30 hours free but still pay wrap around fee

[wingingit987]

Hi everyone,

Looking at picking someone's brain. My lo
Is 3 minutes n sept but won't get 30
Hours free till Jan. He's already at a nursery 2 days a week so wanted to discuss with nursery how it would work once he has 3 hours or do I want look at preschool.

They said there was a wrap around fee anyone know what this means?

I'd assume it means you can only use the "free" (remember there will still be a top up to pay for these hours for things like meals) hours during certain slots - for example, the nursery could state that the 30hrs are Monday-Friday 9am-3pm and any hours required outside of these times will be charged at the full rate.

But I would just ask them for a copy of their policy so you can work out how much the hours you want will cost.

They may only offer "free" hours in 3 hour sessions, ie 9-12 1-4 , so if you use all day there may be extra charge to fill the gaps. Preschools are usually similar but may not even offer all day.

Nurseries lose a fortune with the Government funded hours.

I am not sure how the 30 hours can be split but don't forget that they are funded term time only. So if you require all year round care you will need to cover any holidays yourself.

The same would apply to a preschool who normally closed over the holidays anyway.

Hi what's your local authority?

Is different for each nursery.

Have you looked at the nursery policy on funded hours and fees? It will all clearly be there. We can't help you as we don't know what their policy is. Every childcare seeing is different.

Ask for a copy of their charges. My daughters nursery fees on her funded days (she has 22 hours a week as it’s year round provision, rather than 30 hours term time) ends up costing £12.50 a day on top of her funding. All extras go on top like tapestry, meals, snacks, sundries etc.

In our LA you can use the hours all year round by stretching them. The contract signed by the setting says they must be free at the point of use, I have ever seen this enforced however.

@reluctantbrit

I am not sure how the 30 hours can be split but don't forget that they are funded term time only. So if you require all year round care you will need to cover any holidays yourself.

The same would apply to a preschool who normally closed over the holidays anyway.

New to all this, thanks for flagging up that it's term time only. I'd have had no idea and a nasty surprise!

@MuddleMoo it isn’t necessarily just term time. Lots of LA’s do 52 week provision now. You just have to check.

The funding isn’t enough. Ours is about to start, but we’ll have to top up for transport and meals.

Ours charge £10 per hour once we've used the 22 hours (eg. on the third day) plus £2 per day for meals, then if we use a whole extra day it's charged at their full day rate. DC on average is in nursery 3-4 days 8am til 5.30pm.

@MuddleMoo you can stretch it to any number if weeks in our LA.

I receive 30 funded hours and pay to top up through school holidays and also food bill... works out about £200 per month

We get 15 hours a week for my 4 year old
Anything over the 15 hours you pay for at what ever rate they have.

Sorry to jump on but I’m TTC and planning ahead my friend was telling me about an issue with her nursery. With the 30 free hours being term time only, do they have to attend during holidays? I’m a teacher and a friend at work said she was annoyed she had to pay for holidays when she wants her child at home, but nursery don’t offer term time only - is this common?

@thisgirlcando it depends entirely on the nursery, you would need to explore the ones in your area. Ime school based nurseries and those who take over 2s often offer term time, but full daycare nurseries who take babies from 3/4 months may be less likely to.

Hi OP, 30 hours per week is for the delivery of early years education only and it is only available during school term time. Each nursery might do it a bit differently, so charging policies differ, but expect to pay for food and the lunch hour on top. It means that childcare is never 'free' but if you are used to paying for it it should help. My son is in childcare 5 days per week and we pay over £1000 per month...so we are really looking forward to the 30 hours 'free' help because it will significantly reduce our bill.....but just be cautious about the summer holidays...the 30 hours does not apply, so the bill goes up again. FYI...the nursery gets paid peanuts for these 30 hours from the Government...nowhere near the hourly rate that they need to stay profitable, hence why ANY extra provision such as meals needs to be paid for separately. Hope this helps

It's very different at each early years setting.

A nursery near me will only offer 2 full days, meals to be paid on top for the 30 hours.
A local preschool attached to a school only offers it in 3 hour sessions so the lunch hour and lunch has to be paid on top.

My DC's pre school (attached to school) allows you to use the 30 hours in any way you like and allows you to use it for breakfast and after school club.

I work at a school and we offer Mon-Fri, 8.50am - 3.30pm, all meals included for the 30 hours. We make a loss on this but we're a large primary and don't struggle for it.

Referring to them as "free" hours is unhelpful.

Really they are funded hours. The rate the government pays is not enough to cover costs in all but the very cheapest areas, so providers have to find other ways to get parents to top up the rest. It effectively inflates the price of childcare for under 3s who arent funded as the nurseries need to recoup money through higher fees.

It's not really intended to provide childcare.

It's to provide preschool education, so it's based on school hours, and isnt enough to cover full time work.

Our 30 free hours are split across the whole year at our nursery so 21hrs I think it works out as which is 2 full days. We have to pay £5.50 a day as a top up towards towards food etc.

We did look into the local preschool but they had no wrap around care so would have to use a child minder so stuck with the nursery

I sent mine to a nursery chain c. Just under £100 per day. I assumed it would be a pro-rata rate with 30 hours free. It wasn't! Half day split was 8-1 and 1-6. Say, £50 for a half day session...except free hours were until "3" but had to pay for full half day, so if using funded hours were charged about £37 iirc for those 3 hours, rather than 30 (not including lunch). Make sure you know exactly what you will be paying per month because it was like getting blood from a stone to get an answer in advance from this buzzing chain! It would be more helpful if government announced it as contribution towards funding - then people wouldn't be disappointed when they discovered the truth and childcare providers wouldn't have to invent ways to stay afloat.

I personally don’t think the government should offer it at all. I’ve got a daughter who is 2 and a little boy who is 1 and I won’t be claiming free hours for her just because I can and I am entitled to it. My childminder has my children 4 days from 8-6 and I wouldn’t want her to have both my children a large chunk of her finances be taken away because of some funding which wouldn’t even cover her costs.

I honestly don’t judge other people for claiming it but if we didn’t have 3-4 years old running around in nurseries etc. with their free funding maybe it would mean that nurseries and childminders wouldn’t be struggling and the fees wouldn’t be nearly so high.

My fees when my daughter was the only one at nursery were around £950 a month, think if 3-4 were being charged for then maybe the rate for the children younger than 3 wouldn’t be so high and we wouldn’t end up paying 950 a month.

DS goes to a preschool attached to a school. 9-3, I only get 15 hours funded and he attends for 18 so I pay for 3 hours extra a week and school lunches. Lunch is £2.60 and you can send a pack lunch instead
The school has a breakfast and after school club which you can book on an as and when basis. Unfortunately not holiday club, but the preschool in the next village has one and it’s £34 for 8.30-4.30. It’s worth looking around as the private nursery is £45 per day.
I find my local mumbler site useful forthis sort of info