30 hours free childcare help

[Floozymum]

My son turned 3 in February and I was given my 30 hours funding code. He goes 2 full days a week all year around. The first month I was apparently entitled to 30 hours and charged £80 for the extras. This month I received a bill for £380 and apparently only entitled to 15 free hours.

Obviously I have queried this, and my nursery has told me because he doesn't go 30 hours a week, only 22, I'm only entitled to 20 hours free childcare. I know the 30 hours are for term time only but I presumed the hours are worked out over a term and they'd stretch out the hours to cover all year round if I was taking less than 30 a week? The nursery are telling me they put the wrong hours in for the first month which is why I got the 30 hours and it's the Local council who have made the decision to only give 20 hours. They've also told me I owe them a further £250+ to cover last month fees.

I'm really struggling to understand the whole thing. Is it the local council who decide the hours or down to the nursery?

My DD does less than 30hrs and goes full year so inc school holidays, we pay approx £220 month to cover the holiday fees.

The hours she attends term time are funded, our nursery does not split them equally over the year, most won't. As funding is term time I wouldn't expect to use unused funded hours in school holidays

@Floozymum your bill does seem high for two days tough I'd query that and ask for a break down

We haven't got there yet but I asked our nursery to give me a breakdown of what it would look like and they stretch 30 hours TTO to something like 2 and a bit days a week all year round. I don't see how they can give you 20 hours if you're entitled to 30?
I'd call their bluff and ask them for a contact at the council who does the calculations to discuss directly. I think I'd be looking at other nurseries too possibly as that just sounds like a piss take. But as I say I've no experience yet other than what my nursery have quoted which looked 'right' to me.

I don’t think they can stretch out the hours to use funded ones over the holidays - or at least it wasn’t allowed when I worked in a nursery, which was admittedly a long time ago. We could only use the funding for term time, and we could only claim for the exact amount of hours being used each week - we couldn’t use the left over funding for extras, or save it up, etc.

Maybe my nursery is in the minority then, another reason to love them!

How have they calculated £380 if you're getting 15 hours a week free in their words? You should only be paying for half a day and whatever consumables charge they magic up- £380 buys you 7 full days here with no funding 🤷‍♀️

Are you entitled to 30 or 15 hours?

My dc does 2 full days a week 8-5. I get 30 hours but she goes all year round so spread out this covers her 2 days so we don’t pay extra.

That sounds really complicated what they’re doing. How much did you normally pay before?

Thanks for the replies. So I'm guessing some nurseries don't stretch it out, which is fine.

For reference he has been going there for nearly 2 years, 2 days a week and I've previously been paying £625 a month.

I can't really work out the maths but it does seem like they are charging me a lot still when most of the hours are presumably covered.

I'd go back to your local council to check as it doesn't sound right. My nursery is pretty good in that parents can choose to use the 30 hours free in term time or spread it out over the whole year which gives you something like 22 hours a week.

Hmmm I've been doing some digging. It seems the £80 odd a month covers the remaining hours if I'm given the 30 hours a week spread over the year. Which is what the first month was

However the nursery put you on a different fee schedule once you are entitled to these free hours. Which effectively makes it much more expensive!

I understand they have to charge for meals etc. But are they really allowed to charge that much and claim you aren't entitled to the hours?

Your child is entitled to 570 universal hours and 570 extended hours in a calendar year, assuming your circumstances remain the same. Childcare providers can offer this term time only, over 38 weeks or stretched over 48 weeks. Stretched placement averages at 23.75 hours a week. Not all provisions offer the stretched funding though.

You need to speak to the nursery so they can clarify exactly what they are claiming and what the extra charges are. You should have signed a parental declaration at the start of the term which detailed how many hours per week you were claiming, which setting it was at etc In my local authority the nursery must have this to be able to claim the funding.

It's 30 hours a week term time, or 22 hours a week if you choose to 'stretch' the funding over the whole year.

Nursery can only claim funding for the hours a child is actually doing. For If they are found to be claiming, for example, the full 30 hours for a child who only attends half that they would be in trouble. Which is why they will be quite careful with only claiming what they actually actually allowed.

You can also only claim funding for a maximum of 10 hours a day though, so if he's in for 12 hours 2 days a week then you will be charged for that extra 2 hours per day.

So you'll be paying for 4 hours a week that your funding won't cover.
Do they then have a charge for meals/consumables as well? As that would also add to the cost.

If you have underpaid last month, could you be paying more this month to rectify it and you'll get your 'normal' bill next month?

Ask them for a breakdown of the invoice so you can see exactly what you're paying for

My nursery stretch the hours, but you only get the full 30 equivalent if you send them full time. Ant less and you don't get access to the whole 30. Eg my dd attends 5 hours every morning, I get 3 of those funded so pay for 2 hours a day. They should give you a fee structure so you can see exactly how much it should cost