15 hours funding nursery

[Beigequeen]

Can the nursery insist we use the full 15 hours ? Even if it’s not best for the child ?

We only want to do 4 mornings not 5 as ds has SEN and they are saying we have to do the full 15 hours ?
Is there any way round this ?

I used to just call my dd in sick every Friday saying she was tired.

I think mostly for the first few weeks we want to introduce something new gradually and build up rather than the shock of straight in to 5 mornings a week

We thought 3 days a week for first couple of weeks building up to 4 then see how things go and potentially stay at 4 as very often we have private therapy appointments/ sensory groups etc on one weekday and don’t want to stop that etc

I'd accept the 5 days a week place.
Arrange a staggered start.
Then whenever you have a therapy appointment or sensory group just call in the morning and say 'x won't be in this morning due to an appointment'.

Yes we accepted the place on the basis of 5 days but when we have our meeting I’ll ask for a staggered start. If we do it gradually I think it’ll be better going straight in will be a shock I think

I think this is common. They save the free places for people who will use them.

At my Dc's nursery you could either havea fully funded place where you then had to sign up to the full hours in term time or use your hours towards the regular places, but then you paid a "top up" as each session was 5 hrs rather than 3 and they charged you for the exta two. You could then book the days you wanted to.

They won't get the full funding though. If you miss a day every week for 3 weeks it has to be reported back to the funding department

Surely there’s a system to accommodate if a child will benefit but can’t manage the full 5 days ?

It's the nursery's policy of using the full hours though. Not the funding. They are saying you must use all, so they can claim it all. If you aren't using it, they can't claim it.

But their argument would be you can’t know how he will cope unless it is tried. Discuss a gradual start taking it at him pace to build it up if you think that will be better but it may be that after the initial few sessions getting into the new routine may be best

But surely they can’t ask us to leave if he’s off each week for whatever reason if they won’t officially agree ? He will benefit from some sessions but it will be too much and if we go in and do 5 and then it affects him he will have a bad association with nursery I’d rather start off gradually and build up if we can

The issue is that school nurseries only have a limited number of places and many people want them, it's not fair for a family to have a place then not use it when someone else would benefit from 5 days a week. Gradually starting over 2 weeks is fair enough as is missing the occasional day for an appointment but we were expected to arrange appointments in the afternoon for instance. My dd is autistic and adapted pretty quickly to her specialist nursery

Also you are assuming he won't cope whereas you don't know that, he could surprise you!

But if they will miss funding what else can they do?

when Ds was at nursery age the LA asked nursery to provide evidence of why the attendance was low - his medical needs where enough to explain the missed time so the funding was left thankfully

If he goes 3 days and is fine I will add another day and see but knowing his difficulties and how he is I feel like it will be too much. My only other option is to defer a whole year

It’s just I know ds best and I think he would benefit from some but not all of the hours