Accessing 15 hours nursery fees support for adopted children under 2 years old

[PudJoh]

First time poster. Hi! We are currently awaiting our Court Adoption Order to officially adopt our 18 month old twins. My partner is on Adoption Leave whilst I returned to work. As part of the adoption plan, it was agreed with LA and FC that attending nursery would be good for the children's development. We assumed we'd be able to apply for 15 hours per week support for each child but we're now struggling to access the necessary codes and my partner has been told we will not be issued anything or given any support until she returns to work next year. Does this seem right (not morally, more logistically!)? Anyone have similar experience and found a solution to access the financial support? Any insight or help hugely appreciated x

It’s been a few years since we accessed the 15 hours for previously looked after children but I believe that we could not access them until she was 2. I know that more children get funding at a younger age, via the government funding, but that funding I think that the person on adoption leave needs to return to work within 30 days to be eligible

if funding isn’t a available and the
money is the barrier would the LA look into an adoption allowance?

Hi. Im really surprised they are agreeing to nursery straight after placement. We were advised to put our elder daughter, who was 3, into nursery for her development, and we put her little sister in too because they weren't coping with the separation and it was only for 3 hours, 3 mornings a week.

And our youngest daughter bonded so deeply with one of the nursery teachers - it took us years to undo this and have her bond with me.

I would have thought a play group would be more appropriate in the beginning?

I had this issue when we adopted and we had to wait for the funding to kick in after I had gone back to work. Whilst I was on leave we couldn’t access the full 30 hours, but I thought 15 hours you could, we had the 15 hours when I went back to work after 8 months and my husband was off for 3 months on shared parental leave. I would push the gov people about this as you should get the 15.

AI agrees with me too :)

Thanks for the feedback and insight, it appears we'll get zero until they turn 2, and then a 'top up' when my partner returns to work next year from the LA for 'early years funding'. Interesting the AI shows we should get the funding, so difficult to find accurate answers and various agencies and govt departments have given conflicting advice.

TL;DR - I don't think we'll get any support or funding until the children turn 2 and the code for support won't be issued until 30 days before they return to work. Hopefully this thread is useful in the future for people with questions like me x

We get the funding under 2 years old for our little boy, he went into child care at 12 months old when both me and my partner where back in work full time. We couldn’t claim whilst one of us was on adoption leave.