Nursery cost and free hours

[RER234]

My DS (2) turns 3 in September so will be eligible for 30 free hours at nursery from January. Checked with nursery to see how it works and was told he would get 2 days a week free (term time only) which is 20 hours (only goes term time). Is this normal? I feel short changed - this is not 30 hours!
The nursery have also put up their daily rate to £52.40. (A year ago it was £46). I live in a town in Greater Manchester this seems high to me. Other nurseries in the area are part of the same chain so don't really have a comparison.
How much is your nursery? How many free hours do you actually get for your 30 hours?

we get the full 30 free hours, so 3 x 10hr days term time only - so 1140 hours per year in total. (though of that we use about 8 hrs per day but that's just because of when I go to work etc)

day rate is £41 and we are in west Yorkshire. Its a sure start nursery.

they charge £5 for meals on the funded days also.

Different nurseries do it differently, but ours are spread out over the year too, same as Bonjour - saves on having to pay different amounts each month, which would be a headache for everyone! Not sure why they would only give you 20hrs though - I assume he goes every day?

I won't comment on the cost per day as we're London so higher daily rates!

£41 - I am being over charged.

BowiesJumper
DS only does 3 days currently but I was planning to increase it to 4 days once I got my free hours. I didn't think it would effect how many hours he got free.

Nurseries here (north-east of Scotland) that I've been looking into for DD range from £42-53 for a full day so far.

I didn't think it would effect how many hours he got free

it shouldn't, even if he hadn't been to nursery at all previously he/you would be entitled to the same as its based on you working and income etc

have you asked them why?

Some nurseries can’t offer the full 30 hours as they don’t have enough places and from what I’m told you just have to either accept it or change nurseries. I think a lot of them had to put their prices up because they’re not getting enough money from the government for the 30 hours

Ask the nursery why, there may be a way you can get the full 30 hours.

Some of the nursery's around here only allow you to use the free allocation on Monday's and Fridays when there is less demand. Others only let you use them as half days (8am-1pm).

My dc is in term time only too and he goes Monday to Friday 8:45-3:30. So 6.75 hours per day, which is 33.75 hours per week.

I am only charged for 3.75 hours per week at £4 per hour which works out at £15 per week.

They actually also offer a 15% discount if you pay the half-termly bill within a set amount of days so I end up paying £12.75 per week.

They also don’t charge me anything at all for weeks with a bank holiday day as they’re not open on bank holidays so bill me for 4 days, which his free 30 hours more than covers.

I don’t understand why they’re only allowing you 20 hours free, I wonder if it’s due to your dc not attending each day or something?

Thinking about it, even though your dc only goes term time, are the nursery open all year? Perhaps they can only divide the hours over the whole year in that case?

Nursery have said it is based on how much money they get from the council each month.

Ahh, yes I suppose they give a set amount for the 30 hours so if the nursery charges more than that for 30 hours then the extra is passed onto you.

Some nurseries average the hours over 12 months to help parents

They aren't allowed to charge a top up fee other than for food and consumables but many do and aren't even subtle about it. Local authorities don't care. The only option is to change nursery but you are likely to find the same everywhere. Only way to get anything nearly genuinely free is to go to a local authority or charity preschool. But then you won't get the long hours.