Can they stipulate this?

[OhToBeASeahorse]

DS's nursery are saying they will accept childcare vouchers from.the term after he turns 3 but...
A) I have to pay a top up of £1.80 p/h
B) only up to 6 hours a day.

Can they stipulate this?

Thanks

Anyone?

Do you mean the 3 year old funding? They are allowed to set their own rules such as they can only accept six hours funding a day. They are not allowed to ask you to top up the funding in that way, it must be free at the point of access. However funding rates are lower than nursery fees so many nurseries charge for food, crafts etc which is allowed. They are also allowed to charge the other hours you use at a higher rate so the average hourly rate works out at what they usually charge.
It might seem totally unfair but it is because they are being under funded by the council.

They aren't technically allowed to make you pay a top up, but they certainly can stipulate only 6hr per day. If they don't charge a "top up" that is called by that specific name they still need to get that amount of money from you - what they call it is a technicality not worth quibbling about.

The money that the government gives to a private nursery to pay for the "free hours" is much, much less than it actually costs them to provide the service they provide. They do need to find a way to charge you something because otherwise they will go out of business.

If you need it to be actually free, you can transfer to a provider that is set up to operate only to the government budget - these settings operate only 6 hours a day term time only, have larger group sizes, fewer staff and fewer resources. You can general use your free hours entitlement there with no top ups (possibly a small fee for providing lunch)

For the better level of service that includes eg 8am-6pm care, small groups, lots of resources etc, the extra costs need paying for somehow. Each nursery approaches how to balance the books in a different way as there is no set rules. They can charge what they like for the hours that are in excess of the government free allocation, can charge fees of any amount for anything that isn't supposed to be included. If you don't like it then look for a different provider.

The 30h a week is for a 5 day place so it's pro-rated to a maximum of 6h per day. This is standard. The money the nursery receives from the government is below what your place costs, and the nursery is not allowed to charge 'top up fees' but they may charge other fees so often add in a charge for food, or nappies, or similar, so they are not losing money by accepting the 30h.

Thanks, that's helpful