To be annoyed nursery are refusing to continue to give my son his 30 hours from September because he starts school nursery later that month

[Charliebrow]

My son has been at the private nursery since January 2023, just after his first birthday. I have had all 3 of my children use this nursery, my first since early 2018, sometimes I’ve had 2 children there at once. I’ve only managed to take advantage of the 15 hours for a little with my last child for a few months as it was introduced when he was already 2yr 9mo old. We did use 30 hours from age 3 with all of them. I dread to think how much money I’ve spent there.
My youngest goes to nursery 4 days a week, Tuesday - Friday and starts school nursery in September for 1 year before starting reception next September.
My son starts school nursery on Wednesday 10th September. I’ve taken Tuesday 9th September off as a holiday because I didn’t know how that would work with 30 hours so I’ve asked for my last day at private nursery as Friday 5th September. The Nursery have said they’ll charge me full private day rate from September 1st as they are refusing to “split it” although there is a clear end date of 5th sep, and the school nursery starts sep 10th. Are they being unreasonable or is it more complicated than I realise?
thanks

Why move him? Why not keep him where he is?

@Charliebrow yes it's much more complicated and how entitled are you? For those of us who had to pay for ALL childcare before these very generous allowances for working parents were brought in , I'd say be grateful for what you've had and just suck up a few days of nursery fees.🙄

Before all the unnecessary eye rolls maybe consider the fact that nursery fees have increased at an astronomical rate over the last few years and if you paid prior to funding then you paid a significantly lower amount relative to wages.

You are lucky they have not withdrawn the place for only 5 days, many settings would.

Absolutely this. They might even be doing you a favour because you've been there so long, who knows. Nurseries here are oversubscribed here. By allowing someone to come only for 5 days, it means another family has to find something else for the same 5 days.

Whether this is true or not I don’t know as my nursery has been fleecing parents out of all kinds of ‘extra expenses’ since funding came in that didn’t exist before so I’m a little distrusting of them. But I was told that only one childcare setting can claim for the child per term. September term will run from September - December, so they may actually be doing you a favour. If you get discounted for 5 days, you might end up needing to pay in full for the school nursery.

they're not "fleecing" anyone.

The government funding is too low and doesn't cover real costs. The proof is the number of nurseries which had to shut down, simply.

If the nursery is not receiving enough funding, it's fair they charge parents for the "extras" that are not covered.

It is way more complicated than you realise, and most councils once they have paid out for a term of hours, will not allow you to change setting. So if your nursery claims the funded hours in September, the school nursery won’t be able to until January. I’m sure you’d probably rather pay 5 days of the private nursery, than a whole term of the school nursery..

My nursery is a national chain. I can guarantee they aren’t loosing money from this. They have increased their fees so much that even with the funding you are basically paying exactly the same before that you were before it came in. Then on top of that they are now adding extra charges for things that were previously included so many parents are actually worse off. So in my particular case, yes they are definitely fleecing parents!

it’s not the case for much smaller nurseries I know!

The autumn funding term starts from 1st September…. You ‘can’ split funding but I’m assuming the nursery can’t be doing with the hassle of making a claim for 1 week 🤦🏻‍♀️

The funding is for 38 weeks per year, a school year is 38 weeks, the school nursery will be using all of the funding available for that child. It’s not about hassle, they know there’s nothing available to claim.

this is just no possible ! Your new nursery is getting the money for the next term.

I do these claims for a nursery and we can’t put the claim in until November ! I have think I could claim 1 week for this patent but you run the risk of the other nursery having claimed for the full 13 weeks or whatever and then us not getting the money and having to Sort it all out ! A real hassle these claims and nurseries are under no obligation to actually provide a free place anyway

I’d be just grateful to have got so many hours of free nursery for your 3 children! It’s not that long ago that we didn’t get anything or 15 hours maximum. Many families had to decide not to have more than one or two children because they couldn’t have afforded the childcare! It’s only a few days! Sorry but you sound very entitled!

I haven’t read the comments but this is an administrative nightmare for the nursery! When they claim the hours from council they will be applying in July for Sept and recieve the whole terms!!! You’d have a period of time where the new nursery would seem no funding available and it would go into a change window. Honestly as annoying as it is I’d just pay full fees and know from the start of the new nursery funding is sorted

I’m happy to be corrected but I believe it is not possible for a 30 hour entitlement to be split between two settings in any given month/term. One nursery claims the full amount and the other has to suck it up or charge the parent. The school nursery will be the ones claiming the funding so the private one has to charge… they will not be entitled to any funding for your child for any of September.

No the funding mechanism is just too clunky. I don't think they can physically do this for you.

Anyway, the school nursery will be your main provider from 1st Sept and it's entirely reasonable that they claim the full amount.