15 hours early years funding

[junkfoodaddict]

DS goes to a childminder 5 days a week from 7:45am until 6pm at a cost of £35 a day (£3.50 an hour approximately but charged at daily, not hourly rate).
He turns 3 in December so is entitled to 15 hours of early years educational funding from January 2015 for 38 weeks in an academic year. How much reduction should I expect if I was to use 3 hours a day of early years funding? Should it be £3.50 x 3 a day at a reduction of £10.50 a day or will the childminder reduce the £35 cost by much less by using a 'special formula'?
She isn't the easiest, smartest people to handle money (we have had disagreements before regarding payments and once her telling me kiddivouchers being stopped almost a year ago - all of which I proved her to be wrong) so am not hopeful she would give me the right information or any information without badgering and badgering her.
Any advice much appreciated!!

Yes I know it is for 38 weeks a year (maybe I should have been upfront but I am a teacher so I know a little about early years and how many weeks it is funded for).
Luckeylopez - Thurmond mentioned I needed to check if CM took vouchers first which I assumed she meant kiddivouchers as the funding is not known to me as being in the form of vouchers. Two posts down from my original post.
Well, it is too complicated and my CM isn't very forthright with information so to keep things easy we are going to use the funding with the local school nursery and ask CM to take DS to nursery each afternoon which she is willing to do as she drops off/picks up others who go. That way we will just pay her for the half days he is there (5 hours) as MIL agreed to pick up from nursery until we get home from work.
Thank you all for your advice. I will ask her out of curiosity how much she gets per hour for funding though and see what she says!

Busydays what authority are you from? Your information is very positive in terms of how much the authority gives per hour.

I'm in Surrey

Busydays, you need to be careful doing that as you must not be seen to discriminate against children taking the free funding.

If you have two children and only one is claiming, you must charge the same hourly rate for both, otherwise it's unfairly penalising the funded child. That's easier to do in a childminder setting but you may come unstuck if you have funded and unfunded 3 and 4 year olds.

They have nailed it down tight to ensure that those 15 hours really are free for the parents, even if providers lose out.

Agreed Tanith. I had an audit last year and they were very thorough on checking free hours, admission policies, etc. They looked at my invoices in detail.

Asked my CM today and I get 3 hours a day free at a reduction of £3.50 per hour so a full day would cost £24.50 instead of £35.
We have decided to use the hours with nursery so I would be paying £3.50 x 5 hours at a cost of £17.50 a day as opposed to £24.50 if I used the hours with the CM. Saving of £35 per week and as I am a teacher and pay only half of a full day during holidays, this won't be affected by school holidays and can keep DS in his morning routine during holidays if I so wish or keep him at home.

Tanith where is this info from? I'm not trying to be argumentative, only curious. I have just read through the funding criteria document provided by my LA and it doesn't say anything about what rates can and can't be charged for additional hours. My childminding coordinator very specifically told me to charge more for the additional hours so that I don't lose out. Also, none of my children are ever on the same hourly rate as my rates very depending on the number of hours. Full timers pay less, often newer children are on a higher rate than those who have been with me for a long time, shift workers pay more and sometimes I've given a sibling discount. So there is no 'set' hourly rate that everybody pays. I'm beginning to think the whole funding thing is more hassle than it's worth to be honest ...

Junkfoodaddict - glad you got it sorted

Surrey Early Years

Our network co-ordinators, to be precise - we've had several over the years. I've been offering the funding for a while now and that's always been how they told us it should be.
You may be OK if they're all on different rates: you just need to be very careful not to be seen to discriminate against funded children or to disadvantage them.

Junkfood, is your CM happy to drop down to mornings only and is there a place free every afternoon at your chosen nursery? You're lucky!

We live in a village with a 39 place nursery. Even the reception intake is 50 places but only 25-35 ever take a place. CM happy to drop to mornings but why wouldn't she? I am confused. She has a waiting list for others and she suggested afternoons as she needs more adults in an afternoon as she has a lot of children who are/is going to morning nursery. Although she is just a CM she has assistants who work with her business so she can take more children. Just as well as there is a shortage of CMs. She isn't allowed to have more than 3 other members of staff working with her at any one time otherwise she would have to convert to a nursery and she has a maximum of approx 18 children at any one time. (I think). Definite about the adults who work with her though.

Tanith that's interesting. The network coordinators are obviously not all singing from the same hymn sheet. I'll have to raise this issue with mine and see what she says. To be honest I always turn down new enquiries from parents of 3 year olds because of the whole funding business. It's easier to have babies and set whatever rates I want. My previous funded children have just started school so I don't currently have any but this issue is bound to crop up again when the next one turns 3.

We disbanded our network when the government announced that local authorities cannot place restrictions and carry out separate quality checks on CMs providing funded places. We have just carried on with our own informal networks. One of us will attend local authority funding meetings, but that's it.

Lucky because not all CMs could drop their hours as they might not have takers for the other half of the day, and in some areas pre schools are oversubscribed'

busyDays I have always had the same information as Tanith about pricing policies & not discriminating against funded children. (I'm in West Sussex). We are required to have a 'clear pricing policy' that is available to parents. In your case where children are on different rates according to how many hours they do you would have to look at a scenario where 2 children attended who under normal circumstances would be charged the same fee as they do the same number/pattern of hours but if one had some of their hours funded, for their paid for hours you must then still charge the same for both children. Does that make sense?

Yoni screwdriver - that's business! I can understand if childminders don't have the space but really they cannot object to a client dropping hours. With many mums I know it is a case of drop hours or they go elsewhere! Luckily for us our childminder has a waiting list and a very successful business so she can adjust if needs be. I have five other friends who use various childminders and none have had issues about dropping hours, especially on maternity leave, and then increasing them again when going back to work. If a childminder cannot afford to drop hours, I can't see how they could object if it means losing the business altogether. Cutting your nose off to spite your face really. Harsh but a business is a business; that is what happens.

I think the point is it's much easier to fill full days than part days around existing children's odd hours. If a cm has a waiting list then giving notice isn't a problem and certainly isn't cutting their nose off to spite their face.

Yy luckylopez - if your CM has a waiting list for full days, why wouldn't she give you notice? That's business!

Obviously if she has no waiting list etc then she's more likely to need your business and keep you on whatever.

I would charge a whole day or replace with someone on my waiting list. I can't afford to lose money and I still run a successful business, with a long waiting list. so not a problem.

Your CM sounds fab to be this flexible. You are lucky.

Oh ... It is in my policies that I only do full days, so people don't ask to reduce hours.

HSMMaCM - fair enough if that is your policy. My CM has no such policy and is quite flexible with what parents need and want. Hence why she has a waiting list because she doesn't impose restriction.