30 Free Hours

[gingercatmum]

Hi. I was hoping in September that when the 30 hours funded childcare would start that would cover most of my hours as I only need 25 a week. Split over the 52 weeks instead of the 38 weeks this would give me almost 22 hours a week. Unfortunately my childminder doesn't split it over the full year, so I will not use all my entitlement most weeks but then have to pay full rate for all of the holidays which over the summer will be a lot, is this correct? Thanks

Most childminders will stretch it over the year but they don't have to. It will still be a massive help for you surely?

Yes it’s correct, each provider can choose themselves how they wish to accept/use the funding.

Ah that's a shame, not ideal that I don't use all my hours in term time and don't get any to use during the holidays. She said that it's more work splitting it over the year as opposed to term time only, does anyone know if this is the case?

It would save a few hundred pounds over the year for sure!

Yes they're allowed to.

Can you save the money you'd have spent on the additional 3 hours a week if it had been spread over 52 weeks and use that money towards the holidays? Our childminder years ago was £5 an hour, no doubt it's more now so that's £15 a week/£60 a month to go towards the holidays.

It can be for the provider, it can make things a bit trickier for them. Ultimately you can either accept it or find somewhere new.

That's a great idea, thank you!

Our childminder is fab so wouldn't go elsewhere so will make it work! 😃

Yes it is. Is there a reason you don't really believe her?

It's not that I don't believe her, it's that she's just starting out and finding her feet with all the funding side of things and wondered if it might not be as bad for her as it seems

No it's a massive pain in the arse! I spent my whole morning today (my day off so my own time) sorting funding out for this term. All for the benefit of the parents and even then the government get the credit for it, not me and my time 😂

It can be fiddly don't forget she's probably loosing money on every hour that's funded so over a week will loose more money than you're 3 hours

That's true, good to hear it from another perspective!

Stretching funding entitlement often adds extra work for a setting, particularly when they have a mix of stretched and non stretched. Funding is a lot of work anyway, the behind the scenes work is often over looked and generally non paid. I’ve known childminders find they’ve worked hours for free as they’ve miscalculated the cumulation of hours. There’s also the worry of families leaving mid term which can make things tricky. Often, childminder will carry over hours owed, if they’ve had holidays or closed for sickness, to the holidays which means they can still offer the full entitlement. Funding is a headache at the best of times, adding more difficulty just makes it worse. Settings are going to be scrabbling about when 30 hours comes in for more ages, the amount of extra work will be huge.

Stretching funding is there to help parents but unfortunately doesn’t help the setting.

Does your childminder work 52 weeks a year ? Most childminders have holiday . I only work 46 weeks per year Don’t forget that childminders spend their days without children doing unpaid admin - funding , 2 year checks , accounts , invoicing , writing policies, training , buying resources etc. I spend a day a week doing this . Funding is a pain - I have weekly emails from the LA , have to enter information on their portal once or twice a month . Our LA don’t offer stretched funding either . On three year funding I’m loosing over £2400 per year on each child . Infact if I had three children on three year funding I would be earning about £7 per hour after expenses .
Childminders numbers are falling year on year - at the present rate there will be none in 5-6 years . The government wants all children in school from 9 months .
Nurseries usually stretch funding as they are open 51 weeks per year so move your child .

Your LA sounds very demanding. We enter figures once a term for next term, send in a declaration form termly and done...apart from this term where we do the census. I'm glad I'm not with yours there's enough to do with non funding stuff.

Yeah it’s a pain claiming! I do it for a nursery with 80 children and have spent the past week chasing parents for their codes and national insurance numbers and then logging into the portal to put in all the claims - having to go and find all the kids dates of births and addresses etc to input

and then the money gets paid in 2 instalments so about half the money came on Friday for the term and the rest comes around march

during the summer no money comes at all so suppose she’d have to be very good a budgeting her money if she spread it over the year otherwise she could run into problems over the summer with the long period of no money coming from
the government

Sounds like you are paid termly . We are paid monthly. And yes the LA are a total pain .

No monthly paid over 12 months enter Actuals the term before paid around the 7th for month ahead.

That's a good point, if I'm not using funded hours over the summer then the hours I'm paying for would cover that period then!

If your childminder is not stretching funding then you can only use funding term time 38 weeks of the year . In the summer holidays you would have to pay for 25 private hours per week.
when your child is at school you would not expect to only send them for 25 hours and ask the school to open for you in the holidays. Funding is to deliver education EYFS not childcare that’s why Ofsted Nannie’s can’t provide funding they don’t deliver the education bit.
Your choice to only use 25 hours and not 30 each week.
As I said earlier I understand why the childminder doesn’t stretch funding it a total pain .
Many nurseries offer stretched funding as they are open 51 weeks - move your child .

I just counted the emails from our LA last week - 8 emails !

I totally understand why she wouldn't want to stretch her funding if it left her short over the summer

So in the summer you will have to pay for all the hours you use and in any school holiday . You need to ask your childminder to explain it to you . She will be able to show you the funded and unfunded weeks on a LA calendar

She will probably have holiday in the summer . Does she charge for her own holidays ? The laws says you shouldn’t have to pay for a service you can’t access. So if she charges for her own holiday I would challenge her . Most childminders don’t charge when they are closed but I know of some people that do.