When do I need to apply to nursery by?

[hermyweasley]

I'd like my son to start his 30 free hours in January. He turns 3 at the end of September, When do I need to have applied by? Finding it all quite confusing.

Thank you- I don't have any friends with toddlers to ask!

It depends on the nursery - you need to find the one you like and see if they’ve got space!

It’s not like school - there’s no central admissions

Depends on the nursery. If it's attached to a school some need you to put their name on a waiting list from being a baby. Private nurseries can have long waiting lists too so it's defo worth enquiring ASAP

The two nursery's I've been looking at both have space. Do I have to register for his thirty free hours by a certain date?

Like the above people said, just ring the nurseries and ask if they have spaces and if you can look around. (I looked round a few while pregnant for my little girl!!)

The 30 free hours are eligible the term after their third birthday - you can get the account set up and get your code earlier usually though. Follow the gov website and see what it says.

Also, ask the nursery how they manage their hours - they all do it differently and spread it in different ways. You generally can’t just pick when you have your hours - we had to choose from options (2 full days; 4 half days etc). Some equate them out so they are less weekly hours, but all year round. All of them charge an additional fee for food etc too so free doesn’t actually mean free - just cheaper!

Just for info, my daughter attends nursery 3 days per week. Her hours give her two days - we pay a fee for those days (which works out at about £90 a month) and extra days are £49. So our average month costs about £300. Were in the midlands and childcare is pretty cheap here though.

I would submit an application and register him now. His 30 free hours won't start until winter term (after Christmas) because it's the term after the term they have their 3rd birthday in. But no reason to not secure your place if you know which one you like. There is a big influx of 3 year olds (and especially in September, so they may not have a space if you don't jump on it). I've always registered about 4-6 months before. No idea about applying for free hours as I can't remember what we did, but I would assume start the process in the autumn sometime.

No point getting the code yet, it’s only valid for three months and you’ll have to reconfirm twice before he can start!

@MissClarke86 that's very useful, thank you.

How do your thirty hours only cover two days? They'd be two long days! Just trying to work it all out.

Thanks

You can set up your account and apply for your 30 hours as soon as he is 3, all ready for him to start using them when he's eligible in January. But nurseries get booked up quickly so if you find one you like that's available for what you want then register him. Check if you'll get charged for anything. My daughters 30 hours cover 3 long days 8-6 but on those days I pay £5/day for her 3 meals. On the other 2 days I pay full fee her meals are included.

Remember you can use tax free childcare too if you still have fees to pay. You can register at the same time as you get your code and do it all in the same site.

Speak to the nursery sooner rather than later to get him booked in. They should be able to advise you then on how to apply for the funding.

The actual amount they receive from the government often leave nurseries in a deficit so a lot of nurseries will not allow you to use solely free hours. With most, you will have to pay top up fees or only use them at set times (ie the times none of the regular paying parents want).

Nurseries can offer the 30 hours in a way that works for them, so for example, say 12-6 Mon-Fri. If your child can attend for just those hours, that would be free. However if you wanted your child to attend full days, say 8am-6pm, even though thats technically 30hrs, those are not all free (and you'd get 18 free hrs on that example, but the nursery would charge for 12 hrs). Does that make sense? They all do it differently.

[quote hermyweasley]@MissClarke86 that's very useful, thank you.

How do your thirty hours only cover two days? They'd be two long days! Just trying to work it all out.

Thanks [/quote]
The 30 hours is term time only but some places let you stretch it over the full year so it becomes around 22 hours a week (1140h a year) so it would be 2 * 11hour days - quite long but not unheard of.

The 30 funded (bc they’re not ‘free’) hours are also for 39 weeks of the year, not 51/52 - so if you’re not using termtime-only provision, you’ll find most settings average the amount over the 51/52 weeks they normally charge for.

Cross post with odd

Yep what they said

It’s too long days - 7.30-6 and all year round. I’d actually prefer more days term time only (I teach) but they don’t offer that at my Nursery. They’re all different in their options!

Typo - “two”