Term dates for funding after 9 months

[itsturtlesallthewaydown]

I keep reading that your child is eligible for funding "from the term after they turn 9 months old"

Our child will be 9 months in early April 2026, and the next term starts on 22 April 2026, so I would expect to get funding from then. However our nursery have said that they need to turn 9 months before 1st April, and so we can only get funding from September.

Is that correct? Where do these dates come from - everything I've read in many places always says "the term after they turn 9 months".

Nothing about specific cut off dates that don't relate to the actual term dates.

These are the term dates. Yellow is holidays, white is school term:

terms

www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

There is a calculator on childcare choices that might clarify it for you.

When exactly is your child 9 months?

Unfortunately from a funded childcare perspective your DC was born at just about the worst time.

They count new term dates as Jan 1st, April 1st and Sept 1st.

This means that a child who turns 9 months old on April 2nd won’t qualify until September 1st yet a child born a day earlier would get 5 months more funding. That would be worth around 2.5k/3k.

Cut off dates are 31st March, 31st December and 31st August. From the 1st of the next month they will have to wait until the next term.

The dates are on the childcare choices website

Ah ok thanks.

I hadn't seen that website, I just read everywhere it was the term after they turn 9 months.
I wish people were clearer that it's not the actual term.

What a stupid way to do this. What the point in this? We're going to lose thousands of pounds of funding compared to someone who had a baby a week earlier.

It makes no fucking sense.

It's because of the cut off dates for claiming funding - both as parents and as settings.

Term dates can vary by region which is why they use set dates as per the childcare choices website.

It's frustrating but they have to draw the line somewhere. Like a child born 31st August goes to school a year earlier than one born 1st Septrmber.

A year ago this funding stream didn't exist. I had to wait to get 30hrs until the term after my child's 3rd birthday. Be greatful for this expansion and the fact your going to be getting funded hours 2 years early compared to parents literally 18 months ago. As has been said there has to be a cut off and this is needed to keep the pr9cess manageable for the department of education, local authorities and early years providers. You seem extremely entitled

What a horrible thing to say. The system is not fit for purpose and does disadvantage children born in certain months/weeks. The stupid split of one three month, one four month and one five month term is just a joke. The whole system needs reviewing and the more parents complain, the better. Yet another government initiative that is badly planned and thought through. Though everyone in early years knows we are not a priority…

They are just building on old systems. The term time one is outdated now everyone gets funding rather than just the preschoolers in early education. They need to make a distinction between the original intent and the current need.

Go on then, explain to me why there has to be an arbitrary cutoff that massively disadvantages some people based on a date of birth?

Why can finding not just start from the day the child turns 9 months?

Nursery provision has nothing to do with school terms. Ours is 51 weeks a year yet we lose thousands of pounds compared to someone else in the same nursery that had a baby a week earlier.

Being fucked off about that does not "make me entitled".

The portals that we use as settings to ensure we get paid, need information uploaded every term to calculate how much funding we are due. Different LAs use different portals but the process is essentially the same.

Unless you want to ask settings to do this weekly then it's not tenable to have flexible start and end dates for every child. Checking the codes, checking the details and uploading all the info, waiting for it to be confirmed and then waiting for payment is bad enough each term, let alone more frequently.

As a cm i do this in my own time. Larger settings will be paying an employee to do it. Either way it would increase costs which would be passed on to you as the parent.

Getting cross at providers that you cannot assess childcare funding when you think you should is not helpful, it's not our fault. Lobby the government if you care that much but im happy with only 3 times a year so im fine with the system as it is.

This. Without set windows providers would be asked to submit individual claims for individual throughout a term. It would add a huge amount of admin to them.
Also the DfE would never have an accurate census return made from their local authority. How would the DfE fund the local authorities for the nursery funding they are paying out as literally the day they calculated what they needed to pass through to their LA aa new child could become eligible.

Exactly! The amount of additional admin on settings would likely be the straw that breaks the camels back. Settings are already closing in droves and this would just add to the crisis that is currently happening. Financially, it would also be a mess especially with the tax digital becoming a monthly occurrence.

I’m a childminder so far smaller than a nursery preschool. I already have a huge amount of admin and, as a pp said, I do this in my own time. I’m not getting paid to do it. This would just add to my already unpaid workload. Bigger settings it would be an absolute nightmare.

unfortunately, some parents just want more and more which sadly is to the detriment of the settings. Instead of celebrating the fact that children now get more funded childcare than ever before, they’re finding more things to complain about. I do sympathise as my child just missed out of funding when she turned 3. I put up with it though as that’s just the way it is.

what people are going to find now is that many, many children will miss out on funding as there just isn’t enough places for everyone.

I agree that the more parents are given for free (funded 😂), the more they are complaining!

I'd love to show them an invoice of what they should be paying if it wasn't funded.

So many people here ready to hate those who complain, when it’s the system that should be hated. Hope I never become
so blinkered that I’m happy to accept injustice because ‘that’s just the way it is’. It’s not a race to the bottom! The system admin could be overhauled to the benefit of all - settings and parents.

Except it's the OP getting shirty at responders here because they dont like the answers. As I said, lobby the government if you don't like it. I personally think it's fine as is my perogative. And yes, as a provider I am seeing many more parents moaning when they've never had such tiny invoices. That's pretty gutting to receive when we're doing more admin than ever, in our spare time, so parents can get this help and get poor rates of pay in return.

So no, I dont have sympathy particularly. Just as parents you don't have sympathy for us. Just complaints. As if it's our fault. It's not. Write to your MP.

It’s extremely frustrating. My daughter is also early April so we had to wait until the September (when she was almost 3.5) to get the 3 year funding. My son was due in late March and I was adamant I’d be getting an induction to avoid the same thing with him!!!

You’re very unlucky OP and I fully sympathise as I also lost out. But there’s no way to fight or argue this. And as someone else said there has to be a cut off somewhere - just like someone born on 1st September ends up paying for an extra year of childcare compared to someone who was born 1 day earlier.

I'm not cross at the providers - clearly it's not their fault and it's the government policy.

I still think this could be done when the child care application is made to the provider. Weekly or at least monthly.

The current system having 3 significantly different time gaps spread over the year significantly peanalises some people for no reason.

It seems the more funding that’s offered the more people complain! Most families I know take a year maternity so starting the scheme from 9 months means that whenever they are born at, a year they can claim. Those of us with older children who paid for our own childcare can grumble big time! Honestly take the subsidies and stop moaning, my dc didn’t get anything until 3 and then it was a measly 12.5 hours a week and to be taken over 5 sessions

So? The world moves on! Just because you’re bitter the system wasn’t as generous when yours were young, shouldn’t stop you from seeing how unequal it is, based on the lottery of a birth date. I didn’t get funding for mine either, but I still have the brainpower to underhand that someone who misses the 5 month April - August funding by a day must feel very aggrieved. The system is ridiculous and the OP is correct to call it out. I have no idea why you’re all jumping on her with your back in my day stories… We all know things were worse in the past in many ways, doesn’t mean we can’t support improvements and hope for better for our own children and their children.

The problem is, all the changes they have already made and any they make in the future comes to the detriment of the settings that provide the childcare. There is a childcare crisis with settings closing in droves. Each change they make is never in the interest of settings and just another nail in the coffin. Our workload is growing exponentially but we don’t see funding increases to cover the extra work. We are expected to supply more and more but don’t see any financial support to do so. We are expected to supply champagne level childcare for lemonade prices.

As I said in a previous post, instead of celebrating the fact that more funded child care is on offer than ever before, people find more and more to complain about. It’s never enough, people want more and more. There will always be aggrieved people who miss out in some sort of way for whatever reason. There has to be a limit otherwise there will be no settings for the children to go to. People are already battling for spaces, there just isn’t enough for all the children who need childcare.