Not entitled to any free hours at 21 months

[WittyWasp]

My 21 month old daughter attends a nursery that we love. She currently goes for 1 day a week from 8 until 6 (10 hours). We assumed that when the free hours came in in September we would be paying a lot less as most of hours would be paid for by the government. Our nursery has told us that to qualify we have to send her to nursery for at least 2 days a week, not only would this cost us more but would mean she'd either have to go on a day I'm not working (as I work 2 days a week now so I can care for her) or on the day she currently spends with grandparents (which they don't want to give up). So we are currently paying the full price for 1 day.
My question is - is this right? Are nurseries allowed to dictate the minimum hours you spend with them? It feels unfair that we can't access these free hours and I feel like I'm being penalised for cutting down to 2 days a week of working which has already stretched our finances.

Nursery for mine is the same. It's really annoying. Can you check around some other nurseries and see if they are doing the same ?

I'm really surprised you found a nursery happy to take her so little in the first place to be honest. 1 day a week is usually not recommended as it can be hard for them to settle in when they attend so infrequently.

The nursery can set their own rules for the funding. Is there any way if upping your hours so she could do the extra day at nursery that way you're earning more and will also be entitled to the funded hours?

Same here. Most nurseries ask for two days minimum if you want the funding.

I think I will have to do that eventually. She is my only child and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her while she is little. She has settled in really well and loves going to nursery.

A local one near us does a three day a week minimum, one of the days HAS to be a Monday or a Friday. They are definitely allowed to set their own rules. I don’t know of any nursery that’s happy to take a child for just one day a week.

I think it's an understandable rule tbh. The funding they receive is shit, and keeping her place for the sake of one day a week probably isn't worth it. They'll still have to do observations, all the admin etc.

One day of childcare for one DC isn't so bad so if it's working for you I'd just suck it up.

You'll probably want to up her hours as she gets closer to school age anyway so you can revisit then.

I think all nurseries near me are a two day minimum regardless of funding. I'd ask around but you might find it tricky to get anywhere that would do one day funded. You might have more luck if it's a Monday or Friday which is usually a quiet day.

3 day minimum in my area.

I don't blame them for saying no for 1 day, the funding they get is a joke

Thanks for your responses everyone. I had no idea that it was so difficult to get just 1 day at a nursery so now I feel super lucky that I got one day at a nursery we love!

Yes they can dictate - I'm a childminder and have a 12 hour minimum for funded children otherwise it's not worth the hassle.

I don't think 1 day at nursery is ideal can you make it two mornings? I'm not surprised you can't then have it funded. They'd make Zero money out of you

My 21 month old attends 2 mornings a week and has just started getting the funding so could you look around at other local nurseries to see if they offer this?

Could you do 2 short or half days instead with DGP doing pick up or drop off for half/short days?

I found our local nurseries to all be the same minium 2 days with one day having to be either a Monday or Friday.

We do two days a week and get the funding for stretched hours which are 11.4 hours per week, due to consumable fees and admin fees we barely save anything but we in the grand scheme of things still not paying full price which does help.

yes makes perfect sense - they'd be looking after her for free otherwise

At our nursery there are minimum requirements for funded hours. I think 15 hours need to be over at least 2 days and 30 hours over 4+.

We don’t qualify for funding and as a result the nursery give us priority over funded parents as I assume we pay more than they do even with their funding.

Our old nursery was the same - minimum of 2 days and somehow they managed to make it 10.5hrs funding rather than 15. She’s now in a private school nursery for 2 days so it’s 13h as school days only and the whole lot is covered.

Would they consider 1.5 days a week? Or

They can set their own rules. Mine also has the 2 day rule for funding. Some nurseries in town only take full time - they can do that as most are oversubscribed. I have a friend who only works 4 days but has to pay for 5.