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Funding for 3 year old - nursery being weird about it.

27 replies

Nikolite · 24/03/2025 17:09

Hi everyone.

My son has been attending Cumnor House nursery in Purley since April last year and has been taking advantage of 15 hours funding however I’ve read when children turn 3 years old, 15 hours turn into 30 hours.
Our nursery is however very strange about this - they’ve just emailed us this : „Unfortunately, the Funding given by Croydon Council is less for 3 year olds than 2 year olds, hence the higher invoice fee.”

I do believe they’re not sure what they’re saying as surely it’s other way round - 3 year old children receive more hours than 2 year olds. Also so far he’s been receiving 15 hours but now they’re taking this away from us as well saying that Croydon council doesn’t offer much funding for 3 year olds.
It’s all confusing and I feel like they should be honest and say they’ve opted out from receiving government funding instead of blaming the council for something that is clearly not true as allot of my friends children (Croydon borough) started receiving 30 hours of funding as soon as they’ve turned 3.

Anyone had a similar issue with their nursery? Is it even possible that 3 year old can get less funding than a 2 year old?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Littlefish · 24/03/2025 18:24

@ScrewedByFunding I absolutely agree. It’s a mess. So many settings are going to simply withdraw from the funding scheme.

fashionqueen0123 · 24/03/2025 19:16

Littlefish · 24/03/2025 18:22

But they are not allowed to simply deduct the amount they receive. This is against the terms of the funding agreement. From 1st April, it’s been made even clearer (although it was always the case), that families should be able to access the 15/30 hours free of charge. The government has clamped down in its guidance and made it absolutely explicit from 1st April.

This is correct.

Hence why some nurseries are now just withdrawing from the funding scheme entirely or only doing 15 hours and not 30 etc so I wonder if that’s what this one has done.

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