Would I still qualify for 30 hours childcare on my salary?

[Sammy1990z]

I am a teacher in London. I requested to work for 9 hours which comes out to just over £15000 in earnings per annum. I genuinely do want to spend more time with my baby so not interested to send my child more than 2 days for 10 hours to nursery but still touching base with work.

Salary wise it looks like I do qualify for 30 hours free childcare. However I started seeing posts where teachers thought they qualify but didn’t because once they spread it across the year turns out they were earning less and needed to work more hours.

i am confused. My earnings will be spread across the year which comes out to £1100 roughly with everything deducted. Is there anything I need to look at on my contract that ensure it’s not a problem. I am just worried there is something I am not seeing maybe.

I work 24 hours a week, split over 3 days. It took me months to find childcare because of parents sending their child to nursery/childminders when they don’t need the hours. The waiting lists were ridiculous and I had to change childcare setting 3 times as they could only provide short term placements until September.

perhaps think of those that genuinely need the places

Hi, I am sorry to hear this.
I will be working for 9 hours and will be in need of 10 hours childcare only. So it definitely will not be me taking up the spots

I requested to work 9 hours

Have the school agreed this? I’m a governor at 2 schools and neither would accept this arrangement.

Yes they agreed. Currently overstaffed so it worked out well

I’m a childminder and have had plenty of parents claiming the full 30 hours and only working 1 or 2 days per week. It’s the amount you earn not the number of hours you work that matters.i agree with funding but I don’t agree with the current system as it means valuable spaces are taken up by children whose parents are off but that’s for another thread. The op does not want the full 30 - sounds like she only wants 10-15 hours per week. A setting doesn’t have to claim the full 30. Some childminders would slot you in 9-3. If it is term after child’s 3rd birthday she’d get 15 hours whether working or not.

Other posters have mentioned but it's based on your equivalent salary not strictly hours worked.

You need to earn the equivalent of 16hours a week at NMW.

I think you've had a hard time on here. Planning to work minimally does this unfortunately. It draws out the envious.

In Scotland it is not tied to income. It's to benefit the children.
I appreciate this in England but the OP was only asking a question!

So what does this mean.. that they put their child in nursery for 30 hours and some of this time they are just sat at home?

I have viewed many nurseries, all of them had requirements on a minimum of 2 full sessions e..g 8-6 or 4 half day sessions. So I would be surprised for a nursery to offer just the one part time day especially with babies as they have strict ratios and would prioritise those needing full time hours or the full days/4 part time sessions

You're taking up more 'spots' than you acknowledge.

If nursery is open 8am to 6pm, your 10am to 3pm (5 hours) effectively takes up the full 10 hour place the nursery has available on that day. Because nobody with a child in a baby/toddler/preschool room will book just 8am to 10am or 3pm to 6pm.

So though you might be paying /have funding for the 10 hours you want per week, you're taking 20 hours out of overall capacity. Taking up 2 full days (or spots) when you only need one nursery day to cover your working hours.

Hence why nurseries may not let you do this. Would it be more effective to find a job with the 5 hours fitting within either a morning or an afternoon session? Probably not consistent with teaching hours. That's understandable, but don't kid yourself that you're only using 10 hours of nursery capacity.

OP I’m sorry you’re getting so much criticism on this thread. Time and again there are threads about mothers becoming SAHPs in the early years then struggling to get back into work and losing independence. You, quite rightly in my opinion, want to keep your foot in the door work wise while spending as much time as possible with your baby. You’re doing the right thing for your family. I believe childcare funding should support women to stay in work and in your case that’s exactly what it’s doing.

I suspect you will be eligible but put your details through the calculator on beststartinlife.gov.uk to check

That said, you may need to adjust your expectations as to what nurseries/childminders can accommodate. They will have fixed session times so it’s highly unlikely you will find one that does 10-3pm

None. It would not be economically worth their while. A childminder might be a better solution as you'd be dropping off after the school run and picking up before it .

9 hours a week is more like a toe than a foot though.

Agree that a childminder who does school runs could work well, otherwise as PP said, you are looking to take up four nursery sessions, each of 5 hours, by your need for 10-3 on two days per week.

(also, are there a bunch of nurseries and childminders very close to your school? Otherwise you have only built in 15 mins between work and each pick up/ drop off)

Our local nurseries have the same 2 sessions rule but the 9-3 block counts as a session so 2 days of 9-3 would meet the requirements (and is what a friends child does). It will be nursery dependent on this one.

I'm a childminder and used the funding to send my child to nursery on my day off.

Surely you will be doing planning and marking etc outside of your contact hours, wouldn't it make more sense to have two full days in childcare?

Yep, it’s not really my business what they are doing and as a childminder I don’t care as I’m getting paid but I have had a couple offering info - saying things along the lines of “it’s great having this extra day to do the big shop
, go to gym etc”. As a tax payer I do care, because I feel childcare shouldn’t be funded on a day you are not working. Pay for time alone to rest, go shopping etc. On a moral front I have no issue with someone looking after your child when not working I just don’t think tax payer should pay. The OP is only looking for care the hours she is working so does not apply to her.

There are two different questions

1. will the nursery allow you to book just 10-3 and only pay for those hours?

2. will the nursery allow you to book (and pay for) potentially a longer session, but physically only keep your child there for a shorter period so she doesn't have such long hours in nursery?

In my experience (1) is extremely unlikely (maybe you could look into negotiating something custom with a childminder, but you'd have to ask if they accept funded hours) but (2) is potentially possible depending on the nursery.

Perhaps try to find one that does 9-3 sessions, so you're only paying for an extra hour? For an 8mo baby I doubt they are doing such an exciting programme of activities that they're going to miss out on much...

You need to earn over £2,643.68 over a three month period (£203.36 weekly equivalent) before tax. It’s based on earnings, not hours worked (though this figure is the equivalent to working 16 hours per week at minimum wage).

From the info it looks like you will meet the eligibility criteria.

I get 30 hours for my kids but that only works out as 2 days per week. The 30 hours only applies to term time weeks but my nursery have the option of spreading across the year. I appreciate you might only use it during term time but even so, my nursery would count 30 hours as 3 days.

My nursery wouldn’t. They have either a morning or afternoon session. If you want a mix for both your funding would cover the full all day hours.

you may also find that if your child goes less hours and days they will take a lot longer to settle in which isn’t nice for both mum or baby.

I also think that most nursery’s for that age will only take on all year. So you would end up paying during breaks. This will change when his older but will end up leading to them being moved to a different nursery and settling in again.

Thank you for letting me know of this. I will definitely monitor

Lots of parents use more childcare then they need to do appointments/ admin etc. DS was in a few extra mornings and I used it for midwife appointments and cleaning the house!