Confused about funded hours

[ForHonestDeer]

We’re new to receiving funded hours and I was hoping for some clarity as I’m very confused!
My understanding was the 15/30hours funding would cover the childcare costs for those hours at nursery and then the nursery would charge a daily rate for things like meals, activities, nappies etc. I’ve read that nurseries aren’t allowed to charge ‘top up fees’.
Our nursery have said the way they run it is that they just deduct what the government pay from our standard day rate so in fact we’ve not seen much of a reduction at all. My daughter has recently turned two and our bill has gone up because they get paid less funding for 2 year olds. They’re also putting their fees up this month so we’re almost back to the pre-funded hours rate anyway.

Can anyone shed any light on whether this is the right way for them to be processing it or not?

Thank you

Technically they're not supposed to call it a 'top up' but they can charge for consumables, snacks and additional activities.

You might find a childminder is cheaper.

Every nursery applies funding differently. It's a mind field and the government hours don't stretch that far. Childminder?

My nursery used to deduct the number of hours for the bill so if at 50 hours I would pay for 28 hours as I did stretched funding over the year.

Some seem to be milking the system though.

find a different nursery

View them as a contribution to those hours. Because that’s effectively what they are.

We wouldn't be able to do that in our county (Somerset) We have to deduct the number of hours not the money we receive. I would challenge this

If you're on stretched funding it may only be 11 hours per week government contribution.

The system does need a big shake up as it is still based on the way it was for preschool education - ie based on needs of the child getting school ready - rather than the year around needs parents have for childcare while they work. Stretching 38 weeks for babies seems a bit silly given most of them are only there for their parents to work rather than for education.

Sounds normal unfortunately. The extended funded hours was never economically viable. Our nursery increase their fees last Jan, August, this Jan and now March too. New fees in the space of less than a year are significantly higher than pre-funding.