Been told a 10 hour day for a 2 year old as a minimum?!

[Lottiebugz22]

I've just enquired about the free 15 hours childcare when my daughter turns 2 and I said I probably wouldn't need her to do the full 15. They said she would need to do a full 10 hours as a minimum so it would be a 7.30am - 6.00pm day for a 2 year old?!
How days a week is pre school and how many hours a day? I think 10 hours a day is ridiculous for a 2 year old myself.

[NoRoomInBed]

Is it not 15 hours a week?

[PaperNet]

Hiya do they mean across 2 days?

[Iminaglasscaseofemotion]

It's not 15 hours per day

[Iminaglasscaseofemotion]

It's 15 hours free per week!

[Thisismytimetoshine]

15 hours a day! 😂

[ZZGirl]

They mean across the week. There's usually a minimum amount of hours across the week you have to pay for in order to use the free 15 hours.

[Lazypuppy]

Its 15hours per week funded.

But as an aside yes there are children who are in nursery 7-30-6pm as standard, its jot that shocking for babies from much younger depending on when parents go back to work

[catsjammies]

Is that a private place you're wanting to send her? My two local nurseries have a minimum amount of time they have to attend to use the 15 hours- I think it's 4 days a week they require as it's a lot of paperwork for them and they're in demand. As in, the children have to attend for 4 days a week before the nursery will let the 15 hours pay for some of their place. We ended up sending DD to a place a bit further away which does 3 days a day, 5 days a week during term time. I think different nurseries just have different ways they implement the hours.

[LivingMyBestLife2020]

I think they mean you have to use a minimum of 10 hours. It doesn’t have to be all in one day

[fedupandlookingforchange]

Mine did half day sessions 9-12 or 12.30 -3, four times a week. Two sessions in a preschool attached to a primary school and two in a stand alone preschool.
I'd look for another preschool, try looking on facebook or asking your health visitor. I was using the 15 hours free as well.

[fedupandlookingforchange]

I didnt have to pay for anything either just using the free 15 hours split between two providers was fine.

[ForeverBubblegum]

Are you sure they didn't mean that they charge a standard 'day rate' for up to 10 hours, regardless of how long she's there?

So if you wanted to send her in for 2 days, they would change for 20 hours (15 of which would be free) and you would pay 5 hours. This is relatively common, nursery do it because they make a loss on the funding they get for the free hours, so need to make it up elsewhere.

[Charliebigpotatoes]

You may think 10 hours a day is ridiculous but as I had to go back to work, my son has to go for 2 x 10 hour days a week and 1 x 8 hour day. Unfortunately it's just what is needed for some people...

[C152H]

At the nursery my little one went to, 15 hours equated to 1.5 days. It didn't matter that he never actually went for that amount of time, you 'pay' (use your funded hours) for the entire time the nursery is open, whether you choose to use it for that entire period (e.g. 8am - 6pm) each day or not.

I think your nursery probably meant the same thing - the nursery is open for 10 hours each day, so you will be charged (or use your funded hours) for 10 hours, regardless of whether your child is only there for 6 hours, for example.

[Lottiebugz22]

No she specifically said 7.30-6pm!
I also thought you could spread it out....
I'll have to look at other places. I was just a bit shocked at those hours as it's longer than a school day. I appreciate other parents need those hours....it's just something I personally wouldn't do for my daughter.

[Pipandmum]

Any daycare my kids went to had a ten hour maximum day for any individual child (nothing to do with free child care thing, that was the maximum length they allowed your child to stay).
I think there must be some miscommunication from her - not many people need their child there from 7.30 - are you sure she wasn't telling you their hours of operation?

[OverTheRainbow88]

Our nursery uses 10 hours a day of our free hours even if we drop of at 9am and pick up at 4.30pm as they count it as a full day, which is 8-6.

We can do half days though so 8-1 or 1-6. May be worth checking if they can do that?

[Hardbackwriter]

I don't think you've fully understood. We pay for 7.30-6, because that's when the nursery is open, but we don't use all of it (and the odd times I have needed to drop off at dead-on 7.30 or pick up right at 6 it's pretty empty so I don't think many other people are either). She's telling you that you have to have a full day booked as a minimum - which will use 10 of your hours - but whether you then drop at 7.30 and pick up at 6 is up to you. Nursery isn't like school where you have to get them there for start time and pick them up at end time

I don't think it's particularly unusual for a nursery to say that you have to have 'blocks' of a whole day - every one I've seen did either whole or half days. The only childcare around me where you can say 'I want 10am to 4pm' (say) and just pay/use hours for that are childminders; no nursery around me will do that.

[Russell19]

She probably said 7.30am - 6pm as that is what is classed as a full day. If you wanted to drop off at 9am and pick up at 3pm that's up to you, but no matter the times, 10 hours of funding would still be 'used'

[Hardbackwriter]

It's like if I were paying for a day at the zoo (or, with free hours, like if I had a voucher for the zoo) - the zoo is open 9-6 and I don't want to go for that long, but that's what I have to pay for. I can't say 'but I'll only stay three hours, so rather than using my ticket up in one day I'll come for three days of three hours each' - that isn't how the zoo works.

[mummyh2016]

I think something like a playgroup would be better for you.

[Lottiebugz22]

Okay that sounds more likely.
I'll see what they say when I ask again. Thank you everyone.

[HM1984]

When my first got the hours, it was a day and half in nursery (just over 15 hours but they didn't ask for any money other than for breakfast and lunch as was going full days until I went on mat leave for 2nd baby). So I dropped her hours to a full day and half, which was fully funded by the 15 hours scheme

A couple years ago, tried to enrol child 2 and they said because of the 30 hour scheme they now need a minimum set of paid hours to accept funded hours. They were asking me to pay something like £500 a month to get the free 15 hours. Apparently they don't get a lot from the government for the funded places.

I managed to get DC2 into the private nursery attached to my DC1 school from 3 and they accepted all the hours. They were open during school hours only so actually worked out better for me!

[Lottiebugz22]

Yeah I understand now. So 10 would be the minimum that I needed to use up.
Ideally I just wanted her to go something like 1-4pm a few days a week.

[Hardbackwriter]

Do they not offer half days? I think it's quite common for nurseries to not offer them for funded places but it's definitely not universal so it might be worth looking at other nurseries near you as they might.