30 Hours

[fandjango]

I am looking for some advice please.

We are due to have the 30 hours funding start in April.

My son is currently at nursery for three days for a total of just under 22 hours.

Nursery have told me that I must use all 30 hours to qualify?

I didn't think this was the case?

My parents have my son one day a week and I also have my son on one day too and I don't want to have to give this up.

You don’t need to use all the hours to qualify however the nursery may have their own policy that all 30 hours have to be used with them to qualify for a space.

If nursery want all 30 hours used, in order to maximise income, then your choices are use it or lose it.

What about asking them to stretch it to include school holidays too? Doesn't it go down to 22 hours if stretched across a calendar year?

Some nurseries have policies that you can only use the funding for 6 hours a day or during defined sessions - for example - 9-12 and 1-4. So you pay for hours outside this. So if your nursery does this then you would have to use 5 days a week.

You need to remember that the 30 hours is term time only so if you want it stretched over the year you get around 22 hours

Different nurseries have different policies. Ours can only be used towards full sessions.

All nurseries will have their own policies. If you don’t want him to adhere to his nursery’s policy, you might need to send him somewhere else that will accommodate what you want.

I have been going back and forth with them for over a week offering different options.

I asked if I could pay the extra outside of the funded hours so I can keep my work hours the same and I was told no I had to have him in within the funded hours times.

I also asked if I could use the 22 hours over 48 weeks instead of 38 weeks and I was again told no this wasn't acceptable.

I then submitted a flexible working request to my workplace so i could start later (this has caused issues!) and then put the nursery request in and was told i'm not using the full hours so again not accepted

I emailed back and said i'm sure I do not have to use them all if not needed and she replied and said I was correct and that she can make the decision on a term by term basis (still not outlining if the hours were agreed or not)

We've been to visit another nursery that can accommodate him now and accept us for the hours we need in April. They also offer stretched funding and will be able to spread this out over 51 weeks.

I've just had a voicemail from his current nursery asking me to call them (I have given my sons notice period in now) so she can explain how their funding works.

I offered to go in and speak with them at the start of the correspondence and also to call them but just kept getting emails back only answering parts of the email etc.

It's been so frustrating. Thanks for the advice all

do you think that now you have handed in your notice, they want to speak to you to convince you to stay?

Possibly. She said she was really sad we were leaving as he's a lovely boy and gets along with everyone and enjoys it.

I said we had no issue with the nursery at all and would have stayed it the hours could be accommodated.

She then went on to explain how the finding works and said she knows if inside out but she had been on the phone to clarify a few things. It was then that she said I was able to pay for the hours that fell outside the funded times which is what I had asked for in the first place.

It's a shame we have had to move but it does work out better for us financially and it would be silly not to use the hours on offer.