Question about 30 hours free childcare

[rosesarereddish]

Around when I'm due with DC2, DC1 will be eligible for 30 hours free childcare scheme.

I'm just confused how it will work.

He will go to nursery class in a primary school for 5 x half days, and for 3 of those his actual nursery will pick him up and take him back there afterwards.

Will that all be free? Isn't nursery class in a primary school free as standard? So all the paid nursery hours will be funded? Or will I still need to pay? Just working out my budget really and I can't wrap my head around it

The school nursery will be 15 of the 30 funded hours. The private nursery will take 15 hours off the bill, though how they work that will be up to them as they will likely need to save his space thru the morning and they will also need to make up the missing money somehow so there's usually extra charges. Best speaking to the nursery as they'll likely have done this before so they know how their fee structure will work

I'm not entirely sure as I'm trying to work the 30 hours free out too. But I agree with the PP that the school nursery will be 15 hours so you should have 15 left.... I think you sometimes have to pay for lunch and lunch time care fees too?

Check with the afternoon nursery exactly how and how much they charged. I assumed that it would be 15 hours morning nursery and 15 hours afternoon and made my payments based on that. However as the afternoon nursery was private, they spread it over 52 weeks rather than term time only so it was actually 11 hours a week. They also didn’t provide the council with my 30 hour code in time (although they said it was because we started after their term had already started) so I didn’t get any free afternoon hours for a few months (and didn’t realise because I was already underpaying as above). Took months to unravel!

Its 30 free education so its only for 38 weeks of the year.

Its funded hours nor free. The setting can still charge for lunch, lunchtimes, consumables etc....... just so you don't get a shock. The hours are severely underfunded by the government and not sustainable for settings.

The school nursery will take 15 hours a week. The private nursery will stretch the hours so it will be less than 15 hours. Best to check with them how they do it.

Every la has different rules about stretching in mixed care. In my LA if a child is at school nursery so getting the universal 15 hours term time I can only offer the 15 hours extended term time. We can choose are session times so typically a private nursery may say funding hours are available 9 to 12 and 12.30 to 3.30 or 9 to 3 whereas childminders tend of offer the time you need ....so you need to talk to your nursery. We are allowed to charge a holding fee for time child is at school....but this is an additional fee and can't use the funding hours. We can also charge consumables and food....but you must be able to provide your own and if lunch time is a charged session you must be allowed to take your child home for lunch.

It's up to your provider(s).

Private nursery tend to make a big loss on the funded hours, so have specific rules as to how they can be used, and large top ups for 'consumables' or wrap around hours.

The simplest solution is to use the 30 funded hours for a school nursery (9-3 daily for 38 weeks of the year) and then you would only be charged for lunch, and perhaps a small charge is the day is slightly longer than 9-3.