Nursery offering 30 hours to some but not others

[NurseryHoursQuestion]

My DD is 3 and I claim the 30 funded hours available.

She attends a private Nursery while I work but they said they only offered the 15 hours but would work with whichever school we wanted to send her too if they had a Preschool Class.

So she does 5 mornings at preschool for the school her brother goes to and then 5 afternoons at the private Nursery. The Private Nursery picks my DD up from Preschool and takes her back to Nursery for lunch as school don’t offer meals for their Preschool children.

This is quite a common arrangement and DD is one of 4 or 5 children who go to both Preschool and Nursery. I’d prefer her to be at one setting but neither setting offers the full 30 hours, and I can’t afford to not take them (need to work fulltime as parttime would see me spend as much on childcare as I earnt. DH also works fulltime but we only break even on his wage).

I’ve been speaking to one of the other mothers from Nursery and she says she’s allowed to use the full 30 hours at Nursery and only uses the one setting for her child. When I asked why she says that the manager told her she could keep her child at the Nursery for the full 30 funded hours. She was given no reason by the manager, and the Nursery has been claiming the full 30 hours for her DC. Apparently she knows of 2 other parents who keep their DC at the Nursery for the full 30 hours, they were never told they had to split the hours between two settings. I know the school definitely doesn’t take any more than 15 hours as the children are either in the morning class or afternoon class and can’t change classes (classes at 9-12am and 1-3pm). Of the 3 parents who use the full 30 hours at Nursery all of them are hoping to send their DC to the same school as my DD so it’s not a case of them only offering it to children who will be going to a school without a preschool.

Does anyone know why the Nursery is allowing some parents to use the full 30 hours and not others?

Many settings make a loss on the finded places so they cap how many children they offer it to.

At a guess I'd say the other parents possibly registered before you and by the time you registered the morning session was full?

They may have less staff in the morning or children who only go in the mornings, hence they have more space in the afternoon.

Maybe they qualify for pupil premium?

At a guess I'd say the other parents possibly registered before you and by the time you registered the morning session was full?

What do you mean? Of the 3 children I know one does 3 full days, one does 2.5 days and ones full time

It's up to each setting gmw they choose to administer the 30 hours. They can choose how many places to offer, which sessions or hours it can be used for etc. The only way you will find out their criteria is to ask them.

When I've asked why before they just say they expect all children entitled to spread it across two settings, it's only from speaking to this parent that I've found out that not all children have to go to two settings. She doesn't know why, when she's asked (she was aware some children went to two places) they just told her that her DC didn't have to, that's all she got told.

It probably depends on how many children they have and how many spaces they have. Morning sessions are always more popular in nurseries, so it may simply have been that they didn't have the place available to offer you the full days, but could offer you the afternoon sessions.

The nursery I know allocates their 30 hour places according to a published set of criteria similar to a school admission list.

I know at my DDs nursery they only offer a certain about of 30 hour funded placements. I assume it's because they can't afford to do it for everyone. I know a few of the children attend nursery in the morning and then pre-school in the afternoon the same as your child.

The free 30 hours is crippling many childcare providers. They maybe only offer it to a set amount of people, possibly the most disadvantaged.

Are you in England? Are their children under 3?

The children can’t be under 3 if they are claiming funded hours.

In England yes, the Nursery takes children from birth but the children in my DDs room are all over 3. The school only take children from the term after their 3rd birthday.

There's funding for 2 year olds in Wales but it's obviously not that so please ignore me.

It sounds as if they have capped their 30 hour places - but it would be reasonable to expect them to explain the criteria for allocation. If they won't do this, have a word with your local Council (who will be responsible for administering the scheme) - and ask them whether they will contact the nursery for an explanation. My work brings me into contact with these sorts of issues and in my experience, the LA will be willing to contact nurseries.

It can sometimes be difficult to explain to other parents why you let them and not others without breaching confidentiality. I would have a broad policy but wouldn’t be comfortable going in to details about why I’ve said yes to Mrs X and no to Miss Y.

I meant if they registered for example in July the nursery may have had 2 morning spaces and 3 afternoon spaces at that time.

The other parents took 2 of the mornings and afternoon spaces leaving only 1 afternoon space, so when you registered at a later date that's all you could have?

Similarly, if the nursery have staff who work part time they may have more space Monday to Wednesday, but Thursdays and Fridays less space (there are strict adult:child ratios they have to abide by) hence one family could have their 30 hours over 3 days whereas because you want them spread over 5 days they don't have the capacity.

The nursery my DS attended as an after school club I could only have on certain days, not every day of the week because on some days they had less staff so less child places available.