Pre-school Funding at Day Nursery - spread over full year?

[Ghoulwithadragontattoo]

My DD is 4 and attends a private day nursery. They normally spread the funding across the whole year so that we get the same amount of funding every month. I would like my DD to stop going to nursery at the end of July. She has been to nursery every week (excluding a few for family holidays) since the start of September.

The nursery are saying that by not sending my DD in Aug we will miss out on 1/12 of her funding. I think this cannot be right as she has already attended more than the max 38 weeks for which you can get funding. The nursery say that as we agreed that funding would be paid spread over 12 month (their standard terms and conds) we will not get funding for Aug.

Does anyone know what the correct position is? It seems unfair for my DD to miss out on her funding when she has attended way more than 15 hours over 38 weeks.

I think they are right- The funding is for 15hrs per week, not over a year. Our nursery speads the cost to keep monthly figures the same, but I dont htink you can transfer the funding from one month to another - i might be wrong though!

The funding can either be 15 hours per week over 38 weeks, or 11 hours per week over 52 weeks. It sounds like your nursery opted for the 11 hours over 52 weeks - and that should have been on the contract you signed. Sorry, the nursery are correct.

Thanks for your replies even though they are not what I wanted hear. They did however tell me that I couldn't get the maximum amount of funding by DD attending 12 hours a week (actually DD attends much longer than this but I'm only allowed to claim 3 hours per half day session) and that she needed to attend for 15 hours. It sounds like they are having their cake and eating it to me...

It does sound like they are playing the system somewhat. You should be allowed to take your full allowance - either 15 hours over 38 weeks or 11 hours over 52 weeks. But lots of settings do whatever they can to get round the rules so they can charge parents. It is unethical, but unless people complain to the LEA, there isn't much anyone can do.

When settings don't get enough money per child/per hour then they try to get round the rules, but the LEA doesn't have enough money to properly fund nursery education. Basically it sucks all ways!

Thanks camdancer that makes it clearer for me. I actually tried to speak to the LEA this afternoon for guidance but there was no one around. I'll give them another call in the morning and see what they say.

Just a quick update in case anyone else has a similar issue. I spoke to the LEA re funding on Tuesday and they said that the nursery cannot spread the payments over 12 months if this disadvantages parents. Since my daughter was stopping nursery after the end of the current academic year and had already done 38 weeks we were entitle to the maximum amount of funding. They didn't seem keen on the idea of spreading the funding out at all actually.

Anyway after I told the nursery what the LEA had said they contacted head office (it's part of a chain) who have now agreed that by attending 38 weeks at 15 funded hours per week we are entitled to the full funding for this academic year. As this has been underpaid to us due to it being spread over 12 months they will add a £185 credit onto our August invoice (which will be offset again my younger son's fees). Am glad I challenged this as it just seemed unfair and I'm grateful to the nursery for resolving it quickly.

Congratulations. I'm impressed that you got it sorted so quickly and with seemingly little fuss.

Thanks, I wasn't sure they were going to resolve it quickly at all. They'd asked me to put the complaint in writing which I feared was a delaying tactic. But before I'd done that the local nursery send the email exchange to head office and they sorted it straightaway :)