Free 15 hours childcare; can you have your childs name down for more than 1 nursery?

[beth1981]

Hello; My daughter is currently attending a nursery and will be recieiving her free 15 hours in September at the nursery she is currently at. I have found another nursery that I like alot more than the current one and wondered if I put my daughters name down there would the other nursery find out or if its even possible to have her name down at 2 nurseries!?

Thanks

Yes you can put her name down. Just check any clauses if you pull out at the last minute from one. You cannot claim for more than 15 hours in total although I think it can be split across more than one setting.

BTW it is not free child care, but an early educational opportunity.

Yes you can split funding between settings, and no they don't compare lists to see who is registered where.

You can't choose which provider receives the free 15 hours though. So if you daughter attended more than one nursery it would be up to the LEA to allocate the funding to the provider of its choice, which can be an issue if one is more expensive than the other....

Yes you can here, it's up to the parent to choose which setting they want the funding to go to and they claim the funding via the EYES form which they submit to the setting once a term. Any hours above the claimed EYES funding are then paid for by the parent directly to each setting.

Seems like it's yet another early years funding rule where local variances are in play.

You can claim across two settings, but you cannot claim more than 15hrs.

In our authority, you have to disclose when you sign the Parental Contract whether your child is attending another setting, so here, yes the setting would know.

You can either choose where you want your child to access their funded hours or you can leave it up to the authority to decide.

Our authority would pick up on any over funding (more than 15hrs) at each Headcount (once a term).
Cross-borough checks are made to see if any of the children are claiming in neighbouring boroughs.

You can apply to more than one, and then accept or decline the offers when they are made.