Free 15 hours?

[mummyjodie1990]

I'm hoping someone can help please.

My DD turned 3 in July. I currently work of a weekend as it fits in with the OH. However I am thinking of taking advantage of the early years entitlement and I am wondering if someone could tell me how it works???

I would want it for 2 days- so would it be 7.5 hours per day and me pay for the rest??? The nursery day either runs from 9-1 or 9-6.

I could possibly do mornings only- get back from work at 6.30, OH can take her to nursery for me to pick up at 1. So if I did it over 3 days would it be split 5/5/5?

Can I choose the days? As I couldn't do two nights back to back like that..

Hope this makes sense?!

Whether you can choose the days or hours depends entirely on the nursery.

Nurseries vary in the hours that they offer under the NEF scheme.

Some offer 3 hours per day, 5 days a week.
Some offer 5 hours per day, 3 days a week.
Some allow parents to use the whole 15 hours over 2 days.
At the nursery where I work, parents can do half days (3 hours), whole days (6 hours) or a mixture of both.
etc.
etc.

If your dd was 3 in July, she is eligible for her 15 hours from the start of the current term.

You need to contact the pre-schools/nurseries around you and find out whether they have spaces, and what arrangements they have in place.

You'll need to contact the nursery to find out how they spread the entitlement, they all do things differently, but they are unlikely to be offering 7.5 hours per day.

You are eligible for 15 hours funded hours per week for only 38 weeks per year, so 570 hours. A private nursery may chose to spread this over all weeks of the year, so then it equates to just over 10 hours per week.

Although your dd is entitled to funding this term, she is likely to have missed your local authority head count dates. You may also need to make some phone calls directly to them to get things sorted for this term.

Good point Sherbet - our headcount date was 27th September.