To ask will 30 hours funding cover school nursery fees completely?

[Nurseryquestions86]

DD just turned 3 is currently in a private nursery and we receive the 15 hours funding. She is entitled to 30 hours from September.

We have secured a full time term time place for her in the local school nursery. Will the 30 hours fully cover this? Or will there be fees to pay?

Nursery have said they will answer any questions in the coming weeks but I'm just curious of others experience?

Our school has wraparound even from nursery, so you can pick the days and one of 3 finish times, then holiday club days. Obviously that costs extra, but it's the same cost as for primary kids rather than a boosted nursery fee, so a little over £5/hr. It's still an awful lot cheaper than private nurseries in this area, particularly bearing in mind that has no funding contribution.

Ours does mon-Thurs 8.50-330 and Friday 8.50-12. School dinner is £2.75 or can take pack up

Can I ask have you got a government document source for that?

It's not a challenge but obviously I'm going to be paying the charge if the school say I need to unless I've got something that says otherwise.

Looking at the guidance it says :

Providers can also charge parents for any additional, private paid hours according to their usual terms and conditions provided taking up private paid hours is not a condition of accessing a free place.

So as long as your child can access the morning and afternoon sessions and you can opt out of paying by taking your child for lunch, it looks like it fits within the guidelines.

Actually think I've found it...

Local authorities should ensure that children are able to take up their free hours in continuous blocks if they wish to, and there should be no artificial breaks in the entitlement hours. For example a provider should not offer 10am to midday and 1pm to 3pm as entitlement hours and offer only private paid hours in between.

"Local authorities should ensure that children are able to take up their free hours in continuous blocks if they wish to, and there should be no artificial breaks in the entitlement hours. For example a provider should not offer 10am to midday and 1pm to 3pm as entitlement hours and offer only private paid hours in between."

@Nurseryquestions86 I am a reception teacher. 30 hours is split in to 6 hours a day. Nursery sessions are typically 8.30 - 3.30. This is seven hours including the lunch hour. If you want your child to stay for the lunch hour, supervision is an extra charge as teachers and TAs also have lunch then so another member of staff will need to be employed for this period. Before and after school clubs will also be chargeable should you require this.

Yes, that's it. And if they're not doing that, report them to your Local Authority. In a recent EY hub meeting one of our local nurseries said that they offer free hours from 8 45 to 11.45 then 12.15 to 3.15, charging parents for the 30 minutes in between unless parents removed their child for the half hour, then returned them and the county funding team were furious.

Local authorities now have to ensure that children are able to access their free hours as a continuous block.

I have just read this thread and seen this. A few other posters have asked for a link to this statutory framework but no one has provided it - just quotes no actual document. Do you have a link to the document? Thank you ☺️

I thought school nursery was free?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2/early-education-and-childcare-effective-from-1-april-2025

Ours was free for 9-3 Monday - Friday term time only but we did have to pay for lunch. As we needed more hours we paid for wrap around care and some days during the school holidays. Overall we were probably paying around £350 per month, though this was a few years ago so would be more now.

Thank you! ☺️

School nursery classes (eg the year before reception) don't charge extra.

Not all schools will offer a nursery class. My DC school doesn't, but my nieces school does. My sister is a school governor there and said they have a recurring issue that the children who arrive into reception from private nurseries are much more poorly prepared for school than the children who come through their own nursery class, a teacher friend has said the same about the kids at her school. School nursery classes are great if you have one locally.

It’s England. Why is it not allowed?

Nurseries are no longer allowed to have a break between sessions and charge you for it - they need to offer the 30 hours as a continuous block eg 9-3 not 9-12 and 12.30-3.30 and make you pay for 30 minutes.

Even if they are connected to a school?

We pay like £30 a year donation for crafts etc and daily dinners (£2.50) but I do a packed lunch on Fridays. 8.55-3.30 in the NW.

30 hours is term time only, if you want all year round it's 22 hours. We have to pay £1 extra for every hour plus extra for meals but I can't remember how much