UNFAIR FREE ENTITLEMENT TO EARLY EDUCATION FOR 3 YEARS OLD BORN AFTER APRIL

[moemazen]

My daughter is turning 3 on the 4th April and some of her peers will receive the free entitlement from April as they were born before the 31st March, which is 4 days difference.

It does not seem fair that my daughter gets the entitlement from September, 6 MONTHS LESS than someone born only 4 days apart???

Have I missed something? Have I not understood the policy?

When I called Barnet council they said that that is the way it is and they were just following a policy created by Ed Balls and I should contact him to complain.

It just infuriates me that I cannot appeal to Barnet council and have to send an email to Ed Balls ([email protected]) who may not even read it, it seems that he created the policy. I will contact him but wanted to check if other parents also feel the same way.

Is anyone else on the same situation?

I was calculating how much this would cost our family and it turns out it is nearly £1000 for the 6 months we would miss out as my girl goes to nursery full time, outrageous!

The nursery my child goes to has been very helpful and they said the Early Years team at Barnet have not been very helpful, I felt like the lady was just giving me a COMPUTER SAYS NO kind of answer.

I live in the same borough. DS is eligible from after Easter (Jan baby) however there's no preschool place until September. Luckily my CM offers the hours too. So good luck getting a place OP....

This must cause a headache for nurseries and other providers. If children don't start until they get free hours then they have to employ extra staff gradually through the year and then lay them off for the new autumn term. If parents do send their children from the September but only go onto free funding in the April then they will have a drop in income in the April as the government funding isn't usually as much as they charge per hour.

meditrina dates are used for eligibility not terms. A child needs to be 3 by the 31st march to receive funding for the summer term.
Likewise a child needs to be 3 by 31st august to receive funding in the autumn term and 3 by 31st december to get the funding in the spring term.

Ds turns 3 on September 3rd. He won't get his funding until 2015. Just the way it is. It's a bonus not a right.

"You do realise that this is national policy that applies to the whole country?"

is it?

Fabulous apologies if I'm not correct on that - my point was it is not necessarily a rule set by Barnet Council and that it applies across a fairly wide area.

snozzle I know. But it is regularly described by nursery terms (including in official publications) and that needs to change. It is unreasonable to say "term after 3rd birthday" when this is not true for some children, and all discussions/statements/publications need to be amended to remove the misleading language.

It is a policy for England. May be different in wales or scotland

Its early years education not free childcare. You seem like you're more concerned about the cost of childcare for the 6 months. Which you'd have to pay during the school holidays anyway so its probably not £1000.

My ds's birthday is in January. If we end up sending him, he won't start til after Easter. He'll be near on 1.5 by then.

3.5 of course!

DS1 was a May baby so went to school the term after his 4th birthday.

DS2 was a November baby, meaning I have to pay an additional 7 months full time nursery at almost £700 a month, a total of an extra £4,900 compared to DS1.

If he had been an August baby I would have saved a whole years worth of nursery costs compared to what we've had to pay. Didn't occur to me to mind to be honest. Just one of those things.

I would be more concerned about less early years education for those children who otherwise don't go to nursery, rather than your bill being higher.

Tbh OP we had already figured out this is your first child. Most people have got over this sort of thing by child number 2.

I live overseas and children become eligible for subsidised preschool the day after they turn two. They then start school the day after they start four. I guess that is a 'fairer' system.

This is an email from my daughter's nursery, which has been very helpful:

*"The government offer £3.74 per hour for 15 hours per week for 38 weeks per year... A total of £2131.80 over a whole year. However I believe your discrepancy is April to end of August.

With our new structure we average out the total annual money available from the council into 12 equal discounts of £177.65 so the 5 months from April to August (M is eligible in September) would be worth £888.25

Best of luck and I would be interested to know their response is as in our experiences with the Early Years team at Barnet we have had little satisfaction come our way!"*

It is not £1000, but £888.25, I am trying to understand it all about terms and also school. I feel a bit clueless on the whole thing, my time to worry about this has only just begun... Hooray!

I don't know what your nursery expects to get back from the early years team. They are acting on national policy. They are powerless to change the policy.

It's been this way for a long time. Ds is now in yr 1 at school, he was born April 1st so didn't get funding for the first term when he was 3. He was due in march so a bit annoying he missed the cut off.

I didn't consider writing to Ed Balls

We had exactly the same problem. DS went 2 weeks past his due date, all his friends got their 15 hours and we missed it by 2 days, had to wait 5 months for ours for the September term. Hey Ho. That's how it goes I'm afraid. Frustrating yes missing it by 2 days, but 10 days, 30 days it's all ultimately the same.

DS3 was 3 in January so he missed out on preschool funding by a few days and also the child trust fund. Mind you it doesn't make much difference to us as the nearest pre-school is 2 miles away and I can't drive so he probably won't be able to go anyway.

Just thought I'd mention OP...
Have you checked if you're eligible for 2 year old funding?

There are so many childcare subsidies we've missed out in recent yrs. By not having the right employer or the right kind of provider. I can't get worked up about it.

If you think of it in terms of hours of education professional contact with your child your child actually better off than one born in September as your child will get much more than 15h a week when in school and school starts younger for your child and an autumn born.

Swings and roundabouts really.

OP - the bottom line is that you are not entitled to it. You may see it as unfair but as other people have explained, given that your child will start school when they are around 4.5yrs old, as opposed to a parent whose September born birthday will be almost 5, OVERALL YOU WILL PAY LESS NURSERY FEES.

Sorry just read that back and it seems unduly harsh. Apologies.

Ooh, when I first came to Britain the Young person's rail card was for people up to & including age 23. I was 24. Whatever.
Next yr they raised the age threshold for YPRC to 24. So I still missed out.
Next yr they raised the age threshold for YPRC to 25.

And I used to use the railways tonnes. You couldn't make it up!!