Experiences of using 30 funded hours

[RainRainGoAwayy]

Hello, just wondering about others experience with the 30 funded hours. Have days/sessions been really restricted or have you been able to have 3 full days for example. What extras do you end up paying for?

I’m a childminder and I let people have 3x full days and ask for £5 for food per day or provide their own plus £2 outings donation per day.

(Thank you for calling it funded hours!)

It really just depends!! It is virtually impossible to get the funded hours without still needing to make a voluntary contribution because the funding just doesn't cover the true cost of the provision!

I have my hours spread over the 52 weeks so I get approx 22 hours a week, which the nursery just deduct from the 40 hours (4 full days) my DS attends nursery.
For add ons, since I started getting the 30 hours I now ya e to pay £6 p/d for meals, that's all 4 days he attends though, not just the days that are funded.
I can't speak for UC, but being on tax credits I actually can't see the point to the 30 hrs tbh, as whatever the funding saved me just got deducted from my weekly tax credits, so financially it's been the exact same for me, just with a bit more hassle of having to do the application and then having to get the renewal code every 3 months 🤷🏻‍♀️

I have been able to access them without difficulty. I pay a small charge for lunch, and for any extra hours.