Having a nightmare with childcare funded hours

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Hopefully someone can help. I’ve been claiming thirty hours funded childcare. Two days (18 hours, across 51 weeks) at a private day nursery and 6 hours at a preschool (term time only.) Originally I got an invoice from the preschool for £12 - great! But now they have been in touch to say DS is only entitled to three hours a week and therefore I have been billed nearly £200. I just can’t afford it and it’s come as a complete shock.

I’ve emailed them but I don’t suppose anyone has a clue what is going on?

In our LA you can't mix and match the funding stretched vs term time only.

So essentially they've given you the stretched funding model which is 21 hours per week. Nursery are claiming 18 which leaves you 3 for preschool.

You've tried to claim more than your entitlement so you will have to pay somewhere.
Having the funding over the whole year is approximately 22 hours a week. So you can't have 18 stretched and then term time of 6 hours. It's too many hours.

I suspect, although I can't say for sure, that you can't use the hours that way. It's either term time or all year, not mix and match. So your all year round allowance works out to about 21 hours a week. Which means 18 for the first provider, and 3 for the second.

On 30 hours a week you are entitled to 1140 hours over a year.
Complications in spreading really kick in if your child leaves for school nursery because they are term time only so in September you would need to have 390 hours or so left for the term so won't get the full spread hours in the summer term.
In my LA the funding must be claimed the same way so if preschool are TT only the nursery has to claim the same way.
You should have signed a funding agreement for each setting saying how many hours each is claiming.
You need to ask for a breakdown and if not happy call your LA

It seems it is a hiccup re term time only and holiday hours. Hopefully getting it sorted now!

Stretched funding over 51 weeks is about 22 hours so how did you get 24?

What's the resolution?

Waiting for a phone call

I didn’t

This is why nurseries and childminders have to have such strict rules about how and when funding can be used.

Parents often don't understand how funding riles work and when they make up their own plan on how to use the hours, it goes wrong.

You have overclaimed even if you were allowed to do term time and stretched together.

Lucy - I don’t pretend to be an expert at all but this is not correct. I haven’t gone above my funded hours. One is term time only and one is spread across the whole year.

even if you were allowed to do term time and stretched together

You are here. I realise that isn’t the case everywhere but it is here.

You are entitled to 1140 hours.

You're claiming 1146 hours.

But as already explained, you can't mix and natch funding types.

Then why are you being told you can only claim 3 hours?

Lucy - it’s being sorted. I don’t know if it’s intentional or otherwise but you’re adopting this sort of lofty resigned tone.

I am not claiming for more than thirty hours (in fact less than this.) I had a shock as I had a bill I hadn’t expected for £200.

That’s exactly what is being sorted now - I hope!

So who told you that it was 18 and 6 the preschool or nursery

Jannier - it is now sorted. thank you ☺️