30 hours funding

[26dX]

My DD 30 hours kicked in sept but it seems to have not brought the bill down like I'd assumed it would? She does 2 full days which is 22 hours PW, I was paying £570 now paying £460? Does this sound right?

I've asked for breakdown which shows all hours are covered but they've stuck a £316 charge on then obviously consumables which is fine. I'm just getting no answers from them as I thought she'd be pretty much fully covered now?

Thank you x

What does your contract say?

I'm always confused by these posts. It seems lots of parents agree to funding without really asking or paying attention to their contracts.

Surely nurseries have a price list and yoi agree to it first? You don't just blindly sign up to funding without knowing what you'll pay?

She only does 2 days a week?

I think that's too much. The funding stretched over 52 weeks a year comes to about 22 hours a week. Even if they have an extortionate consumables charge, I don't see how it could be so high.

Do they have funding sessions like 9 to 3 so your paying the wrap around?

That bill seems very high.how much are they charging for consumables?

Thanks for all your helpful replies! Their consumables charge is 100 pm so the rest is just extra charges that I still have no clue what?

No there's nothing in contract that I haven't read nor 'signed up blindly'..

This is the breakdown they've given me, the first bit makes sense where the funded sessions are accounted for but I'm getting no where with them about this extra fee ? Her 22 hours per week should be covered now which is frustrating..

This is what I assumed when her 30 hours came in that it would've covered her for the week? But 🤷🏽‍♀️

So it looks like they're charging you for just over 3.5 hours a day? I'd imagine they only let the funding cover 7.5 hours a day and the rest is paid for (she goes 11 hours a day?).

They are allowed to do this.

The consumables during funded hours must be things that if you asked, you could send in yourself and have that fee removed. But that would mean sending in your own meals.

Thank you! Makes sense, I wish they'd just tell me this though instead of just leaving me out the loop! Thanks x

I agree with what @KoalaCalledKevin said.
It is very normal for some Nurseries to offer funded hours only at certain times, so they have given you the funded hours and are charging you for the other hours.

However, the only way to be really clear is for you to ask them to break it down so that you can understand, as each Nursery can choose the way they charge you - it isn't universal.

Yep, what PP said. I bet the nursery are only applying the funded hours for core hours such as 9-3 (a lot of nurseries do this) and you are then paying wraparound to have the full day, which means you end up paying nearly as much as for a normal unfunded full day anyway.

@WhiteHorse92 thank you! I wouldn't mind but I'm getting no response from them as to what it is 😂🫠

Hi,

can I just confirm that you were paying £570 pm for childcare before the 15 hours kicked in now they are charging:

funded hours = £767.13
unfunded hours= £316.84
total monthly childcare= £1083.79

There is no justification for this. The daily fee was about £66pd before the 15 hours kicked in and now it is about £126pd? They have effectively doubled their daily rate!
Were you made aware of their fee increase? Definitely query this.

They cannot raise their fees like this. Our local authority asked for a break down of all local childcare providers charging structure and fee breakdown. I would advise speaking to them about this.

@HaveSomeIntrospect I was paying around £570 a month for 2 days pw with 15 hours funded, sept 2024 she was entitled to the 30 hours funding which I worked out that it covered her 22 hrs / 2 days per week / (30 times 51 weeks divided by 38 weeks to include term time) but I have still had no response from them as to what the £316 is for! 🙄

So now the monthly bill is £420 (£316 + 104 consumables) still, I have contacted head office also so awaiting a response from them too.

Have you talked to your LA funding team? They oversee the scheme to make sure it's done properly

@jannier thank you, I didn't know about this but have contacted for some insight! I wouldn't mind if the nursery just told me what it was for instead of ignoring me 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

We are audited and our policies and invoices looked at to show they are clear and follow the rules hopefully your LA will help