Nursery Grant yet still expected to pay £27 a day!

[Moodykat]

Does anyone know why this is? DS currently does 9-5 Monday and Friday which I can afford with SMP.
In January he will be eligible for the nursery grant of 15 hours but nursery are quoting the same two days, paying £15 for 9-3 and £12 for 3-5. I won't be able to afford this as no job when maternity leave is over. Why can't he just do 9-3 free if he is only doing 2 days? Surely that is only 12 hours?
Am very confused! Thanks if you've made it to the end! And thanks even more if you have any idea why!

Hi,
Is your son in a Private Day Nursery rather than a Pre School? If this is the case then they wont be able to just do the 9-3 hours as they will be losing out on the money they would make either side of the 9-3. The nursery funding is only £3.75 per hour so if he is doing six hours they will only be making £22.50 per day, rather than the £40 (or whatever it is they usually charge) The nursery grant is also only term time only, so they may have split it over 52 weeks of the year instead of 38 so that they dont have huge bills in the summer holidays in which case the nursery funding is less as its divided over more weeks. Hope that helps, if not ask your nursery for a breakdown of how they are working out the fees now he is have NEF funding they should give it too you easily!

Yes, it is a private day nursery. Guess I will have to think about moving him but the playschool in my town is incredibly over subscribed and he's so happy where he is! Argh!
Can understand why nursery have to top up though as £3.75 or whatever it was is nowhere near what they usually get!

That would be a shame. Not sure what the managers/owners are like but might be worth having a chat with them, explaining your on maternity leave and how you dont want to move him because he is so happy and see if they can sort something out. Maybe he can do term time only so the funding goes further or 5 mornings/afternoons so you would only have to top up a couple of hours (or if your lucky they may let you off the hours in the morning we do!) There are ways around if they are willing to be flexible.

Yep, was the same for me. Dd went for 2 days a week yet I still paid nearly £200 a month on top of the grant. Covers non term time, food, topping up the sessions (grant is for 3 hr sessions but nursery sessions 4.5 hours. They are not technically supposed to do it, but I do have some sympathy with them.

Since the rule change, nurseries are simply not allowed to charge top up fees.

You choices here are to put up, pay up and keep quiet, or contact your Council about an apparent major breach of the scheme. The risk is that the scheme is indeed uneconomic for many nurseries/pre-schools. No business can run at a loss, so they either close or withdraw from the scheme totally (possibly then also ending up moving towards closure, if they cannot attract enough paying parents to a non-ELG nursery).

The current system is an absolute nightmare, riddled with unintended effects.

I definitely do have sympathy for them. They are a lovely bunch and have always been very good to us but it's going to work out at £172 a month and when I'm not getting any money in, I can't afford that! Of course I could get a new job (don't have job to go back to as was short term contract) but then there'd be childcare for 2 which I definitely couldn't afford!
I did have a chat with the manager and she said she'd see what she could do but then today I got a letter with the breakdown and new payments. Maybe it's just standard and she's still planning a way to help!

Oh God! I would never report them to the council. They've been too accommodating for that!

Meditrina it is not a 'top up fee' as you stated it is a parent paying for the extra hours that the child attends, if you dont want to pay for the hours then you shouldnt be sending your child to a Private Nursery and should be finding a pre school that only runs for these sessions. You cannot pull out of the scheme, every child is entitled to this grant if you didnt accept the funding it would mean that working parents wouldnt be able to claim the grant as they NEED them to be in private day nursery this would be totally unfair. The nursery has to charge for the extra hours the child attends otherwise they would be unable to run and provide the high quality childcare they provide.
Hopefully, she will find a way to help you moodykat :-)

There is no compulsion for nurseries to participate in the scheme.

It doesn't exist to provide working parents with free childcare, but to provide early years education.

I read it that OP was using it for 16 hours per week. £27 for one hour per week over entitlement sounds rather steep. Though, OP if it has been annualised, then it does work out to fewer free hours weekly (12?). And there may be a lunch break that has not been factored in. These are essentially ways of charging top ups by stealth; something that is probably a necessary evil as the scheme reimburses less than the actual costs.

I thought that you were only allowed to use one 3-hour session per day - so as your son is in 2 days, you would only be able to claim 6 free hours.

But TBH I have no idea how it works. This is just something I heard.

Different councils have different policies, and different nurseries have different practices within (and occasionally beyond) those policies (eg whether or not to use the concept of sessions at all).

We're looking for views on free childcare places for two year olds - who should get it and for how long?

We'd really like to hear what you think...

www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1782&external=no&menu=1

Supporting Families in the Foundation Years: Proposed Changes to the Entitlement to Free Early Education
This consultation sets out proposals on the new entitlement for two year olds from September 2013, including which children will be eligible. It also includes proposals on the quality and flexibility of the entitlement for two, three and four year olds.