Quick (and probably really stupid) question about free 15hours for 3yo.

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Do ALL pre-schools/playgroups registered with Ofsted honour/offer the 15 free hours entitlement?

I wanted to ring around some today and family information services were meant to be sending me an e-mail outlining prospective places in my area but it never actually hit my inbox.

Any basic information would be most appreciated...I'm all new to this and a bit telephone-shy really.

Cheers.

most do. In fact I don't know of any in my area that don't. Even lots of the childminders offer it.

But it's very easy - you say cheerily 'I believe that my child is entitled to 15 hours of free preschool provision. Would I be able to use that with you?'

Good luck

Thanks.

I made appointments to visit 2 of the most promising places close to me and fortunately both have a few vacancies after Easter (which is when my DS would be entitled to his 15 hrs!)

The Ofsted reports and WOM are reassuring so fingers crossed I'll be happy with what I see.

I have found that you need to let the setting know how many hours you need (15 or whatever) at the very start of the new term (or could be the end of previous term) or you may not get funding. You can't change from say 10 hrs to 15 halfway through, you'd have to pay the difference iyswim. Very annoying! Good luck.

Hiya just a quick question, does my daughter have to be already in a nursery to be entitled too the 15 hours free?

No she doesn't - e.g. our local schools offer the free 15hours so you couldn't be there beforehand. However, unlike all the above examples most of our local childcare providers DO NOT offer the free 15hours a week.

With DD, she was in for slightly more than the 15 hours (she did about 20 hours over three days), so whenever they calculated our new fees when we changed hours (which we do a lot, due to work, health, etc) they would just subtract whatever the equivalent was of the 15 hours spread over the full year then divided by 52 (the 15 hours don't cover school holidays unless you do that)

is this available in wales?and does it apply to play school?

yes you are entitled to free nursery hours in Wales. You would need to ask the person running the playschool whether they are part of the scheme.