How do you work around this?

[Smudge738]

Just looking at when my DD turns 3 and has 15 hours free childcare, this seems to be 3 hours per day, how do you work around this? I will be working 3 days a week and this will be 9-5! Please let me know what you do...

Are you sure she doesn’t get the 30 hours?

You should get 39 free hours. Speak to your nursery about it though as they'll have their own rules about how you can use it.

Is this a typo for 30?

You pay to top it up.....
Just the same as you'd pay prior to getting the 15/30 hours

You should get 30 free hours not 15, you will just pay the difference in hours.

It depends where you use the free hours.
A school nursery will be 5x3 hour sessions yes but private nurseries might be willing to just deduct the hours off your total bill.
You'll only find out by talking to them but be aware, the "free" hours often leave nurseries short as they're not well funded so nurseries sometimes configure sessions in odd ways and/or charge for extras because they're trying to cover costs.

She hasn’t said how much she earns so how do you know she’s entitled to 30?

whether you get 15 or 30 free hours you just pay the difference. And it’s not 3 hours per day, it’s 15 hours per week.

You pay for the hours you need.

When DD turned 3 and got the 30hrs it just reduced our overall childcare bill

Thank you all!

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking but....

You will be eligible for 30 hours free childcare at 3 years old, so long as you or your partner do not make over £100k per annum (and I am assuming you don't as you work part time) and meet the minimum income requirements. If not, it's 15 hours.

It is 15 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year (ie term time). This is fairly simple if it's a pre school or school nursery that your child is attending that follows school terms. If it's a private nursery or childminder or register nanny, you may be able to split over 52 weeks.

It doesn't matter if your (say) 15 hours per week is made up of 3 hrs daily for 5 days or some other pattern. My DS goes to preschool 4 days a week and his hours are slightly longer on a Monday than on his remaining days - our pre school is pretty flexible.

His hours at preschool are exactly 15 hours so I don't pay them anything at all (except for certain activities they add on), but we use wrap around childminder care and we pay her directly.