Another 30 funded hours query

[Brendatheblenda]

Hiya, sorry for another thread re funded hours but I’m confused!

I work 4 days with an hour commute so she will go 4 full 10 hour days 8-6. There’s me thinking funded hours cover 3days and I only effectively pay one full day per week... However the offered funded hours are in sessions totalling 6hrs 20 mins per day and I pay extra for Early, Late, and an hour for lunch. This means she’s not actually getting 30 funded hours. So I guess my question is are the these only pro rata? These extra charges genuinely make my childcare bill double what I was expecting (£150 per week vs £71)! If this is standard then fair enough, I’m just a lone parent on a tight budget and wondering if I should look elsewhere now...

You get 1,140 free hours a year. It looks like your childcare provider is offering that over 36 weeks of the year. They are completely entitled to do this. My childcare provider offered 22.80 hours a week free, for 50 weeks of the year. Every provider will offer different options.

As above, the free hours are only offered in term time so your provider has spread them over a whole year. Top up charges for materials are also common as government funding is inadequate. Sorry!

You don't get 30 hours free a week for 52 weeks of the year, you get 30 hours for 38 weeks of the year = 1,140 hours

Ignore my post I didn’t read yours properly, sorry!

Thankyou for the replies! That does all make sense. I hadn’t realised it was a given number of hours, although did assume it was spread throughout the year (they close for 6weeks)

Sorry, not sure that made sense! What I had thought was it was 30 hours for 46 weeks then I would pay extra for holiday club. I understand it all now so Thankyou!

Also, the hours can be offered in sessions. They might do 9-12 and 1-4 funded Monday - Friday (which would be 6 hours a day). I'm this scenario it would be full fees in school holidays. You need to check if there will be weeks you would pay full fees.

And they're not free, because the government doesn't actually pay the full fees for the hours. If they did nurseries would offer a lot more flexibility.

You should speak with the nursery manager and be absolutely clear about what they’re offering.

From what you’ve said, it’s clear they’re offering 6 hours each day, which is perfectly reasonable as it allows families to use all 30 hours across the week. They could be offering that over the standard 38 weeks, or over the full 46 hours they are open. In the latter case your funded hours per week would be capped, but you’d be making use of more funded hours over the year in total.

We get 15 hours a week for our two year olds as they receive DLA - the nursery is open 50 weeks a year so it works out as 11 funded hours a week.