Can somone help me with pre school and 15 hours free

[Olive1990]

Hi, so my son will be 3 in June. So I know that he won't be starting pre school until January. I have asked for a place at the local pre school and will find out next week if he has been accepted there for his 15 hours a week.
But....
What if he doesn't get given a place, what happens then? There seems to be no one to ask, it says nothing on our local council website.
Do I just ring up every pre school in our area and ask if they have a space to take him? I'm just so confused with the whole thing.

Are you in England? If your son is 3 in June he should get a place from September.

Have you reason to believe he won't get a place, what is the admission criteria?

You just look at other nurseries or preschools or whatever private establishments are in the area. They all offer the funding anyway. I have no council-run preschools in my area, its all private.

and yes, your 3yr old is eligible from the term after he turns 3, which will be september.

Yes we are in England. The local council site says - January 2016 intake for children born between 1 March 2012 and 31 August 2012.

If he is to start in September then that is great, I am just so confused by the whole process.

Really? I think it's a Government policy www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-and-education-for-2-to-4-year-olds

Maybe there's a shortage of places in your area

You don't have to use a local authority nursery, you can use a private one so I would look into that because you shouldn't be missing out on a full term of free hours.

Have a look at the official information here

It may be that your local council-run preschool is already booked out for between september and december and won't have new spaces til then. My preschool only takes children in September and not any other time of the year which means my younger son will be 2.9 when he starts and I will pay for his sessions until next April when he becomes eligible for the free funding.

Honestly the easiest thing to do is make a list of early years providers you like and give them a call, they all do it slightly differently as long as they comply with the law.

x-posts with quinto, same link there.

With a January start date your son would only get 2 terms before going up to school which is just not right, to give a comparison my October born dd started nursery this January just gone and will have a total of 5 terms there before she moves up to the school (Our children will be in the same school year). I would speak to some private providers in the area, the private nurseries near us all have a pre-school class which offers the free funding too and I tend to find that they are very good on knowing the entitlements.

Ok thank you. So when I find out next week if he has been offered a place at the local pre school or not then I will ring the private ones and see what their policies are and if they have places for him.

Yes ring the private ones
I run a preschool and we offer the 15 hours
We are actually open all day all year round but we do offer fully funded places of 15 hours a week term time only
And he is definitely eligible from September not January

Hi in moving to London from Italy in August (never lived in The UK before)
We have 2 boys,one will Be 11months by sept. The other one is 3yrs. I'd Like some information regarding preschools and nurseries. Ill Be working The whole day ad well as my husband so se were looking for nurseries but The costs seemed really high,are there any possibilities still entering public nursery,or any other help to pay privates?

There is funding for three year olds for 15 hours per week (term time equivalent) and some employers offer childcare vouchers (which you buy out of gross salary so essentially reduce your tax a little - amount you can buy is limited.

It is expensive I'm afraid and help is limited. There are no public nurseries except for three years up (15 hours funding)