Childcare - 15 hours spread across the year?! CONFUSED!

[ploddingalong2023]

Hello!

Our little one is 2, turning 3 in June. So will be eligible for the 15 hours in April and then the 30 hours in September.

We are planning on spreading the 15 hours across the year, term time and not, so it amounts to 7 hours per week.

But I had a thought...as it increases to 30 hours in September does that mean that when we thinking of spreading the hours, that we could spread it across the 22 weeks (the gap between April to September) instead of having to do 52 weeks? Or work it out so we are using the same total amount of hours?

15 x 38 = 570 - the total hours allocated for a year...
15 hours x 22 weeks = 330 hours

So could we essential use 330 hours between April to September instead?

As we would be using less than the amount of hours allocated before moving over to 30 hours?

I am trying to write this so it makes sense...hopefully this does or someone understands!! It is difficult to explain!!

Thanks in advance!!

Standard funding is 15 hrs a week for 38 weeks. Stretched funding is 12 hrs a week for 47.5 weeks not 52 weeks.
Not sure where you’ve got 7 hrs from ?

@Justathought2016 Interestingly our nursery says 11 hours. But then they’re open 51 weeks of the year. Could that be the reason?

That aside, check your nursery policy OP. We can only use our funding towards full sessions. A session can be morning, afternoon or full day. A full day is 10 hours. So the extra 1 hour (if 11 hours) is lost.

You need to ask your nursery as most have specific rules about when you can use your hours and not all will stretch them. Due to the awful funding they receive from the government (which doesnt cover what it actually costs them to run the nursery) you often dont end up with that much reduction in your bill as you have to pay for other things, or are restricted on when you can use the funded hours.

Also, you cant use all your annual hours over a few months either as thats not how it works - they are for term time only across a whole year or stretched across 52 weeks if your nursery offers that provision.

I really think its best you talk to the finance team at the nursery as they will be able to guide you through it all.

@PurBal I’ve not heard of that before but it could be that different local authorities have different rules. The 47.5 weeks allows for holidays but I guess if they only close for 1 week a year then it makes sense to stretch the hours over more weeks.

Each term is capped, you can't mix and match to suit yourself.

The summer term in my LA is 13 weeks so 13 x 15 = 195 hours

in Answer to your maths q. Between April-Sept you will only get funding for the 13 weeks (1 full term) so you will get 13 x 15 that you can stretch.

13 x 15hrs = 195 hours

stretched over the 22 weeks it will be 8.86hrs per week.

you can’t stretch something you haven’t had funding for.

Possibly 12 weeks depending on when the Easter break falls.

You will only get one terms worth of 15 hour funding.

If the 15 hours funding is stretched it should be 11 hours per week.

I'm not quite sure I'm following what you're asking but the nursery will claim your funding on a termly basis and will only have the option of claiming 15 hours per week term time only or 11 if your child is attending during the holidays. (If that is their policy)

My nursery doesn't pro rata the funded hours so each month we pay for the number of funded and unfunded days used depending on whether there was a school holiday or not.
They used to average them but since September they stopped doing it as it simpler to pay as you go especially if they had a few people moving mid term/year. You are probably best speaking to your provider

Thank you everyone!! This all makes so much more sense.

I wasn’t aware it was worked out by terms weeks. And also didn’t know it was 51 weeks, and if you had noticed, my maths isn’t great! 😂

I have a childminder who is happy to spread it however so I am sure she will work it out for me anyway but wanted to try and budget first and work out a rough figure!!

thanks again :)

Your childminder will be told by LA which weeks are covered & how many hours are available to spread, varies because of different school holidays but generally similar.
In my area you def wouldn't be able to do the April-Sept idea. It's a set no of hours for the term time or stretched model & operates on a 'use it or lose it' basis as set by Gov. So you can't decide to bank your hours if you're on holiday etc & use when suits. Don't even ask the nursery/childminder - it's not them who set the rules & they would be losing money to accommodate any variation - difficult when so many are going under already due to the l9w rates paid by gov as it stands.