30 hours free

[user1465146157]

Our 30 hours free childcare started just as lockdown began - we have stopped paying our side of the fees now after a month of paying 20%, but wondering are we obliged to say anything about the 30 hours free?

I presumed the government would stop these payments themselves but not sure if we were to do anything?

are the nurseries still receiving the 30 hours free payments even in this time?

Same here, nursery asked for the code at start of lockdown so I presume they've been claiming them. Have they asked for your code? They haven't charged anybody any fees in this period so wouldn't know how it works with those.

I believe that some childcare providers are eligible to continue to claim the hours as government support for their settings to remain solvent

Local authorities are still paying 80-100% of funding to settings.

The nursery education funding and additional childcare funding is being used to pay furlough to staff.

It can be a complex furlough claim calculation for nurseries who have some children who are funded and others who are not.

All nursery and childcare providers have still received the funding from the government during lockdown to help them stay afloat and pay staff, they don’t get the funding and furlough it’s based upon the % of funding money they get. The hours Lost due to lock down are also not transferable to a later date this term , you will only have access to the remaining hours if your nursery opens again.

Makes sense - I just wasn't sure if I was to change anything or notify anyone as the rules were quite clear when applying, that if circumstances change we were to tell them.

However surely as this is so unprecedented and the government obviously know already so I guess we just leave everything as is

In normal times the nursery have to submit termly records of children attendence who receive the funding so if your child stops going, so does the funding (they get audited so it's legit) however this is a very different time and the nursery should still be receiving the funding to help sustain the business. Also for the 30hrs you have to confirm you are eligible every 3 months so if your situation changes, the funding will stop

Have this conversation with the nursery involved because funding is not as simple as they pay 30 hours per week. The funding is sometimes paid over the year or term time. They have to do a head count send their figures into the local authority. The nursery should be able to to help you

Yes the nurseries are still allowed to claim this money to help pay their staff

One of the first statements Boris made on lock down was that funding would continue to be paid to childcare and not clawed back.