15 hours - confused!

[Saddler89]

Hi all, my son is eligible for 15 hours funding from September - he currently attends 2 mornings one week and 3 the next. Nursery are saying the only way I can use the funding is by sending him for a full day one day a week, and then the additional mornings. Obviously we don’t need the afternoon - but nursery saying this is the only possible option… anyone else had this?

Is it because they want you to 'spend' the full 15 hours there? I think this is maybe the issue.

Have you asked them why they need to do it this way? They can presumably give you a more accurate answer than us.

It’s because if you don’t use the full hours they lose out on funding. You do need to use the full amount, or pay the extra for the hours you don’t use.

It just seems a little unfair that we have to send him for a full day - when he doesn’t need it and will likely still be collected at 1 o clock.

I’m sure you’ll still be able to pick him up at lunch time. Just ask the nursery to clarify that you’re only applying for the funding for the extra afternoon but not required to leave him there for that time.

Very common with the 15 and 30 hr funding, nurseries can decide how they will allow it to be used.
At ours you couldn’t do a full day without paying a top up as you could use only am or pm sessions but not lunchtimes. So it was open 7.30-6 but funded sessions were only 9-12 and 1-4.

my DS went 2 full days and 1 half day but we have recently change it to 5 half days now as we feel full days are too much for him and our nursery are great at being flexible and changing it all for us..not sure why your nursery would say that