Paying in advance?

[Ams25]

My DC will be three in June and entitled to his 15 free hours in September. I have been looking round local nurseries and found one I like. They say I need to pay a £30 booking fee (fair enough) plus a month in advance to hold his place. If he goes for 15 hours a week this will be hundreds up front, should we pay this? My understanding was that the nursery applied directly for the funding. The girl I spoke to seemed sure that that was what they did usually, does this seem right?

The nursery my DS attends used to ask us to pay in advance then reimbursed us randomly once they received the funding from Learning Trust. I understand now that this isn't the way they should be doing it - instead parents should be paying a reduced monthly fee with any reimbursements being kept by the nursery - this follows the strict guidelines from the nursery trust.

The FFE (Flexible Free Entitlment, aka 15hrs free) Guidance clearly states that parents accessing only the 15hr element should not have to pay a booking or registration fee (this is so that the 15hrs is open to all, not just those who can afford registration fees) also states that the 15hrs are free at point of delivery, therefore I can't think why you should be paying anything at all, you are right the funding is awarded directly to the setting at specific times during the year (head count dates).

[DOC]

DRAFT CODE OF PRACTICEwww.education.gov.uk/.../Document3CODEFINAL230909jr.doc

This is the code of practice, bit you need is on page 9. HTH

Thanks so much for this! Really helpful.