15 hours free childcare - 1 year old?

[WhyohwhyDIY]

I'm really confused about how the free hours are applied. I'm due back at work next month, my parents will be looking after the baby a few days a week, and the other day or so I'd like to have her in nursery.

Am I right in thinking nurseries don't just allow you to use the free hours, but instead ask you book in for more days and use the free hours towards the bill? I had heard this was the case and can fully understand why this might be. But then a friend of mine who worked in nurseries for decades until recently told me she'd been in many settings where children were there only for their 15 or 30 funded hours.

I don't want to send the baby to nursery more days than I need to because time with her grandparents is precious, and money is so tight at the moment.

Does anyone know if there are nurseries that give places to children who will solely use the funded hours? I'm in London if that makes a difference!

The funded hours from 9 months doesn’t start until September. Yes there are some settings that will allow you to just use the funded hours, but these are mainly preschool settings and rare in other nurseries. Most private nurseries have a minimum number of days or sessions, often 2, and charge wrap around hours and meals/consumables on top.

You're best off just contacting all the local nurseries and finding out. Round where I am they seem to all do it in different ways. Also, you may be in for a very long wait until a space frees up.

Some nurseries do, eg if you are only going one day a week that will be 10 hours max. They usually charge for food and resources so it would be about £15 a day at our current one. When DS moves to preschool the days are 6 hours term time only so the funding stretches much further obviously. Waiting lists for all nurseries are quite long around here though.

Have you got a place at a nursery? You might not be able to get her in, there are often months long waits for places.

Settings where you can use just the free hours tend to be pre-schools with morning and afternoon sessions where you maybe pay for lunch/top-ups, rather than day nurseries for babies.

The 15 hours for 1 year old won't apply until September, and assuming you don't have a place, good luck - where we live, you have to get on waiting list at least a year ahead. I'm 25 weeks pregnant and we've already gone on the waiting list. Our nursery said they give priority to children who will do at least 2 full days.

Thanks for the replies, really helpful. Thankfully we live in an area with a nursery on every corner and when I emailed some a few months ago, there were places available. So I'm not too worried about getting her in somewhere.

If they have space they might be more willing to accept your child going for less time although you will have to pay top-up fees for most. Every nursery has their own policy so just contact the ones you are interested in and ask. One issue is that it can be hard to get them settled in with too few days which is another reason some nurseries have a minimum number of days. At my nursery the minimum is 2 full days. Some that friends use only accept full time.