To think this is a slap in the face for working parents

[Dylaninthemovies1]

DS4 attends nursery in Scotland. He is entitled to 1140 hours per year nursery funding. The local council offered 2 options: either full year funding (22 hours per week all year, taking him up until school starting on 12th August ) or term time funding (30 hours per week during term time). We chose 22 hours per week full year, and juggled working hours around this.

This year, up until covid, he has used 200 hours of the funding. Any child on term time has used 300 hours of funding.

His nursery started back last week. We put him back in 2 day per week until he starts school so that we can work, and I can catch up with study (we both work 30 hours per week)

We’ve just recieved a £400 bill for nursery to take us up until DS starts school. The council has cancelled the funding to pay for key worker childcare. So basically my son only recieved 200 hours funding instead of 300 like his nursery cohorts on term time.

Aibu to think this is a slap in the face to have his funding cancelled? We have worked right through lockdown, juggling work, childcare and studying with absolutely no help: and now the funding for his nursery has been cancelled meaning we’re £400 out of pocket. If we knew this in advance we would have bought childcare vouchers to offset the cost, and planned this into our budget.

I dint understand how they can legally do that. Did too have any warning that this was happening? Is it something all nurseries are doing? Who cancelled the funding?

OP what council are you in?

I’m in South Lanarkshire and haven’t heard of this.

That’s an outrage though and I’d be refusing to pay it. Did you sign anything to accept the hours when he started?

Fife council! I can’t not pay it because it’s the council who have cancelled the funding,
So it’s not the nursery’s fault (they have staff to pay etc). I’m contacting the council

Absolutely! You’ve been disadvantaged by arranging your hours differently.

I would still refuse to pay it. He’s going to school in August and I’d keep the fight going til the last minute. It’s not your job to pay the nursery workers. The council should be doing that without robbing folk.

definitely take it to the council and through their formal complaints system. If they maintain their position I believe you can then take to the Local Govt Ombudsman.

I’m Aberdeenshire and we’re exactly the same.

Thanks @thevassal I had no idea there was such a thing

The funding wasn't paused during the shut down, it still went to the nursery. You can't bank the hours to use later.

The term has finished now so funding has gone.

@Littleelffriend any idea if anyone has made any complaints around this?

Did you definateley reconfirm on the hmrc website as i think the deadline was june?
Otherwise that is complete madness and i would be writing to every council member i could get names for.
I do the 20 hours stretched. I would be absolutely fuming if this happens

the term hasnt finished its stretched so the child should be funded until the end of august

@Harryfrog12. I had no idea I had to reconfirm anything on the HMRC website! What was that?

The OP is in Scotland so applying/reconfirming the 30 hours funding might be different to England.

The funding hasn't been cancelled - it was paid in full to the nursery.
You need to clarify with the nursery what they have claimed for and what they have used.
If they put in the claim for this term at Easter they may have claimed 30 hours term time rather than stretched it, but they should have confirmed that with you.

Your funding hasn’t finished. You chose. As
Was your right, to reduce your weekly allowance to take you through the holidays.

@shemadeit

You seem to have completely misunderstood. the council have removed funding from non key worker's children in some councils.

We were told the council had removed the funding too. I don't have kids in nursery so I got that second hand from parents with younger children.

Are people saying that the entire funding per child was actually paid, but the nurseries have chosen to use it up during lockdown and just charge parents full price from now on?

Surely that's fraud. They've claimed the hours for your child but have used it for key worker's kids.

There was a long thread about this the other day. It didn't seem to be resolved as to the parents rights to the hours not yet used because of the averaging agreement

I can’t believe they are doing this. Definitely take it to your MP or MSP.

In England it is down to the nursery's discretion to allow you to stretch it. They will receive the funding as if you are taking it 38 weeks of the year so it will cause them some cashflow issues.

From the other thread, funding was still paid but due to this staff were unable to be furloughed so salary costs were paid from funding as per usual, it is there to fund the nursery costs.

@BobbieDraper

But would the children who took the 30 hours over the week have been charged? Their funding would have finished in June. If they haven’t been charged then you cannot bill the people who arranged their childcare differently.

We have worked right through lockdown, juggling work, childcare and studying with absolutely no help: and now the funding for his nursery has been cancelled meaning we’re £400 out of pocket

God forbid you pay for your own child, that you chose to have.

@shemadeit

Well yes, but the problem is that the counciland/or nursery are the ones saying her funding has been removed/redistributed. You coming on and saying "your funding hasn't been removed" doesnt help her because the people providing the funding are saying the opposite.

She needs actual constructive help to find a way through it.

Noodle has got it. Govt gave nurseries funding as usual but they could only claim furlough to extent of normal proportion of non funded income.

As a result, nurseries needed to use the govt funding as it was paid (which is termly) to cover their costs - stretching funded hours would have left them too out of pocket. As stretching is discretionary, they can do this, it means OP has bigger bill than expected because there's no funding this month as its holidays.

The nursery may be trying to shunt blame onto the council, but there's not really one party to blame, both govt & nursery should have been clearer about what happened with the funding.

The problem is that the council wasn't obliged to pay it as the children were not at nursery and it sounds like that is what has happened so the council has saved money.

The only option is to speak to the early years team at the council and see what is happening.

@OlaEliza

Almost everyone gets free nursery hours. Without it, women end up massively disadvantaged.

If you dont like it, then go fight sexism in parenting and the gender pay gap. Dont have a go at people for wanting what they are legally entitled to in our society; funded hours.