First time mum - nursery help please!

[Pastelhp]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone would be able to help answer my questions regarding nurseries please.
So I’m currently 28 weeks pregnant, due April 2025. I’m planning on taking 12 months maternity leave, so looking to start nursery from April/May 2026.
I appropriate this is far in advance, but I’d like to be organised and have an idea in mind about costs, funding etc.

1. I understand from September 2025, 30 funded hours come into effect for 9 months + (our household income is £80k for reference). I’ve heard this is split term time though - in reality how many hours per week is this likely to equate to? I’ve also heard that most nurseries have additional charges, does anyone know the average cost of these (appreciate this will differ on location/what’s included)

2. How far in advance do you typically need to apply to a nursery? How far in advance do you need to apply for funding? Do you have to start at the start of term? If my child started in May for example, would we still have to pay for the entirety of the term?

3. As I WFH and my hours are flexible, I’m estimating I will only need 6 hours of childcare per day - is this possible? Or will I still need to pay for a full day of 8/9 hrs?

sorry if these questions are too vague/ obvious - finding all this a bit of a minefield if I’m honest. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

You will need to pay for full days at a day nursery. You won't be the only one!

When your child is older you can look at preschools, which tend to be school hours.

I'm afraid a lot of these answers are going to be location-dependent.

1. 30 hours term-time is roughly 22 hours year round. However, nurseries can choose when they offer the hours, so 'funded' (more like 'subsidised') might be 9-3 M-F term time (even if the nursery is open year round), or might be a max of five hours funded a day if stretched, or any number of other combinations. The additional charges and funded hour pattern is so individual that you're really best just asking the local nurseries you're considering.

2. Again location-dependent, but if you're in a high demand area, you should apply now. If you're in a very high demand area, some nurseries may already be fully booked. For funding, our private nursery likes to have the paperwork done for coming academic year, but I think there is a specific date each term that they have to have the details by.

Similarly, we only paid from when baby started, but if that doesn't fit well with funding deadlines, that may mean you don't get funding for the first bit. (Mine started pre the 9 month funding, so not relevant for us.)

3. A few nurseries and some childminders I think will charge hourly, but most are full day or half day. Depending on your working pattern, you might be able to do a mix of full days (typically 8-6) and half days (most often either 8-1 or 1-6).

Hey! I've not long gone through this myself so I'll try and answer as best as I can, hopefully if I give you any misinformation someone can come along and correct it but I'll just give info based on my experience:

1. Yes that's correct with the 30 free hours, I think it applies to 38 weeks per year so you don't get funding for four weeks. Some nurseries (mine included) allow you to spread the funded weeks across the whole year though (look up stretched funding) so the weekly amount remains the same. So basically we pay slightly more per week but it means we don't have any months where we don't miss out on the funding altogether. Yes I've heard about those additional costs as well (for food, nappies etc) but my nursery includes this in the cost so check with each one as they're probably different!

1. My boy started nursery in Jan this year and I'd registered him from April last year, when I enquired about each nursery I just asked them how much notice I'd need to give. Some were fully booked way in advance and some weren't so again it just depends on the nursery but I would enquire early to be on the safe side. You can start your funding at any point but you just need to make sure you register it on the gov.co.uk website a couple of months in advance and then they'll tell you the latest you need to submit your application.

1. In my experience, nurseries charge for either a morning, an afternoon or a full day. I think I only spoke to one who charged per hour as it was more a flexible, pay as you go type charge but the rest weren't.

So in a nutshell I would say it's very dependant on the nursery, they don't all follow the same policies so definitely get a shortlist of nurseries that you're interested in and go through all these questions. They're very helpful and are used to parents asking these types of questions so should have all the answers you need. Once you find out all the details I'm sure it will be a lot clearer and easier to make a decision. Good luck! It really is a minefield 😂

Sorry in my first point I meant to say fourteen weeks you don't get funding for, not four!

1. What @skkyelark said about hours! What this works out as is super variable depending on location. In London, with 15 funded hours, we were still paying 1800/m for four days. We left London due to childcare costs and currently are charged just over 900 for 4 days with 15 funded hours, instead of 1260. It will be around 580 with the 30 free hours and we send our own nappies.
2. I’d look around and get signed up ASAP. Both nurseries we have used required sign up during pregnancy. Baby three signed up at 6 weeks, before anyone knew about the pregnancy, after I was informed they were full until Spring 2027. I’m 32 weeks now.
3. From my experience, you’ll have to either pay for half days eg. 8-1, or full days. Eldest often only went for 5h when I was on mat leave and I had to pay for the full day.

Point 1 - we stretch our 30hrs year round and it covers 22hrs per week. Our nursery does as a pp suggested - a set morning and afternoon session is funded by the hours and we pay to cover the time before that and after that to cover 8am-6pm. If we wanted a term time only contract, we wouldn't have to pay the extra, but then we could only use nursery 9.30-3.30pm. We also are charged for food. We are in London and for FT, after the funded hours come off, we pay around £750 per month. Remember you can apply for taxfree childcare on top of funded hours, so you can deduct a bit more. I think ours works out at something around £600 per month and the difference is made up by the taxfree element.

Point 2 - we put DDs name down when she was a few months old but friends 2km up the road had to sign up when pregnant. Just email all your local nurseries now and ask about their waiting lists. For our nursery, our child could start anytime but the funding could only be applied from the start of term (Jan, Apr, Sept) after they turn the eligible age - i think this might be the case everywhere. So for example, if child is 9months in May, I think the funding only starts from the Sept. DD2 was 9months in Jan and we are having to wait until Apr for the funded hours. We are paying full price until then.

3 - I think this will be nursery dependent. You'll need to ask them to see if they can provide this kind of flexible offer. To be honest, i signed up both DDs for the whole day - sometimes i drop them late, sometimes I collect early, but it's nice having the flexibility to be able to book an appointment before or after work if I need to.

Thank you all so much for your detailed responses, really helpful!