Anyones who is an authority on nursery funding step this way please.

[Milkysallgone]

Just got my termly bill and was a bit that I've been charged 84 quid for excess nursery sessions for my dd. This equates to 10 sessions/2.5 weeks.

Now I've had a look on the government site and it says they are entitled to 38 weeks a year. I have the nursery term dates and have figured out that, although the winter term is 15 weeks long, the other two terms are fairly short so in total she will be there for 39 weeks, so one excess week over the whole year.

So it seems they are over charging me because of a long term but I won't actually get these weeks back over the year iyswim? Surely it is averaged out over the year? If not then we won't be getting our 38 weeks will we? If anyone can help me make sense of this before I speak to them on Monday then I would be very grateful.

[laurasmiles]

It just may be a mistake. Or, some nurseries may charge an additional services charge - and this may be it ( but they should have made that clear at the beginning).

The number of weeks in a term should not matter, if your child has turned three then they receive the full term's funding.

Of course if your child is younger then you pay.

Thuis probably doesn't help much....can't think what else it would be.

[Milkysallgone]

Thanks. The exact words on the bill are 'Cost of excess nursery sessions not covered by gov.funding'. As I understood it they get funded for 38 wks of the year, I have checked and our term does seem to be 1 week longer; but this doesn't explain the amount.

Dd is over 3.

[jimjamshaslefttheyurt]

Nurseries get paid the funding termly.

Ask them why they've calculated it that way.

[KatyMac]

How long is each session a day?

[TheFallenMadonna]

It's not averaged out over a year. Each term has a maximum number of weeks funded. And it is in financial years, not academic years, so our pre school only got 37 weeks worth of funding last year because of the early easter.

[Shoshe]

As A Accredited Childminder I fill the forms in for Nursery Funding a for my Mindees, (well did havnt actually got a 3 year old this year)

And the forms ask for your term dates and adjust so that if your terms are 14, then 10, then 14, you get the funding for that many weeks each term.

The funding is for a 2.5 hour session does she do more than that and the cost is a top up payment?

[TheFallenMadonna]

Ours are 14 weeks autumn, 11 weeks spring, 13 weeks summer. Last year we had 10 weeks in the spring term and 14+ in the summer (early easter), so lost a weeks funding.

[Milkysallgone]

It is def for the sessions, we pay extra for lunches. So if they get funded termly then it's just hard luck for us then.

[laurasmiles]

Each local authority has the autonomy to offer thier funding slightly differently. Some are more felixble with the nurseries than others. I think this is just the luck of the draw but I would question the loss of what is equivalent to two weeks funding and raise this with them for sure.

[Milkysallgone]

Cheers, some useful advice.