Nursery 30 hrs funding help!

[mumof2wife]

My 2.5 yr old does 2x full days 8-6pm all year round at a private nursery and her the finding hours at the nursery are 9-12 or 12-3 or 9-3 then we pay wrap around care for 50 weeks of the year and pay from 8-9am and 3pm-5pm

Our bill is still £477 and we have to provide food

I'm trying to work out a schedule to reduce our bill come September when she gets her 30 hrs without me having to work 10-2 term time
My job pretty flexible I currently work 3 full days 9-5 and my mum has my daughter one day a week

I still want at least one day a week with my daughter as at the moment I have two and it's a great balance
But she definitely would benefit from more nursery and I love my day offs in the week with her

Next year she will be at school and doing 5 days so the maximum I want her to do is 4 days come September

My mum will be able to do pick ups so I'm thinking something like

Monday - 9-3 my mum to collect
Tuesday 9-3 funded
Wednesday full day - pay wrap around 4hrs
Thursday day off - no hours used
Friday 9-3 funded

Then I can work my normal Monday Wednesday Friday and my mum can collect Monday and Friday and I ask to work an extra day 10-2 on Tuesday

Thing is - due to wrap around care and funding being only term time it's still going to be expensive as I'll still be using an extra day and I'll be paying when it's not funded

But this is only using 24 hours of the 30
Hours but I cant see how i can make it work any better?

Has anyone got any ideas or been in same position when it came to the 30 hours ?

Thanks for reading

Does your nursery offer stretched hours? Some nurseries do - its where they stretch the term time funded hours across the full year. So 30hrs term time only becomes something like 22hrs year round. You then wouldn't have a big bill for the holidays and you'd also not feel like you were "losing" your six hours in a normal week, because you'd gain them back in the holidays. What do you do for the holidays at the minute?

Was going to say the same thing about stretching the hours. I normally think of the 30 hours as a discount on fees but not completely free as there is always a top up to pay

Ah yes they do stretched as that's what we have at the moment so that makes sense - that's what we have at the moment but as I say I'm really trying to get the bill down as much as I can so if that means upping her childcare to pay more and for me to work more and see her less than I'd keep things the same!

That makes sense and clarifies a lot
Thank you x