Can only claim for 6 hours per day funded Hours

[EveryDayIsHappyDadDay]

Hello, I am hoping for some kind advice and understanding. Our 3yr old qualifies for the 30 free/funded hours. However, he actually only attends 2 'full' days (morning session, lunch club, and afternoon session) a week . He only started last term, and the hours were:
08.30 – 11.30 Morning session
11.30 – 12.00 Lunch Club (He....they all take their own packed lunch)
12.00 – 14:30 Afternoon session
Total hours - 6... so he attends 12 hours per week.
At which point, we were only invoiced a small fee for consumables e.g. nappies/wipes etc - which is fine.

This term, the hours are the same, apart from the afternoon session is now 1/2 hour longer - ending at 15:00. Therefore, he now attends 13 hours a week.

We are now being invoiced for the 1/2 hour lunch club, so (inc the consumables) woks out at circa £45 per month. We are very lucky that this won't put a huge stress on our finances, but, like everyone - we are always thankful of any expenditure that can be avoided. What I couldn't (still can't) understand is why... as we aren't even using 1/2 of our allotted 30 hours. I queried it with the nursery and they said they only we can only claim for 6 hours per day.
If that is a governments rule, or even for some reason their rule - that's absolutely fine... but I just cannot for the life of me find any detail or guidance on this on the .gov site, the nursery site, or any site for that matter. I am probably being stupid, but can anyone explain this to me and/or reassure me that this is the same for all?
My only thought is... is it because our code states we have 30 hours, but doesn't recognize that we don't use them, and just get blanketed - so the code means they think we go over the allotted free hours and need to be charged for the additional. Therefore, we should (if you can) try to reduce it to 15 and get a new code? Or is just the universal rule. or??

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated
Many thanks : )

My 3 year old DD goes to a childminder, 7.30am - 3.30pm Mon - Wed. We pay nothing outside of holidays. I suspect that the nursery might be doing this as a way of making up a financial shortfall but they shouldn't be. if it's 30 hours or less overall, you shouldn't be paying in term time.

Thank you @PineappleWilson really appreciate your response and thoughts. Just your response was enough to make me think I'm at least not completely stupid. So, I rang the nursery accounts person, just to ask clarification, she said they are literally only allowed to claim for 6 hrs per day no matter how many hours are utilized from the 30 hours. She agreed it is very silly, but according to her - that is the gov rule. I still find it strange that I cannot find this information anywhere online, particularly on the .gov site. Again perhaps I'm just missing it somewhere, but hey...

The nursery can specify that the free hours can only be used on certain hours. Ie morning and afternoon session but parents must pay for the lunch club and for any consumables.

Ring your local council who issue the FEEE funding. They will be able to tell you if this is a rule they have applied. As a childminder this is certainly not something I do. .

Does he go all year round?

30 hours free is only for term time, so if he goes all year are they pro-rata'ing the allowance? I can't remember how many term weeks are in a year, but perhaps they're getting their figures from: (30 hours x 38 weeks) / 52 weeks?

Nurseries all have different ways of doing it. Ours offers about 6 different funding/hours options, none of which is perfect for us so we've gone with the one that's good enough. I believe if the hours they are open are outwith 9-3 it's up to them how they apply funding in these hours, and they can also charge for the lunch hour. We use 20hrs a week, but our nursery allows us to do that year round. If you do year round, I think it works out that you get 22 hrs a week free.

I think it’s because the 30 hours only covers educational provision, so ‘lunch club’ is outside this. That was the case in school nursery settings - children could attend for the morning session and the afternoon session free under funded hours, but if you wanted them in both your pay for ‘lunch club’ separately as it was just supervision rather than education. Although this link says ‘care’ so I’m not sure.

www.eyalliance.org.uk/30-hours-free-childcare-what-parents-need-know

Government funding is meant to cover the delivery of early education and care only. This means that childcare providers are allowed to charge for additional goods, services and activities, such as lunch or trips, as long as these charges are voluntary. For example, your provider might give you the choice of paying for lunch or providing lunch yourself, though it is important to note that this is not possible at all childcare settings (for example, some may not have food storage facilities).

You should ask them if their policy has changed - it’s not the case they ‘can’t’ claim for more than 6 hours according to the government but it might be the policy of that nursery/whoever manages them.

Honestly they all just make up there own rules. I've just moved my DD she goes 2 days per week 8am-5pm, previous nursery had a top up of £15 per day for food and consumables, they only let you claim the 30 hours if you go for 3 full days, and in the school holidays you have to pay full fees so 55 a day for each of the 3 days. I only need 2 days. There option was I could claim 15 hours and pay the top up plus a half day and then in holidays pay in full for the 2 days.
New nursery offer 'stretched' funding so you can use 21 hours per week over the year, the top up is £8 a day. It's £1800 less for us having moved her nursery. Original nursery tried telling me it was council policy that I claimed all 30 or none, but I contacted the council and had an email of them saying I could use the hours how worked for our family, nursery then changed to well our policy is this, they just originally wanted it to look like the council not them who were being awkward.

It is definitely NOT the government rule that you can only use 6 hours a day. It may well be the nursery's rule.

Many settings offer only sessions where the funding can be used eg 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, and the lunch session and after hours sessions are chargeable. That sounds like what is happening here.

It is not the government rule its the nursery policy to make up for the short fall in funding. Many nurseries have the same policy childminders tend to swallow the loss becouse they feel its unfair on parents and usually do the hours you want including lunch times.

Hopscotch nurseries state on their site that you can only use up to 6 hours per day. Have you looked on your nursery's website? As long as they offer free sessions, they can set their own terms.