Funding question

[Loulou2kent]

So Im a CM & one of my new mindies gets funding for Nursery & then pays me for the other hours I do.

She gets 15 hrs so 9-12 every morning. So I get paid from when I collect her 12-4. All fine. Except, the nursery is only offering 9-11.30 & they've told me that's when I need to collect her.

I've spoken with mum & she says that she shouldn't have to pay from 11.30-12 because it's part of the funded hours, but nursery aren't covering it & im stuck covering it. Seems ridiculous because it's only 30 minutes, but that adds up to easily £600 a year that I'm doing myself out of.

So I guess what I'm asking is, if your a nursery then how can you offer 15 hrs but only provide 12.5? I completely understand that funding sucks in the most part for nurseries & childminders & totally understand top up lunch times etc. But shouldn't they at least provide the 15 hrs?

If your a childminder would you be asking the parent to make up this difference?

Thanks in advance everyone. It's just really frustrating because I'm rushing to collect early & have another pick up 45 mins later but would have been only 15 mins between the pick ups if the fifteen hours covered till 12.

Ps - this is not a moan at the nursery! I just need to know how to get about bridging the gap. As far as mums concerned all hours are covered. Thanks!

Nursey can't do that. If they claim the full 15 hours they have to actually physically provide 15 hours so child can be there for full 15 hours and no less. Maybe the nursery is only claiming 12.5 hours and not 15.
The whole thing is not your fault and there's nothing else you can do but charge the parent for the additional half an hour each day. It's up to the parent to question the nursery over this. Just explain to the parent that if she needs you to collect at 11.30am each day she'll have to pay from that time. Don't get involved in negotiations with nursery as it's not your place.

can't belive the mum seriously expects you to cover the 30 mins for free!! she needs to take it up with the nursery and if she can't resolve it she so should pay you for the extra 30 mins.

If you're paid from 12 then why are you turning up at 11.30am??? If nursery want a different pick up time then refer them to their customer, the mum.

Mum is confusing free funded hours with free childcare . I'm assuming the nursery are open in the afternoon as well so probably offer 9-11:30 funded session then a lunch session from 11:30-12:30 which people pay for if they want it and then a second block of 2.5 hours funding in the afternoon 12:30-3pm. This is how most nurseries I know operate so mum either needs to pay you or nursery for the in between bit or collect herself. This is a perfectly legitimate way of offering funded hours and how most of us make up the shortfall of the crap funded rate

Somehow you need to find out if nursery are claiming for the full 15 hours or if they are only claiming for 12.5. If fifteen, then by law they need to be providing 15 hours, if it's only 12.5 hours, are you able to claim the other 2.5 hours? If not then the parent needs to either pay you or negotiate with the nursery to provide the extra half an hour of care.
I'm not sure I would take too much notice of a nursery telling me I had to come early to collect if I wasn't being paid for it. If I'm contracted for 12, that's when I collect the child, not half an hour earlier on their say so.

Thank you for all your advice! The mum was under the impression the session was 3 hours & last year I did pick a child up from the nursery at 12 so at the time I never queried it. I assumed it was the same this year. But obviously not.

The only reason I collected at 11.30 was because they said when she started that for settling reasons they like the newbies picked up earlier. I thought it would only be a week (a bit like school with staggered starts kind of thing) but it's been 6 weeks.

I will speak to mum tomorrow & get her to confirm with them how many hours she's getting. As for the extra 30 mins i think I will have to tell her she needs to pay me.

I totally understand the whole morning/afternoon & lunch time session to help make up costs. It's very unrealistic what the government expect the money they pay us to cover! But that's a whole other thread! Haha

Thanks everyone. Need to stop being soft & just explain to her I need paying. I'm sure she wouldn't like to be done out of 2.5hrs a week. Every little helps!

The 15 hours a week relates to providers that operate termtime only ie 38 weeks per year or a total of 570 funded hours. Some nurseries decide instead to offer fewer hours over a longer period - so it might be 2½ hours per day over 45 weeks.

So is it possible that the nursery are spreading the 570 hours over extra weeks? Regardless if MB wants you to collect at 11.30 she needs to pay you for this time and take up issues with the nursery hours with them

As others have said I would confirm that its not stretched funding, if the child goes through the school holidays this is why she's getting those hours,
Nurseries are allowed to say that there funding hours are between certain times with lunch in between but do have to offer at least a 3 hour session.
Aside from that you are nothing to do with funding and are not claiming it, mum needs to pay you for the hours you work and what you state in your contract. You dictate the terms of business not her.
Personally I would be charging from the time I left to collect the child as that time is still being used to work on that child's needs your not free to do other things and it impacts into the morning. If I were taking the child and collecting I would be charging for the whole session as I could not fill the space and if the child needs the space in holidays it has to be kept open. If the parent want sot they could use the funding with you its their choice to go elsewhere. You wouldn't order food on line from Sainsbury's and then do a Tesco's shop of one item and say pick up my Sainsbury's shop and deliver it for free. You would have to pay Tesco's to deliver the one item and sort out Sainsbury's yourself. You are running a business not a charity.

Thanks everyone. It's only a term time nursery open 9am-3pm. I'm meant to start at 12. So I've sent her a message confirming my hours & said that if I'm needed to pick up at 11.30 then that's what I'm going to charge for. I did some looking into it today & they offer a morning 9-11.30 session then a lunch session 11.30-12.30 then afternoon session 12.30-3pm.

Other children I've had for nursery hours I always charged for pick up/drop off & half fees whilst they were there. This is the only one I didn't because ive bumped up my usual hourly rate for when I have the child 12-4 so it's kind of evened out if that makes sense?