Can a nursery restrict 15 funded hours to afternoon sessions only?

[Starryeyed2021]

Hello all, can anyone advice me please?
my daughter is starting 2 full days a week nursery, and for a full day it’s costing us £89 a day. On top of my other child’s wrap around care it’s £100, meaning I’m hardly left with anything going to work. The issue is however; the nursery are not allowing us to use our 15 hours funding for 3 years olds. They say we can only claim it for “ afternoon session’s “ which are 3 hour blocks meaning we only use 6 hours of funding and we lose the rest (9hrs) unless we book another 3 full days which is ridiculous. We don’t get any other funding or benefit, are they allowed to do this?
it’s not sustainable for me to work and pay £100 childcare! But I’m so upset I can’t use the one benefit available to me!

So searching for the answer online this is what it say…

whether it is acceptable for that nursery to offer the funded entitlement only in the afternoon depends on the arrangements with its local authority. The guidance specifically allows local authorities to include additional requirements in their agreements with providers. There is also an important point: the guidance says children should be able to take their free hours in continuous blocks and that there should not be artificial breaks where the nursery makes parents pay for the time between funded sessions.
you should ask the nursery:
“Is the afternoon-only restriction a requirement of the nursery itself, or is it required by the local authority’s funded-hours agreement?

Yes they arw allowed to.

They cannot force you to buy more hours in order to access the funding but they can say funded hours are only between certain times. And as above, there can't be a break in funded hours, therefore forcing you to pay for additional hours like a lunchbreak.

Yes, they can offer it how they like so long as there isn't an artificial break in the middle.
So saying 15 hours is 12-3 every day is fine. They can't say it's 10.30-12 and 1-2.30 and you have to pay for 12-1 though.

Ours did this, you could only have the funding between 12-6, was very annoying as my daughter in was 8!

Yes, the nursery we like do this. There are lots of other local nurseries and surprisingly this one is not full…

yes they can offer their totally free hours at any weird time they like

It's annoying but they can do this.
You mention working, just checking you're not eligible for the 30 hours?

I decided not to use a nursery which had this arrangement. Funded hours available 9-12 and 1-4, breakfast 8-9 was £5, lunch 12-1 was £5 then evening 4-6 was £20 so a ‘funded’ day would have cost me £40, and the only way to use all 30 hour was to go 5 days.

Both nurseries I have used have applied 10 hours funding to a full day (with a £10-15 top up fee in varying degrees of optional) and any extra days are full price.

Are there any other nurseries near you that offer different funded hours?

My kids nurseries applied the funding to full days but stretched it over the whole year. It works out as 2 and a half days funded a week, the rest paid full.

My local nursery only offers 15 funded hours from 9am until midday and 30 hours 9-3. If you want the wrap around hours you have to pay for them, seems fair enough to me.

Can you adjust your working hours to make it work? Perhaps juggling with your DH? I would get creative with work patterns if possible