'm in but the information given so far is quite vague. It seems to be that the school nurseries will open at 8am and close at 6pm and 25 hours over 3 different options will be offered at the nursery my DS currently attends. These will be two full days 8am-6pm then one half day 8am-1pm OR five days 8am-1pm OR five days 1pm-6pm. There doesn't seem to be earning limits on the funded hours either?




Have you any idea, if you have a 3 or 4 year old currently doing the 15 hours, what their nursery will be offering and do you find the new format better or worse than the current? My DS currently does 3 hours a day in the afternoon five days a week.



I have heard rumours that the school nurseries will only close for 2 weeks over summer instead of 6 weeks. Is this true?

[Dinosauratemydaffodils]

The preschool ds goes to already has the new hours/funding as they are part of the trial scheme. They only offer one session of 9am to 3pm across the usual school terms. There is no earning limit as if there was, we wouldn't qualify. It's for all 3 and 4 year olds. There are criteria for the 2 year old places though, certain benefits or looked after children.

The local school nursery will be offering 8am til 1pm or 1pm til 6pm across 46 weeks of the year from August. I think the holidays are something like two weeks at Christmas, 2 in the summer and 1 at Easter/October respectively.

The preschool will continue offering what it's already offering. For us it was an easy decision as we live in a little village without a school nursery so everyone sends their kids to the preschool in the next village. The people who live in the next village tend to do one year at the preschool and then the last year at their school nursery. Not sure how the difference in hours will change that though.

A lot of people I know aren't happy, especially those with school aged children as well as they feel they'll be constantly dropping off. Especially those with husbands who work away, because then they'll be potentially out for 8am, back for school drop off at 9am. Collect at 1pm and then back again for 3.30pm.

Whereas as long as nothing changes, when my eldest starts school and his sister is at preschool, I'll just have to drop one off at 9am and then one at 9.15 and the pickups match up as well.

[bananaskinsnomnom]

Out of interest (I’m not in Scotland but am in the process of setting up a new private nursery provision in England as part of a school and we are currently doing the maths so to speak), do you mean that all Scottish nurseries will have to be open 46 weeks of the year (so no more term time only settings) and provide the funding throughout? And every 3 and 4 year old gets the funding? No means tested?

Just curious as it’s interagii h to know what could come our way for future plans. One thing currently under major discussion is term time only or all year round. The funding here is for term time only.

Pardon my nosiness.

[Dinosauratemydaffodils]

The hours will vary from setting to setting. In the larger cities I think they are working together to offer a range of options to parents. We are fairly rural but our preschool (not council run) will stick with term time and 9 til 3 pm. I've seen local school nurseries offer various things such as 8-1 or 1-6 across 50 weeks of the year (2 mandatory weeks off at christmas and then another 4 to be taken when it suits the parents but the nursery is only closed for those 2 weeks). As well as the hours in my original post or letting children do 3 full days, 8am til 6pm. You can also use it in some private nurseries and to pay for childminders.

Essentially for all 3-4 years in Scotland, parents/carers can access 1140 hours per year of free preschool/nursery/child care paid for by the Government. There is no income limit but it is optional. We live in a relatively wealthy rural area within commuting distance of a city and everyone I know regardless of income is using it, us included.

Certain 2 year olds (parents on specific benefits/low income or looked after children) also qualify for the same funding.