How do I find out about Nursery funding for 3 year old?

[BlackCatinaWitchesHatonaBroom]

DD will be 3 next month and I was told by someone that to get Nursery funding I should get her name down.
I don't know a lot about funding for 3 year olds.
Do I need to get her in a nursery now as my friend said dd would get funding from January. I am a bit confused to be honest.
Can anyone help out?
TIA

3 yr olds are eligible for 15 hrs gov funding from the term after their 3rd birthday - so if 3 in Dec, funding kicks in from the start of the Jan term. Where you send her depends on your choice - most setting claim the 15hrs. DD2 is starting pre-school in Jan (2.5yrs) and we will have to pay for her 2 mornings (6hrs) until the end of the school year as we won't get her funding until Sept 2012 term starts (June b'day). Then she will increase her hours to 15 per week.

If you want dd to go to an Early Years setting you need to have a look round at whats in your area and see if they will have places in Jan - a lot of places will have waiting lists - dd2 has been on the list at our pre-school since she was 9 days old (attached to local primary where her dbs and ds goes so more convienient for us) hth

Something also to note (and I am not sure if this is the same in every area) is the funding is done in a certain way, so for example in my area they will only fund 6 and a half hours in 1 day, 12 and a half over two days and 15 hours over 3 days, so in my case I send my daughter for a morning and afternoon session and lunch one day a week which totals 7 hours so I have to pay for half an hour as it exceeds the 6 and a half hours in one day criteria, despite her only going to nursey 15 hours in the week

in our area we had to apply for a nursery place just after the kids turned 2 (october and november birthdays and the application had to be in by the January afterwards). They then didnt get their funded place until the January after that which was the term after they were 3. You better check whether there are still places available - visit some nurseries and see what spaces are left