AIBU to question nursery saying 30 free hours cannot start until September?

[plentyofprettyplants]

My son turns 3 in May and will be starting at the nursery that's attached to our local school as soon as he is 3 (they don't take them any earlier than this).

He is entitled to the 30 free hours of childcare we get now in England, and benefitted from these at his previous nursery.

When my eldest started at nursery at the same school a couple of years ago, we were able to get the free hours of childcare for him from the day he started, which was mid-term, though the school did apply the term before for his funding when he was still 2. So we expected to be able to do the same for our youngest son.

The school have come back to say the early years funding advisor (presume at the local council) has advised that they cannot put the funding application in for my youngest son until he is 3, so he cannot get the funding until September 2026. This means we have to pay for him to attend the nursery there between May-July.

Has anyone been successful in getting their child's place at a nursery with an age restriction funded mid-term since the 30 hours funding came in? Or has your experience been you've had to wait until the term after they've turned whatever age the nursery takes them from?

I feel like surely it should be possible to get the funding given we managed to get it for my older son, and that someone is just misinterpreting the policy. It's much cheaper than his old nursery's day rate, but it's still something we haven't budgeted for as we assumed we'd be able to get the funded hours.

YABU: suck it up and pay the fees for a term
YANBU: fight for your right to free childcare!

Is it because the preschool only claim the funding for 3 year olds.The funding is paid at different rates for each age group.
I’m not sure how it works in your local council but possibly the pre-school only claim the 3-4 year old 15/30 hour offer which he won’t be entitled to until the term after he is 3, which is September

I believe you are correct here. Working parents are entitled to the 30hrs funding from 9m and the cut-off dates are all around when your child turns 9m old now. The school may decide it's their policy to accept children based on term dates but you're absolutely within your rights to ask. I've found a lot of people and schools don't understand this.

The LA have a cut off, called headcount, usually the second week of term, which determines what funding the school/setting receive. Only children attending that week can be funded for the term, with the exception if they are off sick or on holiday. If they claimed for you then it's fraud, you aren't attending. Payments are then made to settings, usually around half term, or some monthly, depending on the LA. It makes no difference your eligibility, you aren't attending on head count, they can't claim. Also, they would need to be registered for two year olds, to make the claim you are suggesting, which it sounds like they aren't. It's frustrating, but there has to be a cut off somewhere.

It will be rejected. I had the same experience with my son. We are in London with insane waiting lists for nurseries and I was desperate to get place at schools nursery because I had to go to work. I even had a meeting with schools head - they legally can't take child in this circumstances, you just wasting your time.

But also, you're asking them to accept 2 year old funding for that term not the standard 3 year-old funding that they accept.

Not much of a difference for me as a childminder but in larger settings this might be the line they draw, one child different to everyone else.

It's also possible your child starts after the terms headcount day in which case he can't claim for that term.

I would challenge this as the whole point of the funding is to get children into childcare and parents into work. If the rules the LA are applying around its administration mean this can’t happen, the scheme has failed. If you’re entitled to 30 hours then you’re entitled to 30 hours. Sounds like the school don’t know what they’re doing and the LA are not far behind. The ‘advisers’ at our LA are a joke - tell you one thing one day, something else the next. At the very least I would want a crystal clear reason in writing as to why they’re saying your child is not entitled to funding and potentially discriminating against them.

@Offherrockingchair a school based nursery isn't childcare though.
It's education.

It’s the term after they are three / been like that for a long time

Clearly not the point though - that’s what the hours are for!

Except it all changed over the last couple of years… So many misinformed people on this thread.

To be honest that is part of the problem and confusion over the funding.
There really needs to be a more clear definition of what is childcare and what is education.
When my daughter was age 3 all 3 year olds could get 15 hours of free education (3 hours a day mostly)
There were several children in her nursery class who were dropped off and collected by a childminder.
Their parents paid the childminder for the whole day and used the 15 hours for sending their children to the school nursery class.
Now with the 30 hours of funding they would be able to use that for the childminder but wouldn't be able to use the school nursery at the same time.

Seems fairly straight forward to me as to why they can't claim the funding - what am I missing? How can they claim funding from April when he isn't on roll then?

Including you.

No-one is saying her code isnt valid, she has been successfully using working parents funding until Christmas.

The problem comes when she wants to start a school based nursery half way through a term. There are cut off dates to claim each term and different setting policies that also need adhering to.

Depends on the nursery and other factors as op has found out

Excatly this but you have worded it better than me

Many councils have been reviewing the intakes (mine included) for funding and changed the bar as it saves them money so you might find they have switched to a 2 times year system (Sept and Jan).

And yet not all settings work in the same way and not all LAs apply the same rules, or in fact understand the rules. What she is suggesting is perfectly possible.

Except you’re saying it’s the term after they turn three. It’s 9 months now!

It's 9 months for childcare.
At age 3 it changes and parents can essentially choose between a "daycare" setting or an "education" setting.
If education it is based on term dates.
From gov.uk

The only thing that matters is if it's possble at the nursery she wants. They've told her it isn't. End of story surely?

I’d put money on them saying he can’t start til September. Schools only claim the 3 year funding for the term after they turn 3.

thanks @Needmorelego you found what I was going to look for

funding from 9mths is diff from funding from 3 and pre schools etc

amazing how many people are misinformed isn’t it 😀

Except that it’s all open to legal challenge because you’re excluding children from the very scheme that was meant to help them. Trust me, not all providers and LAs work in the way that this one seems to be.

But they can claim otherwise. Whether they choose not to is a different matter.