Can’t start nursery at Easter?

[CosmicComet]

Started looking at nurseries for my DS because I want to put him on the waiting list for when he turns 3 and gets free hours. But I’ve been told I can’t, because he was born in January.

The kids who turned 3 over the summer are eligible to start nursery in September. Then the kids who turn 3 before Xmas are eligible to start in January. And finally those who turn 3 in the Spring are eligible to start after Easter.

Basically the local nursery has spaces in September because that’s when kids leave to go to school. So the September starters take some places, and if there are places left the January starters take them. And there are no places left for Easter starters. So the nursery said there’s no point putting my DS on the waiting list because there’ll be no places left by the time he’s eligible to start.

AIBU to think this is unreasonable? Their only advice was to “choose a crapper nursery because they’re more likely to still have places left at Easter. Try X nursery in the next town because Ofsted has rated it as Poor”. Why should my DS have to go to a nursery rated Poor just because of when his birthday falls?!

Wasn't meant as attack on you! I was agreeing and commiserating on the silliness. Sorry that wasn't clear

Cosmic - it says up to. Nurseries/Pre-schools are under no obligation to provide it. However, you actually don't even know whether you will have a space or not as you haven't asked all the providers instead choosing to get all het up over gossip and misunderstanding.

www.daynurseries.co.uk/day_nursery_search_results.cfm/searchcounty/Dorset

Are you telling me that EVERY SINGLE ONE of these nurseries is shit?

It’s not FREE
It’s funded and subsidised by the nursery
It’s only the government that don’t seem to understand this
Op, plenty of good nurseries will have spaces available
You just need to do some research and find them

OP, why on earth would you expect a nursery to keep a space open for you to take only your funded hours when, certainly in the case of many nurseries, there is a wait list of children wanting these plus additional hours and the nursery can therefore recoup some of the costs of the funded places. It seems odd that you expect this.

It appears that there’s been some miscommunication somewhere about exactly what you are entitled to, but it’s certainly not a place for 30 entirely free hours during term time only at a setting of your choosing.

But at least you’ve been informed about the reality of this now, when you still have time to find alternative childcare.

Cosmic, they are free to you. They are not free to the nursery or the taxpayer. The nursery still have all the same costs, and the funding from the government does not cover all those costs. So nurseries can only my offer the number of funded places they can afford to offer. They'd rather use them on kids who will still be there full time so still paying for all the other hours.

You're digging a hole for yourself here by being so argumentative and angry at people who are simply explaining things to you.

If it is not financially viable for you to go back to work, and you're unwilling to sacrifice some of your husband's wages, then don't go back. If you desperately want to work then you're going to have to lose money to do it.

If you're waiting for the funded place then that will help you massively, but you either need to enrol them the September in advance and pay for 2 terms or wait until the September after and miss one term of working (since you'd need to take the summer off, it might make sense to just wait for this september).

If neither of those options suit you then you need to go and find a different nursery with space in April.

Have you looked around for other options? Would you consider a child minder*

It’s not FREE It’s funded and subsidised by the nursery

Why are they advertising it far and wide as FREE then? Even my HV told me it’s free.

Factor in tax, transport to work, the cost of insurance and training courses. Then factor in the fact that I only get paid for the hours I work - not my lunch break, or the hour that I commute to work, or the hour that I commute home. To work 8 hours I’d need to pay for 11 hours childcare. NMW is not higher than the total cost of working

Do you have a job to go back to? Your posts read like you'll be looking for a new job. In which case, there might not be an hour commute each way, or training courses and insurance (?) to pay for.

For what it's worth, my commute is 45 minutes each way and I also don't get paid for my lunch, and still, with a household income of £30k (just under actually) before tax, we're better off with me working and paying for childcare.

Alternatively, get an evening job?

Are you stupid?

Did you think that for all those funded hours, the nursery would not have to pay any bills? No heating bills for that time. No tax bills for that time. No wages bill for that time. No rent bill for that time.

Did you think it doesn't cost the nursery anything? That all their staff work for free for those hours and there's no charges anywhere down the line?

It's free to you, but they are funded by someone else and the nursery take a loss too.

And again, you don't know that there is no place as you haven't contacted other providers. Do that.
You do realise that you have to actively research and apply for primary places?

Honestly @CosmicComet you're just going on and on and on now! Give it up. It's been explained to you plenty of times now. The system is what it is, and may not even be that in 2 years' time!!! If you want to work for your own mental health then go back to work and pay for childcare even if it means you are working for free. Otherwise, do some actual research on childcare options in your area rather than using one example to keep going on and on about. There may be another nursery locally that will be able to provide what you need and that your child will be happy at.

why on earth would you expect a nursery to keep a space open for you to take only your funded hours when, certainly in the case of many nurseries, there is a wait list of children wanting these plus additional hours

It seems to me that if you can already afford to pay for nursery before your child turns 3 then you don’t really need the free hours. Whereas there are others who do really need them and are waiting to be eligible because it’s the only way they can afford to return to work.

School is free too... to you. But it costs the government money. So you get a space wherever there is one. You can't demand a space at the one you want.

Nursery funded hours are similar. You can't demand them in the nursery you decide you want. You need to see if there is space, see if the nursery accept funded only children. If not then you go somewhere else.

What exactly do you want out of this thread? You've been given all the information, but still can't see past your own demands.

Cosmic - except we couldn't afford it. We took a loss for a few months (we were fortunately able to do that) otherwise we would have made different decisions. I actually wanted to return to work earlier (would have been better for my career) but we couldn't afford to.

I agree the system isn't great; it's another tory con. However was explained to me as this is a system to give preschool children a head start on education, NOT to help parents get back to work or with childcare costs. So given that children don't legally have to go to school until the term after they turn 5, I expect that's why the funding starts the term after they turn 3. Not helpful for us, but not meant to be.

Did you think that for all those funded hours, the nursery would not have to pay any bills?

Surely that’s between the government and the nursery. Nothing to do with me. Same as school - free to me and how it’s funded is between the government and the school.

It seems to me that if you can already afford to pay for nursery before your child turns 3 then you don’t really need the free hours

Pahahahahahahahahah. You really are just here to be Goady.

Its being advertised as FREE 'cause that's a vote winner!! Part funded doesn't quite have the same ring to it!

As you can see from my pp each funded place 'costs' me £10.05 a week for a 15 hrs a week child or 20.10 for a 30 hr a week child. So that's £381.90 for a 15 hrs a week child or £763.80 for a 30 hrs a week child...... either I just lose that money and in turn ... go out of business as I simply can't afford to drop that amount per child... or I appeal to your better nature and ask you to pay a very small amount to allow me to offer the funding.

So no its not FREE but it does save you a vast amount each week so its not all bad!!

If you want to read some of the struggles faced by nurseries and read all about those who have lost everything following the introduction of the extended funding- please do visit champagne nurseries lemonade funding on Facebook or website.

I'd look into pre schools and/or Childminders rather than nursery and may be worth them starting in January rather than April. They are much cheaper than nurseries (obviously shorter hours). On a low salary you wouldn't make much for first three months but may still worth it. The local nursery where I am is £75 a day (but provides three meals/long days etc) and the pre school is £33 for 6.5 hours. If you use funding we are asked for a voluntary contribution of £1 a day and we provide a packed lunch. It is an excellent pre school.

I use a childminder to pick up/school holidays who also offered funded hours so the 30 hours has made a huge difference to me and my charges are negligible (don't need childcare every day). I do give a more generous voluntary contribution but there is no pressure at all from the pre school or childminder to do so.

There are school nursery which exclusively offer the funded places and should should get a space there. But a private nursery, it's totally up to them. And if you want your kid in a private nursery then you either pay for it from the September or wait until the following September.

This.....".It seems to me that if you can already afford to pay for nursery before your child turns 3 then you don’t really need the free hours. Whereas there are others who do really need them and are waiting to be eligible because it’s the only way they can afford to return to work."

I find your comment really insulting to so many of my parents- I have a single mum- she has struggled putting her baby in nursery when he was 9 months in order for her to work and stay off benefits. She has earn £15 a week more than she would of one benefits.....so I am pretty sure she deserves the help and support this funding is going to bring her just as much as those who have chosen to not work until their child is 3!!

It's free for you, but the PP point was that the government funds it. But unfortunately they don't fund it to the amount they should and so nurseries then are earning less for those "free" hours than the paid ones.

Well what’s the point of publicising that kids get free hours at age 3,

This really annoys me... cos it's not free from 3 is it? It's free from the beginning of the term after your child turns 3 (as long as you can find a place). My daughter misses the cut off by 2 days meaning she won't get her free hours until she is over 3 and a half. Yet it's all advertised as free hours from 3.

I am lucky that I have a great childminder who offers these free hours (and I shall be paying her the shortfall between what the government gives her and what she usually charges) even if I don't get them when she is 3.

I think there will be a space somewhere, whether at a different nursery or with a childminder and hopefully you can find one where your LO is happy.

It seems to me that if you can already afford to pay for nursery before your child turns 3 then you don’t really need the free hours. Whereas there are others who do really need them and are waiting to be eligible because it’s the only way they can afford to return to work

So people like dh and I who are paying £1000 a month for three days a week do ds can go to nursery so I could go back to work and continue my career which I’d worked hard for should continue to be “punished” (for want of a better word) financially because we want to work and didn’t chose to be a sahm?

I needed to work for my own mental health. I’d worked hard to get myself to a position in my career which I value and am valued. I didn’t want to give that up.

The whole point of the “free” hours is that it enables people to keep working. Dc 2 will be born in August. We will then have 2 years of paying two lots of nursery fees until we get a break and free hours (unless our govt changes the way our system works and we get nothing).

We will still get free hours but will have to top up the additional hours ourselves. As far as I’m aware (ds is only 15 months) our nursery won’t take free hours kids for the full free hours only. So to get an available space in the pre school group you’d have to pay for an additional session anyway. That’s just our nursery not all.

It could still be worth putting him on the waiting list of a nursery that is rated poor, if the ofsted report is dated to mean there'll be another one before your DS gets there. If that is the case, it could improve in that time and your DS has a place, if it doesn't, you just remove him from the list and you've lost mornings

Also, I sent my DS to an outstanding nursery for one month. I pulled him out due to issue after issue... sometimes ofsted isn't the only factor to consider. It seemed that nursery were very good at having all the facilities and putting on a great show, but their day to day running was absolutely disgusting.

View some other nurseries, regardless of ofsted, ask local mums their thoughts, go with your gut feeling, after you've viewed them