Free sessions in nursery at 3????

[TheVillageIdiot]

DD is in nursery, she will be 3 in June. Ages (months/years) ago I vaguely remember someone discussing the fact that children at 3 are entitled to so many hours in a playgroup/nursery or something.

Does anyone know anything about this? is it still something that is going on? is everyone entitled to this? how do you enquire about it/get it set up? does it apply to private nurseries?

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

[purpleturtle]

Your dd will be eligible for 5 free sessions a week at a nursery/pre-school from September.

[TheVillageIdiot]

Is every child entitled? How do you apply or is it automatic?

[WigWamBam]

The five sessions are 2.5 hour sessions.

Some private nurseries accept the grant, but if the grant falls short of their fees you will have to pay top-up fees. You don't have to apply for it, the nursery will do that for you.

[TheVillageIdiot]

ps. thanks for the reply!

[purpleturtle]

It applies to private nurseries so long as they participate in the nursery grant scheme. If your nursery does this I would expect they would give you a short form to fill in to apply for the grant. It's worth 12.5 hours per week for 11 weeks a term.

[fairydust]

that's 5 - 2 1/2hrs sessions a week - most nurserys have the relevant forms for you.

[elliott]

It applies from the term after they are 3 - so that would be September for you.
You get the equivalent of 5 2.5 hr sessions free (I think its going up soon), at a registered nursery (I think they have to be ofstedded, not all playgroups are but most private day nurseries should be). For me at my nursery its all worked out by the administration - I think I had to sign something, then they just told me how much to adjust my payments by (about £100 per month I think).
Ask your nursery, they should be able to tell you whats what.

[TheVillageIdiot]

So my nursery fees will gone down by the cost of just over 1 day per month - cool!

I will ask her nursery. Thanks very much

[nutcracker]

In some nurseries you can use it towards a full day.

My Dd went for 2 full days 9am until 3:30pm and all i had to pay for was the lunch hour as the grant is not allowed to cover that.

Ds will also be dong the 2 days in Jan.

[honeypot01]

It depends how many days your child goes to nursery, therefore how much early years grant you receive. My son gets £115 for 3 days, his friend goes 2 days and get £85, so as you can see it varies, it gets paid direct to your nursery thou. You don't have to do anything to arrange, your nursery should just give you a letter to sign and return

[jothorpe]

I've had some information from a particular Childcare Voucher provider which says that you can't get both the Funding Grant and the benedift of Tax/NI from Childcare Vouchers. You can use both, but the grant value gets deducted from the vouchers.

Will post more info once I understand it!

The grant for 3-5's is called the Nursery Education Grant. /link{http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/home/a-z_services/n/nurseryeducationgrant.htm\Info from Hounslow}

[honeypot01]

where i am the grant is called Early Years Grant, might be different where you are, thought was all the same thou.