How does 30hrs free childcare work?

[pandarific]

Our childminder has just said she’s shutting end of July (sob) so we’ve got to find another childminder or nursery stat for nearly 2.5 year old. She did offer the 30hrs free childcare and that would have worked fine with the hours I have him in for right now (2 days 8:30-5, 1 day 8:30-2), but I have been looking at nursery websites and have the sinking feeling they approach it in a more complicated way - do parents have to cover any additional costs bar food etc, or is this down to the individual nursery/childminder?

I’m due baby 2 end of March so will need to ensure we find somewhere that offers the 30hrs free for 3yos as when I go back to work after this mat leave we’ll need the two of them in at least those 2.5 days each, or a bit more, so I want to get it very clear in my mind how it works.

Anyone mind explaining to someone who is getting a bit confused, please?

I would ask the nursery how they do it, but I can't see why it would make any difference between a childminder or a nursery, just that each setting may apply the hours in a slightly different way, depending on what they include in their fees. Ours provides 30 hours funded, and then any hours over 30, you pay a per hour rate. There is a daily fee for meals/snacks (two snacks, 1 hot lunch, all drinks), which I think is something around £4.50 per day. We can use those hours on any day, as many as we want (though they are only open 8-6, we go 9-5).

It's very much an individual setting thing so probably best for you to contact a few nurseries and see which ones would fit best with your situstion/needs

Ours is very simple, 30 hours pw including food, term time only. My son only does 21 hours - 3x week 9am-4pm

Each nursery tends to have their own policies. The nursery I use are pretty flexible you can have the 30 hours per week term time and either provide packed lunches/snacks or pay for a nursery lunch or you can stretch your hours over 50 weeks so you get 22 hours of funded care per week and pay a top up hourly fee for any additional hours. I went for the stretched hours with a couple of hours per week top up as that works out better to budget than having to pay out for big chunks in holidays.

It depends on the hours you needs/want. We get 30 hours but we don’t do terms time so get less funding each month to stretch over the full year. In additional it’s a private nursery and DS isn’t full time so the funding is calculated per session. We basically just get a reduction in our fees although he’s only in 2.5 days. Oddly his funding actually seems to increase with his age (he’s now ore/school). So the funding rate from council must be age related.

Our nurseries only offered the funding spread throughout the year and days, so if you only wanted three days you couldn't access it all. E.g nursery hours 7;30 to 5:30 5 of which funded you pay the difference, also food was on top.

It seems hugely complicated tbh - I just saw one who still want £19 per day even if you’re getting the free hours. that one offers stupid hours though (9am-4pm, how is that any use to people working office jobs exactly?) so not for us anyway.

I’ve panic-emailed all the reasonable ones in the area anyway and will put out feelers for childminders and see what we can get.

So weird isn’t it. I wonder why it’s not just universal?

Ours is so simple in comparison, just can’t use it in non term time

My DCs went to one that spread it out so you'd only get the reduction for your term time hours but it would be spread across your bills (so you'd just get a slightly lower bill for all months).
We did pay extra for food and you couldn't use the free hours for any early drop offs or late pickups, but that was before 8.45 (which was actually awkward despite being near the office, for a 9am start) or after 5.30. So at nearly 9 hours a day, if they were in 4 full days, you'd get 3 days "free" in term time and pay to top up your final day - but averaged across the year.

Some will charge extras - for snacks, wraparound care, lunches etc. This is because the money they get to subsidise the 30 hours isn’t very much and they just couldn’t operate if al the children took the ‘free’ places. I think not all facilities have to offer the 30 hours anyway.

NB this is how it was when I worked somewhere with a nursery attached (when it was 17 hours and the 30 was about to come in - we certainly couldn’t have afforded to stay open and pay the staff).

I’ve recently reserved a place for next year. They offered 2 full days all year or 3 full days term time. Snacks / breakfast provided but lunch / dinner optional and an extra small cost.

The reason they all do it differently is because the funding they receive doesn't cover their costs, so depending on costs will have different ways of charging extra in order to survive.

It's not that complicated really you get 30 hours term time only.

Some nurseries offer 22 hours p/w and include school holidays.

Some do set sessions or a full day, a morning or an afternoon so you may end up having to pay a little top up.

We are lucky that ours does it by the hour so I can pick the exact start and finish times I need.

Shop around a bit, you'll find something that fits I'm sure.

Some are simple, some make it much more complicated, it varies so much, it's a real headache. One of the nurseries we used charged (quite a lot) for all meals and you could only use the free hours 9-12 and 1-3 so had to pay for the lunchtime hour or any other hours outside of these times. Another nursery we used only charged 50p for snacks and you could bring your own lunch.
Another one we are looking at charges for food (fine), then another £13-£19 a day for 'additional costs' listed as things like seeing the chickens and singing sessions. It says you don't have to pay this if you're happy for your child not to be included

Nurseries are allowed to charge top up fees for 'consumables', limit the hours you can use the funding, insist you use it term time only or insist its averaged from your bill across the year. Basically they make up whatever rules they want. (Even if they break the funding rules in my area there are no consequences whatsoever!) So glad I don't have to deal with it anymore!

@hannahthepink that is absolutely taking the piss!! Bloody hell!

The local outstanding oversubscribed nursery has helpfully asked me to pay £40 non refundable registration fee per child, plus 2 weeks per child in advance - also non refundable if your child does not start with them so about £600 in total - but without telling me how they’d be working the 30hrs free. I kind of need to know that to budget, lads!

[quote pandarific]@hannahthepink that is absolutely taking the piss!! Bloody hell!

The local outstanding oversubscribed nursery has helpfully asked me to pay £40 non refundable registration fee per child, plus 2 weeks per child in advance - also non refundable if your child does not start with them so about £600 in total - but without telling me how they’d be working the 30hrs free. I kind of need to know that to budget, lads![/quote]
That’s crap. I’ve not been asked to pay anything to secure a place for 2022 and they answered all of my questions about funding the day I asked them. It’s a popular nursery too.

I’d get back to them with how you’d like the 30 free hours arranged (times /days) and ask if that’s doable before you stump up cash. Ask by email so you’ve got proof later.
Hope you get sorted out.

@Hannahthepink
Extra to see the chickens on site or they’ll leave your child out? So mean!

@Hannahthepink that’s is ludicrous! My dcs nursery is on a farm and the kids look after the chickens, collect the eggs, bake with them and tend to the vegetables. They even incubate eggs and rear the chicks- I would be horrified if they charged me for that - although it’s probably already in my inflated daily rate tbh! But to leave a child out is cruel.

Our nursery only does 15 hours. Open from 7.30am to 6pm. To simplify the admin, they regard 15 hours as 1 full day (inc lunch hour) and one half day a week term time only, all food included. They don’t charge by hour, it’s morning session, afternoon session or full day. Morning/afternoon session is more than 50% of day rate but I don’t begrudge them that. My friend who uses the same nursery has found a childminder to use up the other 15 hours of her allowance.

Thanks all - have found a spot in an NHS nursery closeby, ofsted outstanding and a lot cheaper than the private one, also don’t want any registration fees or money in advance. They seem to work simply with the 30hrs free too.