Can childcare providers claim funding when a child is away?

[DillyDallyingAllDay]

I love my child’s preschool and we use all our ‘free hours’ with them. There are times when I’m not working and we go out for the day or just have a lazy day quite last minute. Are the preschool still able to get paid the funded hours by the council if my child isn’t in? Ever since my child had settling in sessions- where she wasn’t in for her full allocation etc I’ve always assumed they would be ( and really hope they are) but just wanted to check. Does anyone know how this works?

An occasional illness or holiday is fine, but if the nursery is regularly claiming for hours you don't attend they might have to pay them back.
Different LAs deal with this in different ways, some are stricter than others when they audit.
But in general the rule is settings should only claim for the hours a child attends.

Of course they can claim the funding if you cancel on them last minute. They have to put in for funded hours before the term starts. Any sick days, holidays or occasional day off means you lose those funded hours. Particularly if last minute.

The only time a nursery has to pay the money back is if a child is off for an extended period of time. With my local authority it is 4 weeks.