Are the "free" 15 hours a week of government funding truly free?? Please help!!!

[SakuraM]

Hello!
I am all mixed up and I'd really appreciate any help you could provide me with to make an important decision!
My hubby and I were thinking about enrolling our daughter at a local nursery after she turns 3 to benefit from the Early Years Education Funding as in our case she'll be eligible only when she turns 3.
We were really happy to learn that the Funding would provide up to 15 hours of free childcare a week regardless of the fees charged by the chosen nursery. So we chose one local independent nursery that we liked and that accepts the Funding scheme and decided to enrol my daughter there for 5 morning sessions (8.30-11.45) a week and asked for what we would have to pay for the additional 15 minutes a day on top of the supposedly "free" 15 hours a week (3 hours a day/ 8.30-11.30). We thought that the amount would be very acceptable since we'd have to pay for only a quarter of an hour a day. Boy! what was our surprise when we saw the amount we'd pay per term excluding lunch and after deducting the Funding!
The supposedly "free" 15 hours a week are not free after all? I doubt that if I'd choose another nursery for 5 morning sessions starting at 8.30 and ending at 11.30, I'd pay nothing??
I hope this does not seem stupid and that there are other parents out there that were as mixed up as we currently are because of this complicated situation.
Can anyone please explain to me how that works? any tips?

Thanks a lot for helping a very anxious mum who has had her heart all set on one nursery :( !!!

You also need to know when their sessions run. If it's 9-12, then you will be charged full fee 0830-0900. You should be able to attend just the free 15 hours though.

Marzi but it is free many private nurseries allow the 15 hours only , you just need to pick one that doesn't require extra hours.

The ones round here all charge you a reduced rate, even if you do under 15 hours. :( The only way of getting any free childcare before they start school is the nurseries connected to a school. Competition for those places is intense!

Hi all!

Thanks so much for your insight. I see that the grant is indeed not as straightforward as the government wants to make it appear and nurseries are first and foremost businesses thinking about their profits. I've resigned myself at looking elsewhere! Thank you

My daughter went to a pre school and it was completely free. She could have gone 9-12 5 days a week and I wouldn't have paid a penny - but they also offered afternoon sessions with a paid-for "lunch club" in the middle so she could attend 9-4 and I paid £6 for the lunch club (she took her own lunch). I felt this was a good deal as it worked better for me with work and loads cheaper than a day nursery!

Where my son went to nursery they charged an extortionate amount for the additional half hour each day (funding only covered 12.5hrs back then) but we had the option to pick him up half an hour early if we wanted to avoid fees (no one ever did that though, and I didn't want him to be the only one leaving early! He was my PFB, now with my youngest I'd be hoiking her out early to save the pennies for sure!)

When first set up, 'top up' fees were permitted (reflecting the fact that the cost of childcare varied between locations). But when the government revamped the scheme (due for roll out in April 2010, but councils given a year longer to 'prepare' for the changes) it was banned.

There's no two ways about it. This is sharp practice that goes against both the spirit and letter of the scheme.

That so many favour the misuse of public money in this way shows how poor the last revamp of the scheme was. But sadly I don't see it improving in the next reiteration.

(And I suspect rebranding the universal early education grant, and lumping it in with childcare will blur eligibility, and in a revamp or two we'll see changes to universality).

I'm guessing it's the holidays that really ramps up your bill rather than just the extra 15 minutes - if you are paying for 15 hours a week during the school holidays and it's a good independent nursery I guess that could cost you the equivalent of at least £60 - £80 a month spread across the whole year.

DS goes to a good independent nursery and in due course will get the 15 hours - I'm treating it as a bonus to subsidise his fees and don't actually expect it to reduce the costs pro rata, but anything is a plus

Also medetrina I'd far rather my relatively expensive but excellent local nursery reduce my fees a bit (even if not actually giving the 15 hours 'free') than decide they couldn't afford to participate and leave me having to take DS elsewhere - I think that in many cases letting nurseries charge the top up leads to greater choice for parents.

Unless and until the terms of the scheme change back to permit top ups again, it remains a misuse of public funds.

I'd rather nurseries stayed open too.

But not by ripping off the taxpayer. It would not be tolerated in other bodies who hand out government funded grants.

The imminent changes are an opportunity to fix this, so that sharp practice need no longer be tolerated by those on the receiving end of it, under the threat of an even worse situation without it. Unfortunately I doubt this Government has even realised the problems with the scheme as is, let alone considered how to fix it..

My nursery fees hardly went down with the 15 hours.

They cap the number of children allowed to claim so we are on the waiting list (she is 3.5 now but we are unlikely to get any free sessions until she is 4). She currently attends 18 hours a week and our bill last month was just over £300 (we aren't in London). This bill goes up a fraction in school holidays.

I'd look elsewhere as there are nurseries that allow you to claim the 15 free hours but she has been there since she was 9 months old and loves it.

You can see the big difference in what they charge and the few pounds per hour they get from the government.

We used to point people to the council 2 year old programme as the nursery would get higher fees for those children (even taking into account staff) ratios.

The only nurseries around here who could afford to do the15 free hours for all the kids are attached to state primary schools of family centres.

I manage a preschool and we offer 15 hours a week term time only completely free even though we are actually open all day all year round
We don't charge anything for those free hours and we are a private company, so it can be done

DS's nursery is open 8-6. If you only want the free hours you can have them - they run daily from 3-6. This gets them around the top up fees as no one actually sends their child just for the free hours.

DS is there three days a week, so I'm just looking forward to saving £200 a month off his fees

I manage a preschool and we offer 15 hours a week term time only completely free even though we are actually open all day all year round. We don't charge anything for those free hours and we are a private company, so it can be done*

Will you be able to offer this when the free 30 hours comes into force?

My children go to a private nursery. We save approx £200 a month with the 15 free hours but the fees are still steep (I know the nursery struggles to manage on the money the government gives them). When we signed up I assumed that we could compress the 15 hours into two days. We can't. We get blocks of time free and blocks of time we pay for. You'd only benefit fully if your child does 5 days a week.

Rollonthesummer
Yes, we will
I have part time and term time staff as well as full timers so it works for us

I agree re looking at preschool settings. Our local preschool offers 15 free hours (5x3 hour sessions), with no additional charges. It is a registered charity and parents are asked to support it by washing towels / donating snacks and supporting fundraising activities.

Yes a private nursery can choose when it offers the free hours. Just because your child will be attending for 15 hours (or more) doesn't mean that those particular hours are free.

insancerre - remember though that different Local Authorities offer different amounts. Also, it depends on the proportion of dc that are funded - when all, or the vast majority of the dc in the nursery are funded, then there isn't the income from paying families to top up the costs.

Everywhere in our town offers genuinely free sessions - my DS goes 5 days a week to his preschool 9-12 and I pay no extra. My 2.5yo will start there soon for unfunded sessions (same hours) it's £11 a session.

I would look at places that are specifically just preschools not nurseries that take children from baby age.

Hello
I haven't read all of the thread so apologies if this has already been addressed. My two DD's go to private nursery for 30 hours a week each. My DD1 is 4 so she gets the 15 hours free childcare, however this is term time only so there are (i think) 14 weeks where I have to pay the full 30 hours for her. I also have to pay a charge for her meals. The nursery averages this cost over the entire year so instead of me paying £650 per month for her (this would be without the free 15 hours) I pay £420 per month for her. (I hope this makes sense).

It may also be helpful for you to know that I had an offer for her from a local authority nursery for the 15 hours - but in actual fact they could only offer me 9 hours per week for her. So I think sometimes local authority nurseries will only offer what they can depending on the number of people wanting to send their children there. I wouldn't have sent her to this nursery anyway though as I need far more childcare than that because I work 3 days a week in London.

At our nursery there is no additional cost and you can do 9-12 or 2-5 sessions. If you choose to stay longer it's £7.60ish an hour.

They should only be charging you a quarter of the advertised hourly rate, otherwise they are acting illegally.

Nurseries do act illegally all the time because the funding is woefully insufficient. I have my sympathies, but wouldn't put up with it either iyswim!

They aren't obliged to offer the free hours viviennemary. Private day nurseries are perfectly within their rights not to, meaning this particular nursery will have made an active choice to do it.

That said, in a lot of areas the money just isn't enough to cover the costs, so OP if you want the nursery to actually be there so you can take advantage of it for your DS, you might want to think about whether the steep charges might actually be a price worth paying? There are certainly nurseries that don't charge any top ups except a reasonable amount for food, my offspring attends one and there are no hidden extras except 50p snack or £2 lunch, depending on what food time the free hours session covers. However, that's a very cheap area. If you're south east, city centre or somewhere else with very expensive land, you may not be able to access one.

We get 15 hrs completely free for our 2 dc. Both do 2 9-4 days a week and it costs us nothing. It's a private and fabulous nursery - they have even allowed us the odd free week during school holidays when we've been away during term time. I love them!

Mine is a community nursery run by the council. Sessions are 8-1 or 1-6. When ds became eligible for the 15 hours I changed his sessions from one full day to 3 mornings. I don't pay anything and he gets breakfast and lunch included.