30 hours childcare and absences

[Vikivox]

Both my husband and I work so we are eligible for the 30 hours free childcare. My DS's nursery stretched the cover over 51 weeks of the year, so children get 3 days a week 'free', across the whole year.
This week we have all received an email which stated that regarding absences, when you take your child on holidays, 'you are only entitled to funding for a maximum of 3 weeks per academic year, no more than 2 weeks per term. If your holiday extends this, you will be required to pay for the sessions missed at our normal nursery rate'.
And this is because the government only gives the nursery the funding if the child is physically attending that session.
I am a teacher, so I have the summer holidays off. This obviously means that my child will have to carry on going for a few weeks, otherwise we will have to pay for the sessions missed.
AIBU to feel a bit mislead and caught out?

Alternatively you would book termtime only. You don't have to use the full 30 iirc. Maybe your nursery is not so flexible though.

YAB a bit U - the funding is to cover 30 hours for 38 weeks a year - are you sure you are actually receiving this for the 51 weeks, or are they giving you say 21ish hours a week over the year (sort of pro-rataing it)? If you are getting it for every week then you are already doing better than most whom are entitled to it.
Not sure re paying for missed sessions. Is there an option to go term time only?

Many thanks for the replies! I can see why the nursery did it, to provide the pro rata 30 hours over 51 weeks. It probably fits in well with working parents.
Every bit of contribution to childcare matters, as otherwise it's so expensive!
It's the controversy of the scheme. It's not adjusted to school holidays at all and there's a penalty if you exceed that '3 weeks' per academic year, which actually stretches from September to end of next August!

Well it’s what the LA insist. They don’t want to be paying for care children aren’t taking up. So they do attendance audits and if a child has a lot of absences then they simple won’t pay and the nursery will be out of pocket.

Are the nursery insisting you spread the hours over 51weeks? That really wouldn't work for everyone surely (especially you as a teacher)

I will get 30 hrs for ds but won't be using them all to start with as I work part time, and as it's pre school they close in the holidays.

Can you ask for yours to be used term time only, seeing as that's what they're 'meant' to be anyway. I'm also a teacher and finding a term time only nursery was very hard.

The free hours are 30 per week term time or 24 per week all year. If this nursery needs to work that way then so be it..so many nurseries are closing due to the government introducing these schemes and not actually covering the real costs. If you wish to use free hours term time only then see if your nursery offers this or find another one.