Funded Hours - Unfair?

[Teddybonkers123]

I'm really struggling to make sense of my DC's nursery's policy re. funded hours. I asked how they allocate them and received this response...

'The allocated hours are 1140 per school year, and because the nursery is open 49 weeks of the year these hours are spread equally over the entire year. This means 1140 hours divided by 49 weeks. This equates to 23.26 hours /week. Anyone who is due to start in the January term 2023 will be allocated 21.17hours /week, and for those starting in the April term will be allocated 19.58 hours/week.'

I can't understand why children born later in the year are entitled to fewer hours per week. AIBU to think this is unfair? Please could someone explain in simple terms why this might be the case?

It’s because they won’t be entitled to 1140 hours for the year as they are only entitled to funding the term after they turn 3. So they are entitled to less hours for the year.

Eh? Surely the per week figure should be a constant, no?

This is what I thought. I can't get my head around it 🤔.

I assume in all cases it's because they're covering the holidays ( including the long summer one) which aren't funded, and for someone starting mid year these make up a greater portion of the time,

I’d assume it’s because they won’t be allocated enough money in the remainder of the year that they qualify for funding to pay for same number of hours per week as the children who have full funding for the year.

Funding from the government only covers term time.

Yes, divided by a smaller number of weeks, right?

1140/49 is one year and say 380/16 is one term. Both should be 23 hours ish.

It’s standard, the year is the academic year not calendar.

You get Jan-Aug 2023 at the lower amount then Sept 2023- Aug 24 you get the full amount as it’s a whole year.

It'll be pro-rata to take into account the point in the year when they qualify for the funding and also to adjust for disparities in term dates. For example, Spring term is 10th January to 31st March which is 11wks whereas Summer term is 17th April to 21st July which is 13wks (and Autumn term which was 6th September to 23rd December this year will be 15wks). The funding only covers term time.

Over the whole year it is 38 funded week/11 unfunded weeks.
Spring and Summer terms only is 24 funded weeks/8 unfunded weeks (approx)
Summer only is 13 funded weeks/6 unfunded weeks (approx)

So if you start in April, you are splitting 13 weeks of funding over 19 weeks (for example) so it averages to around 20 hours a week.

I never had this with dd.

We had to apply for additional funding because she started after her 3rd birthday which falls between Jan- July 28th, We also had to apply for her 3 year old funding to cover from August to July next year.

We don't pay anything and she's in all through holidays.

I don't know without seeing the dates/figures but I know that our local authority limits the amount of hours you are able to claim in the summer term before starting school. It is very unfair but not the settings fault. Might be something like that?

Funding is for 38 weeks a year. Each term will have a different number of funding weeks. The nursery will be stretching the funding given for each term over the numbers of weeks needed so if the child starts funding later in the academic year they will get less hours. However this will probably change the following academic year if they are attending a full year.

Should each child not receive the same reduced funding rate during the January and April terms though? Or do they effectively roll the funding over to the next term? It just seems very unfair that DC's peers who were born a few weeks earlier not only receive an extra term of funding, but also receive each week at a higher rate than we will.

This is what happens at ours, we’re eligible from January.

It’s to do with the term time weeks to holiday weeks ratio. The more term weeks they have to more funding they have as the proportion of term weeks to holiday weeks is better.

38:11 for older children versus 11:5 for younger children

Every child gets 1140 hours in an academic year, but I child born in August gets 3 terms and a child born in September gets 5 terms.

You can argue it's unfair but that's just the way it is due to funding starting the term after their 3rd birthday, and school starting the September after their 4th birthday.

It will depend on when they started. I am a childminder and I do stretch funding for some of my parents. If I have a child that starts funding in January but will be attending school September of the following year they will automatically get more hours than a child starting funding in April who is also going off to school at the same time as they will have had an extra term of funding. I have three children in my setting currently who will all qualify for funding next year but all will go to school at the same time. One of them will qualify for 18 months of funding while the other two will only qualify for 12 months. This due to when they qualify for funding. Thus one will be entitled to more funded hours than the other two. It does seem very unfair. One of the children in my setting missed out on term of funding due to their birthday being two days after the cut off date for that term.

We live in Scotland and you get the funding the Monday after your 3rd bday not the term so it's much fairer imo x

But surely nursery should be pro rating the year’s allowance of hours for each child according to weeks of entitlement? Let’s say the year is divided into three terms of approx equal length

Child A gets free hours from September = 23.6 hours per week x 49 weeks (17+16+16 weeks)

Child B gets free hours from January = 23.6 hours per week x 32 weeks (16+16 weeks)

Child C gets free hours from April = 23.6 hours per week x 16 weeks

The only way I can figure out what nursery say working, is if they are edging the entitlement into a longer period somehow, because of idiosyncrasies of terms dates or something. Then the hours would go slightly less far per week, but you would be getting an additional week (or few days) to compensate.

Or if nursery are pro rating the 49 weeks of hours over 52 weeks (as presumably they still have overheads/staff costs etc in the weeks they are closed)? I can’t work out how to calculate that - would it be more like the figures OP quotes?

I don’t understand why parents should need a maths degree to figure this out 🤔

I think they also have to let you take the free hours term time only if that would suit you better

So they allocate the hours January to December, not September to August? Even though they allocate them in termly chunks (ie term after you turn 3 etc?) that’s absurd. Once you start school surely the funding model changes so no child is taking their pre school entitlement into a reception class in September?!

Basically the nursery gets money to cover hours in term time only.

If the child is there all year, the money they get covers 49 weeks at 23.26 hours.

If the child starts in January, then there is proportionally more weeks that don't qualify for funding, so it doesn't go quite so far.

If the child starts in April, then the number of weeks that aren't funded is proportionally higher again, so it goes even less far.

If you want to get the maximum number of free hours per week, you need to find a nursery that only covers term time. But then you'll have to find childcare during the holidays.

The nursery are not to blame for the fact that they don't receive as much funding per week for children that start later in the school year, and they can't afford to pay staff to look at children for free.

Your terms will be split as follows:-

• Autumn term = 11wks funded, 1wk unfunded
• Spring term = 11.6wks funded, 3.4wks unfunded
• Summer term = 12.4wks funded, 6.6wks unfunded

(I assume that the nursery is closed for two weeks at Christmas, and a week at Easter?)

The proportion of unfunded weeks over the Spring and Summer terms is greater than the Autumn term. Hence the weekly funded hours are lower when averaged