Funded hours - apparently I can only claim 10?

[odetothewestwing]

ds is currently at a pre-school that he loves. We have missed out on the funding due to when his birthday falls and so won't be able to claim the free hours until Sept.

When talking to the nursery owner about this recently, I was informed that we would be able to claim 10 hours but if we wanted 15 hours then that would be at an extra cost of £28 a month. Apparently this is because he cannot afford to keep the nursery running otherwise as the free hours only equate to something along the lines of £3.28 an hour.

Is this normal? As it happens, I only want ds to do 3 mornings a week at the moment - but we may well want to up this after Christmas and would struggle to pay the extra fees!

I don't think that is legal. I would contact your local authority to check.

I have heard of this before, but i do not think it is legal, unless there is some loophole.

Sadly it is normal, but not legal. Phone your LEA for clarifiacation.

I didn't think a nursery could restrict hours just places so that they did not exceed an amount where it would mean it wasn't viable to offer funded places.

I'd check, am in Scotland so might be different, we only get 12.5 hours.

Thanks, everybody! Will call my LEA tomorrow for a chat. Feel just a bit unsure about it all ...