To be fed up of hearing that the government funds 15 hours childcare a week

[RainyAfternoon]

They don't! They fund 15 hours a week only during term time

By my calculations this equates to under 12 hours a week funded across the year. (39/52 x 15 hours a week = 3/4 x 15 = under 12 hours). But all we hear is that the government currently funds 15 hours childcare a week. Even on the mumsnet homepage!

I'm not arguing whether they should fund more or less, just that they should stop claiming they are funding 30% more than they actually are!

Thank you for listening!

I took some of mine through the 6wk holidays but hate the rules, would be much better if the 7hrs day/15wk were more flexible-ie that you could "bank" hours to use on a different week if you don't use so many one week.

You can 'bank' them in a sense. You can either use them term time only or during hols.

I was watching the news and thinking "what happens to children during the school holidays then?". Off the top of my head school holidays add up to 13 weeks a year, last time I checked I didn't get 13 weeks annual leave.

The two nurseries my DC have used have worked out the total allowance over the year and divided it by 12, and taken that amount off on a monthly basis. Is that not normal then, and we've been lucky?

Yes, Crispy that is normal - however, the funding is for 15 x 5pounds x 38 weeks. So you can spread it out over the whole year, but that means you only get about 11.5 hours funding a week.

That's fine - 11.5 hours a week is useful as is the flexibility that GiveMe and Delaying mention.

It's just the shorthand we keep hearing on the news of the government funding '15 hours childcare a week' rather than '15 hours childcare a week for 3/4 of the year' which winds me up.

It's misleading and dishonest!