Hi,
My oldest son is 3 years old and due to start getting childcare funding starting in Sept 23. We also have an 8 month old son that will begin at nursery in Oct 23.
In recent months I've been attempting to understand the costs for when they are both at nursery together. They will both be going for 1 and a half days each (our oldest was going 2 days a week but we have scaled back to save money ahead of our youngest joining).
We know how much we will have to pay for our youngest as it's what we currently pay for our eldest. However I've been trying to get a clear answer on our oldest son's costs. We have decided to proceed based on 30 hour childcare strecthed over 52 weeks (total 21.9 hours per week).
Our nursery has confirmed that for an 11 hour day they will only be able to claim 7.3 funded hours and for a 5.5 hour half day they will only be able to claim 3.65 funded hours. What this means is that for a total of 16.5 hours, they will only claim 10.95 hours from the government and the remaining 5.55 hours will be non-funded therefore the full amount.
The difference between paying for essentials & extras only (food, crafts etc.) vs 5.5h non-funded hours plus essentials & extras is around £100-150 extra.
My frustation is about paying for extra hours when we aren't above the strecthed allocation. I've questioned this with our nursery who have said their policy means they only utilise the full 21.9 hours if your child attends 3 days a week minimum. I've had a look at the nursery terms & conditions and I cannot see anything that states this.
I totally understand paying for essentials and extras at the nursery, and fully on board with this, but having to pay for additional hours when we should be entitled to them for free does not make any sense whatsoever to me. It's hard enough in times like these let alone when you're having to pay £1k+ a year on something you should be getting for free!
This is at a Busy Bees branch in Norfolk.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any words of advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.