To complain about these nursery "top-up" fees?

[Missdread]

My son goes to a great nursery, for which we have been paying (through the nose....) for the past year. He turns 3 in August so will be entitled to 15 hours free funding from September. He does three 5 hour morning sessions, so nothing would change. Except today the nursery explains that as they gave a short fall we will be required to pay £5 per session for the 15 hours funded children. Now, after doing some research on county council websites, it appears they are not allowed to do this....

www.parentalchoice.co.uk/choosing-childcare/nurseries/nursery-education-grant-funding

WIBU to complain, potentially leading to them being investigated for the sake of £5per day?!!!!

Does he have a meal there?

The alternative would be for them to only count them as 3 sessions and charge you for 2 hours which I suspect would be more than £5. It doesn't make their strategy right though.

It's illegal. Tell them so.

No meal Sirzy: we provide a packed lunch...

He is entitled to up to 15 hours if he's doing 3 mornings I think that's counted as only being eligible for 12 hours paid. The little boy I used to nanny for got round it by having the "funded sessions 8-11" and then leaving at 11 instead of staying til the end of the session so 8-1. On days he stayed until 1 we paid a supplement from the 11-1

Confused.

How does 12 hours = 15 free paid?

not that there's any bloody free in Glasgow

Speak to your council department who pays the nursery funding. The nursery will have signed a legal agreement with them and you are right they are not allowed to charge top ups.
I know that many do and some are happy to pay for a place at a good nursery, but the 15 hours should be completely free to you.

If it's a private nursery they probably can do it.

If your son attended five 3 hour sessions, then they can't top up.

As it is, they can determine how many "free" 3 hour places they provide, possibly none. And how many staff they choose to dedicate to the free places. This will undoubtedly be limited. So if you can send him to five 3 he sessions then no top up. But you probably can't because of work.

Your Fees will reduce. But it won't be free. They reduce by three hours on each day he attends. You're still paying for the other two hours. And you only choose to send him three days.

All the private nurseries do it here.

My DCs nursery doesn't charge for funded sessions (which are 5 hours in the morning) but if you want your child to have breakfast, a snack and milk and a cooked lunch then there is a charge of £5 a day. You can provide a packed lunch if you want though. Their logic is that the early learning is free, the food is not. I think that's fair enough.

Is your child having food at nursery?

X posted sorry. Yes report in that case.

I think they can do this depending on what the class as a session. For example you child may only go from 8-12 but their morning session is 7am to 12.

Ds went to nursery 9am-4pm. However we had to pay the full day charge which was 7am-6pm. We chose not to drop him early or leave him late, but still had to pay a full day charge.

The funding only covers 15 hrs per week term time so if it's a day care setting which is open all year round rather than preschool that could be why?

It only covers 38 weeks per year. I would think they can charge a top up fee if he is going all year.

Also I think you can only use so many hours per session. The usual sessions are 3 hours per day x 5 days. You are using 5 hours per day x 3 days which may be different,

The maximum session that NEF can be paid for is 10 hours and the minimum is 2.5.

And yes it's 15 hours for 38 weeks a year. If your child attends during the school hols you would have to pay for those sessions.
Or you can have 11 hours funded for 51 weeks a year instead.

Each session is 3 hours.

He is going term-time only...

I've emailed the nursery with my ammo.... see what they say..!

I wouldn't complain. The amount the government thinks it should cost for a session of early years education wouldn't buy good quality care for a dog, let alone a child.

Nurseries and pre schools have to find ways around it and make more money, otherwise they couldn't operate.

God knows how nurseries will manage if the 30 free hours ever comes in

Nurseries can't use top up fees but they can charge for 'extra activities' so that's probably what you are officially paying for. Mine lists them on the website and in nursery literature. Things like Stretch'n'Grow, French/Spanish etc. Have a look and see. Of course it is really to get around the fact that the govt reimburses them for far less than their session would normally cost and far less than the nursery costs to run.

Nurseries can also set the hours you can use your free hours for, ours is max 3 hrs per day. So it could be that, but again it should be clear in their marketing.

Ahhh - Glasgow. I think you've come across the mighty Glasgow City Council's interpretation of the funding rules.

If your child goes 3 days a week then GCC will only pay the nursery for 3 sessions. You'd need to attend for 5 days to get all 5 sessions. Unfortunately they don't let you just deduct the 15 hours from your bill.

This is because GCC say it's for "early years education" and not to provide child care. If you were attending a council nursery you would only get either morning or afternoon sessions so they say it's the same with partnership nurseries.

You're lucky you're getting it at all tbh (I know it doesn't feel lucky - and it shouldn't with all those politicians braying about this marvellous funding). They're cutting the number of places offered at partnership nurseries so it's getting much harder to be able to access the "free" hours at all if you're a working parent who needs 8-6 care.

Our nursery has a complicated system of blocks which are free under the scheme and blocks (lunch, before 9) which we pay for. I assumed you could compress your hours so my son's one and a half days a week would be free. I was wrong. We pay £167 a month plus the 'pre three' full fees in August. It's all very confusing and annoying.

Sleepyhead, your info on Glasgow is maybe a wee bit out of date.

You can get more than one 'session' a day funded in a partnership nursery now, though it's up to the partnership nursery if they want to implement that.

You can also use your 16 hours in pretty much whatever combo you like in the extended hours council nurseries. My DD is in one of these and the nursery has been very flexible.

The partnership system isn't perfect, but overall I think Glasgow is doing much better on childcare than most other councils.