Confused about funding for Nurseries..Help

[Tanyajade]

I am really struggling to understand how the funding works for nurseries. My Son will be three next year and I understand he gets 15 hours per week government funded nursery care. I've spoken to the FIS who emailed me a list of local nurseries under separate types as follows:

1. Voluntary
2. Private
3. Independent
4. LA (Children Centre)
5. LA (Maintained Nursery Schools and Classes)

How does it work with the funding for the nurseries? I assume that with private and independent, the government pays for a certain amount of fees and you pay for the rest. However, what about Voluntary and the LA types. Are these free? I picked up an application form for New End which is a LA (maintained nursery schools and classes) and it asks if I want to apply for part time or full time. If I have to pay, I guess I would rather go part time but am so confused. Any help would be really appreciated and if anyone knows of any good nurseries in NW3 or NW6 area, please let me know.

The funding covers something like £3.70ish an hour. At LA nurseries you should therefore get 15hrs free, fully funded. Most private and independent nurseries can't/won't operate on that, so they ask for 'voluntary donations' to make up the shortfall, which of course aren't really voluntary. And not all private nurseries accept the vouchers/funding, so double check!

You may also find that if, eg, you want two full days rather than 4 or 4 mornings (if you're fitting it round work, say) that you need to pay for an extra hour for lunch or to top up your funded time to get a full work day covered.

Basically, go and check them out. Look around with and without your LO, and they'll give you all the fees info at the time.

To give you a real example:

My DD1 attends nursery for 12 hours a week. Funding is £3.71/hr in our area for up to 15hrs. The nursery charges £4.51/hr, plus an extra £1.50 for a lunch session and £1.04 because their day is 15 minutes over 6hrs (don't ask).

So a term's fees, unfunded, would be £679.92. Minus funding for 12 weeks x 12hrs/week (534.24) = 145.68 per term we have to 'top up'. That might seem a lot but as we were paying £250/wk in childcare before the vouchers kicked in, it was actually a big drop! And there's a 2.5yr waiting list for all the LA nurseries around here

Thanks so much for the info Mij, finally starting to understand a bit better now. 2.5 year waiting list, that is unbelievable!!

i'm starting to look for next september but have had ds's name down for a nursery near our old house since he was a few months old - hoping to move back to the area before next september! it's a private nursery which feeds into primary school. the funding covers morning sessions, which i would start with, then i would build up to full time, 5 days a week by the summer term so he's ready for a full week at primary school.
now we've moved i'm looking for anything and everything that's near enough! my priority is walking distance so i've made a list of what's nearest then read the ofstead reports. anything with a good report i'll go visit and see which one feels right.

you basically have to do the leg work and go visit everywhere of interest and speak to the staff.

Thanks naturalbaby. It seems a lot more complicated than when I went to nursery all those years ago. I think I will just try all of them in my area and see what comes up. I'll then visit the ones with good Ofsted reports and go from there. Good luck with your hunting.