To ask how you do nursery holiday childcare

[Peppapigforlife]

Sorry if this has come up many times before, I'm just trying to figure it out for myself.

So if you get 30 hours free childcare, it's only for the term time weeks and you have to be working 16 hours a week for it.
My DD will be entitled to it from September and I'll be looking for part time work before then.
But I've just realised I won't be able to earn in the holidays. If I can't earn in the holidays does that mean I won't be entitled to the 30 hours a week, as on the gov website it states that you have to earn 16 times minimum wage per week. The childcare around here all closes in the holidays.

Just wondering what people do and trying to figure out what best to do?

If you are working then you will need childcare for all the weeks of the year so you will need a full time not term time nursery.

Which means you get 22 hours a week free, not 30.

Then pay for extra. And if you're on UC then you can get up to 85% of childcare paid.

And yes you won't be entitled to 30 hours if you're not working. However , everyone term after child is three is entitled to 15 hours term time whether working or not.

As long as it isn't a school nursery, they can divide those hours over 52 weeks instead, works out at just over 20 a week if I recall correctly. you make up the difference in fees

Just reread, so you have no private nurseries or childminders near you?

The childcare around here is closed in the holidays, including her childminders so I am thinking to do the '£10 a day thread' type work (but more like £30 a day), during term time.

I've never known nurseries operate only in term time - pre-schools, yes, but not nurseries. How bizarre. Are you sure there are none in your area that operate as normal? The vast majority of people need year-round childcare. Most nurseries let you spread the subsidy across the year (and let's face it, that's what it is: a subsidy. They don't pay the nurseries enough per hour to actually operate).

Many people who are working use all year round nurseries in which case you can request that they spread the 30 hours across 52 weeks instead of 38, that way your bill will be similar each month too. But you'll only be entitled to 30 hours if you're working the minimum amount before then.

In answer to your question my DS2 has been in a term time only preschool since he was 2.5 (he's now 4) and I juggle it mainly with taking annual leave in the holidays and also grandparents helping. Now he's 4 he can go to holiday clubs too

Are you a lone parent? If not, you use your 5 weeks holiday to cover some, childs father uses his holiday to cover 5 weeks, and you bribe a family member or friend to cover the rest. But it leaves you snookered covering illness, sports day, anything you need to do without a child in tow.....

I'm struggling to believe there are no nurseries or childminders offering year round childcare in your area. What about the vast majority of families who have young children and don't work in term time only jobs?

assuming the nursery is open all year round
most can spread the discount over 52 weeks rather than 30.

Sorry 38 weeks that should read not 30

Sorry just re read and you say they are all
closed in the hols.
wow If so sorry OP are you absolutely sure, that would be very unusual.

So there is only one childminder in your area? Who does your childminder socialise with in the day? What are her plans for continuity of care if she has an unexpected but planned day off such as a hospital appointment?

My childminder pre-covid use to go to childminder specific playgroups but now spends time in the week with other childminders.

How exhaustively have you checked for nurseries that are open year round? It seems odd to me that none are open, it's pretty standard for private nurseries to cover school holidays.

We calculated the yearly cost including when the 30hrs didn't cover and made that our monthly amount that we had to budget for. That way we had the money saved in a separate pot to cover the holidays and didn't have an insanely expensive April/july/august/December when the big school holidays hit.

We found that holiday childcare schemes round here only start looking after kids aged 5 and up as they are designed for school age kids, any children younger than that had to go to private nurseries or family.

They are a childminding pair, so they work together in one of their homes and have a max no. of children between them.

My daughter has 3o hours funded term time and I work 16 hours but 8 of those are at the weekend. The other 8, my husband and I work it between us and our parents for child care. It works for us but there must be some kind of holiday club or nursery holiday hours available which you would pay for? I mean it's super expensive like £35 a day where I am but the option is there

You may well need to have a nursery further away, next town over etc

There is only one nursery in the area as I'm in a village (albeit a large village) and I don't drive. The next village's nursery is term time too. I exhaustively looked at all childcare when we moved here at Christmas and it's very limited in this area. I've met a few people who couldn't even get their child into one of the nurseries in the city near our village. It was a struggle to find 10 hours a week where my daughter is at the moment and I've had to book her September hours in advance to make sure they have space. I've booked 18 hours per week for September, so I don't get hit with a big bill if I can't find work. The nursery she was at, in our last area we moved from, was open in the holidays, so I'm aware of how it usually is. İt just isn't so in this area.

I'll speak to the job centre. They will probably understand the situation with childcare in our area and I'll ask them if I can work under sixteen hours in term time and claim 85 percent rather than sixteen all year for the 30 hours.

There is a holiday club for summer I've seen at the local private school. İt's £45 per day however I don't know if this comes under Universal credit 85%. Does anyone know if you can claim for holiday club with universal credit childcare?

What job are you going to do? Are there actually term time only roles?

Aren't you more likely to get work in the nearest city, and then both get the bus there drop child at nursery and then go to work

You live in a village with one term-time only childminder and you don’t drive? Where were you planning on finding this job?!

I would be focusing all my energy on learning to drive asap.

See above about work.

It's just the beginning!
Once your child is at school you then have to work around school hours too.
Cultivate some parent friends you can do reciprocal child care with. You have years of juggling ahead!

Where do you propose I find the money for driving lessons and a car etc with my £500 a month UC, during a cost of living crisis?

I think that you should either learn to drive or look into moving. It is not going to be sustainable living in a place where there is no full time childcare and you are reliant on public transport if you are in a village.

I can only assume that you had no choice about living where you do e.g it is council housing and you had to take it to not loose your place on the list.
If that is not the case then why did you move somewhere taht would make your life so very difficult for the next 10 years at least?