Nursery- service charge to bring a packed lunch

[strongagain1985]

AIBU to be surprised that the nursery (attached to a primary school) my 4 year old dd attends, charges £1.75 for children to bring a packed lunch in? If the child has a school dinner then it's £2.75. What do you make of this?

Maybe it differs from area to area but you certainly can't here.

sirzy.
Yes you can. As long as the session is longer than 10 hours.

You are not even getting your full 15hours.

We pay for lunchtime supervision on top of the 15 hours but thats regardless of packed packed lunch vs school dinner.

No sirzy. It covers the whole of England.

No moogy it doesn't. Golden has just said exactly the same. I checked it when DS was starting his funded hours.

So AIBU then?

A quick google brought this up. www.yor-ok.org.uk/Parents/Childcare/nef.html
A) it says you CAN use your hours over 2 days
B) it says providers can charge for optional extras, I would say that in the context of a school nursery which usually provides sessions 9-12 and 12:30-3:30 or whatever, the lunch time is an optional extra (and you would be entitled to another half day session free if you chose)

www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/web/?siteid=2979&pageid=6658&e=e#anchor205857

This is the same legislation nationwide.
Council nurseries may choose to open certain times but cms and private nurseries can offer the sessions in any way they wish.
Look at FAQ. "What days and times can I have the free hours for my child"

Up until July, I know that you could only use 12 hrs over 2 days in our area, my friend's son did this and they had to pay for his lunch hour each day.

If it's for lunchtime supervision, is that normal then? First child so all of this is new to me.

The free education time I suspect is not including the lunch period. So I would expect that the fee is due to the staff time over that lunch period. For 9am-3.25pm, 2 days per week, have you been told how many funded hours that is? It may be 6. Such as two sessions of 3 hours (9-12) (12.25-3.25).

You can contact you local Early Years/Free Entitlement Team, based at your county council (or local council if they administer the free education entitlement) for further information about what the free entitlement covers. You should first get confirmation from the nursery on what they are charging you for and what parts of the day are funded.

Council website will often have details on it about things like Local Code of Practice (link goes to Surrey County Council, should you be in my area - Surrey).
"Before parents/legal guardians take up a funded place you must tell them in writing:

• about charges for any extra time
• the charges for extra services including snacks and/or lunch"

So you may well already have the information you need in a welcome pack or other documents/emails from the nursery which you got before/when starting.

Using your 15 hours in 2 lots means op is having one 7.5 hour session each day. They cannot charge any extras unless the nursery provides lunch

Eating lunch is not considered education so therefore is not allowed to be included in the funded hours

YANBU to question it. The information should have been given to you when you started/before starting.

Cranky, with all due respect and. All that but you're very wrong.
Eating a lunch, learning table manners and learningg how to make healthy food choices is an important part of the eyfs.
Eating lunch OS's part of the funndeedd hours.
p

They are not providing the lunch, they are providing a premises to eat it in. Surely they can't charge £1.70 per day, per child for that? No extra hours over the entitlement taken.

Look on the county rules. These are direct from the legislation
" no one can make you pay for a meal if you choose not to"
This includes charging for food YOU provide.
Cheeky sods

My kids pre school (along with most others I know) runs 3 hour 'sessions' to make up the free hours.
9-12 is a session, 12.30-3.30 is a session. If you send them over lunch you pay an extra £1.75
You are most likely using 4 sessions (12 hours) and paying for the lunch bit
If you only want the free bits then you'll need to do 5 mornings or 5 afternoons and skip the lunch times

I work in a school with attached nursery. The nursery offers 2x 3 hour sessions per day. We do not offer any sort of supervision over lunch.

However, if we did, I would imagine it would be a separate 'thing' to the nursery education, run rather like a breakfast or after school club. Something for the convenience of working parents, not part of the school/nursery day, and therefore need to charge to cover costs incurred- including staff and cleaning.

So it sounds like you are receiving 4x free 3hr sessions, plus 'lunchtime club' so that you don't have to pick up and return your child over lunch. If this is the case you are entitled to another 3hr session free.

Oh I agree that lunch is a learning experience but, you have to have a break between the funded hours, i.e a morning session and an afternoon sessions.

You also have to allocate the hours that you are receiving funded money for, and declare them to the local authority when you sign the terms and conditions of receiving the funding.

It's a bit like leaving your child at after school club 4 days a week, and then saying that you don't have to pay because your child doesn't go to school on Fridays.

Yes, you're entitled to the free education. But that is within the constraints of the setting, if they offer 2 separate 3 hour sessions you can't then say that you are claiming 7.5 hours of funding that day to cover lunch.

It's reasonable to charge a small sum to cover clearing up after the kids which will be quite extensive, but £1.75 seems rather too steep - 50p-£1 would be more reasonable.

We have to pay £5 a day for DS to stay at lunchtime. He takes his own lunch due to allergies the school can not cater for. I don't think it is fair as the other children get a meal included in their £5 charge, where as we pay for his lunch on top, but apparently we pay for the child care not the lunch.

I used to have to pay for this in my DS school nursery, he's at school now. the sessions were 9-12 and 12.15-3.15. Those 15 minutes were £2.

Ironically the break between the funded sessions are to allow children to go home to eat lunch and bit miss ou on any education. (It's all about arse a bout face) but it's government money do they don't really want you to have it