Using 3-4yr funding only at a private nursery?

[AccidentalMum]

Does anyone do this? ie. send DC to a private day nursery for a number of hours a week and pay no money? How many hours do you get? Have you spread them out over the year including holidays? It is difficult to tell from my DD's friends' experiences because they all go for much longer than the entitlement.
Thanks xx

my dd2 goes to a private nursery on a funded place

she goes over the 12.5 hrs that are funded though, we just pay the extra

they are spread out over the year yes

it very much depends on the nursery though

You get about £500 per term - that won't go very far in private nursery. I don't think all nurseries take part in the scheme - check first.

12 1/2 hours is the maximum in most places rising to 15 in 2010. Usually it has to be in 5 2 1/2 hour defined sessions and only applies for 39 weeks per year . Most day nurseries would require a top up to cover the gap between sessions ie for lunch etc

Think the problem with private nurseries is their 'sessions' tend to be longer than the funding allows and they tend to be all year and the funding only covers term time, my ds1 goes 3 days a week to a private nursery and we 'top up ' his funding, not sure if youll find somewhere where you pay nothing, i may well be wrong tho'

we get 12.5 hrs a week during term time

you pay over that and its divided over the year

In the term after children turn 3, they are entitled to 5 x 2.5 hour funded sessions per week making a total of 12.5 hours. However, this is rising to 15 hours per week by 2010 I think. This is term time only (33 weeks????)

However, there is a monetary value attached to the free sessions. I can't remember how much it is. If a nursery costs significantly more than this amount, I think they can say, for example, 5 sessions of funding will only cover 1 full day with them. Perhaps someone else on here could confirm this?? I know that this is what one of our local nurseries does.

It's best to ring the nursery you're thinking about and talk to them.

Wow....my education threads don't usually get answered that quick....thanks

Also, my dd is at a private nursery and we only send her for the funded sessions. Term time only, 12.5 hours per week - she does 2 whole days and a half day.

Our local children's centre will accept the NEG funding in its day nursery, but you have to pay a top-up because daycare sessions are four hours long, and only 2.5 hours of that is funded.

I am looking around the nursery on Friday, they know I am keen to only use the funding. I was hoping to get eg. 2 afternoons all year round. It is not a pricy one so fingers crossed.

Funding is not available in the holidays AM.

if the council agrees to pay the hourly rate to the nursery then it doesnt matter how much the nursery is, the council will pay that

a private nursery will usually only have a certain amount of funded places though. this is because the council are only willing to pay a certain amount

See, I had a leaflet which broke it now like that, ie. 5 sessions for 39 weeks, 3 for more weeks out of the year.....will try and find.

i dont think it would work like that AM

i think youd still have to pay during the holidays

for example
if you use 2 after noons at 2.5hrs each that is 5 hrs
another child may use the other 3 afternoons

that will equal one funded place and you will hav to pay the holidays

you may get the option of not sending your child dyring the holidays though

You may only be allowed 2 2 1/2 sessions worth then and you'd have to decide whetehr to only attend 2 hours all year or pay for the sessions out of termtime. Unfortunately you don't get to claim the funds then decide how to spend it as the nursery applies on your behalf.

yes, I do this. only, i don't pay no money lol

basically I opted to send ds1 for a 5 hour session, 3 times a week. so i pay for one half a session (ie, 2.5 hours)
however, the funding does not cover meals and stuff, so I have to also pay that £3.75 a day to cover breakfast, mid-mornming snack and lunch.

I COULD do just 2 days and use 4 of my vouchers, not pay for the half day. but i'd still hgave the meals to pay for on the 2 days he was there.

and also, bear in mind that the government funding is for term time only. you will be lucky if you can find a private nursery that will be willing to have your child only during term time because they usually will want to fill a place full-time.
so, we also pay full price for him to go during school holidays

There is a monetary value attached to our nursery for the "free" sessions which is about half what the session am or pm costs. As you are only allowed 2 sessions per day but this only covers half the day then you would have to top up and pay the other half. You could use 1 "free session" 5 x a week in any combination you like ie 5 mornings, afternoons or a mixture of 2 whole days and a half day. however you will always have to top up.

Found it!

This leaflet seems to clearly indicate that the entitlement can be spread over the full year if you take fewer sessions per week. 3 sessions would mean 50 weeks, but it looks like three sessions only covers ~1.5 mornings/ afternoons at a private nursery.

Thanks for all the info

If going private (especially in London) the ££ doesn't go very far and some nurseries have a minumum number of hours per week per child, so you may find that you have to pay extra on top of the allowance. Remember to check with the nursery at the outset if they are part of the scheme (there are some around here who aren't for some reason).

But anything from the government is better than nothing!

We do this for DS1, we get 5 x 3 hour sessions free per week as it's 15 hours goverment funded in our area, however this is for term time only so he is off whenever school holidays are. HTH

That seems an unusual way of applying EY funding but I guess each area can vary.

DD1 just became entitled to 15hrs a week in her private nursery so she goes 3 mornings a week. It doesnt count over the holidays though so will have to pay then

Hi there

If anyone is interested this is how they do it at (the rather lovely) Chester Rd Day Nursery....

You get £505 per term towards fees. The terms are Jan-Mar, Apr-Jul, Sep-Dec, so all months covered but August. The funding doesn't quite cover 2 am/pm sessions (5hrs) priced at £19.