30 hours free nursery promised by conservatives?

[maidename]

Hello every one, I am just wondering of anyone knows what is happening about the 30hours of nursery care promised by the conservatives during the election? Cant seem to find anything online. Anyone know where to find information about this? Was it just an empty promise to get votes? When was it supposed to be implemented? I am just asking because my son might be going to a school nursery next year where they only currently provide 3 hours a day. Wondering how this would be affected if the 30hours was implemented. thanks

You would need to out your ds in a private nursery/ childminder for the extra 15 hours.

Put not out.

www.gov.uk/government/news/government-brings-forward-plans-to-double-free-childcare-for-working-families

I understand it's from Sept 16, but have no idea how they think they are going to implement it. In our authority, they can't buy enough places for the 15hours.
The Nurseries can't afford to subsidise the government for the 15 hours, many will be withdrawing from the scheme once they bring in the 30 hours. That's before you factor in the rise in minimum wage that's coming in.
Those people who are paying for hours will have to expect to take a BIG price hike for the few hours anyone is paying for, IMO.

thanks everyone. I was hoping it would mean the school nursery would have to extend the hours to six a day rather than provide two half day sessions as it does now. It is annoying to have to pick up and drop of somewhere else! although this will of course mean they will only be able to provide for half as many children. It will be interesting to see how it works. I imagine the community nurseries that do offer it will be impossible to get a place as they will have long waiting lists. At least the good ones. And then there will be the expensive private nurseries. So not that much difference really….

As you say though - all the school nurseries that offer 15 hours now, can only offer twice as much, if they only offer places to half as many children - not sure how that is helping the population at large, tbh.

Just found this article which talks about exactly that! Will be interesting to see what actually happens.

Oops...
www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/08/free-childcare-pledge-fewer-nursery-places

I totally agree with this
"This isn??t an education policy, it??s an employment policy supporting families, and therefore it??s not going to reach all children because both parents have to be in employment to be eligible for the 30 hours,??

No 3 yr old needs 30 hours of education a week.

This is wrong / said in ignorance though:

The impact of the new policy ?? a key Conservative party election pledge in the general election ?? could affect many of the 300,000 three- and four-year-olds who attend nursery classes in state schools in England, and push a significant proportion into more expensive private childcare

I can't speak for other areas of the country, but the vast majority of EEE places in our Local Authority are already "bought" in PVIs (Private, Independent, and Voluntary Nurseries), not in schools. There are not enough spaces for all the dc entitled to funded places at present (3yr and 2 yr funding), so there isn't anywhere to "push" the children to even if it were somehow a 2nd class system.

Don't even get me started on the lack of funding to support children with additional needs - it's no good providing a 'place' for a child with complex needs, if you are then refusing to offer any further support in terms of additional staffing, or enough advice, training, and support from professionals in the authority.

I expect another problem for the school nurseries will also be to manage the places puzzles of part time and full time which will be a headache. So will they only offer or prioritise full time (30 hour) places as some private nurseries do as is easier to manage? But that will discriminate against those that can only access 15 hours or only want to. So they might then have some 30 hour some 15 places. Can school nurseries opt out of it all together? If they could they might just do that.

I work in a school nursery and we will be offering the 30 hours when they become available. I haven't seen anything yet which gives any definite answers about when the programme will be fully rolled out. I understood that it will be trialled in some areas in 2016 and be fully available in 2017. I also haven't seen any firm indication of the guidance on eligibility.

Offering 30 hours may affect our January and Summer term intakes meaning that eventually we will only have 1 intake per year, each September.

Little fish do you currently offer morning and afternoon sessions? Does this mean you will then be offering whole day Monday to Friday to half as many kids? And do you know if preference will be given to those eligible or interested in 30 hours or a mix of kids with 15 and 30 hours? I asked the head teacher in my older sons school and he had no clue about the schools plans or at least claimed not to.

Children are already able to access 30 hours if they want it, ie. They can have 15 hours funded and then pay for the other 15 hours (£60).

I'm not sure exactly what will happen, but I suspect we will stick with our current admission arrangements but tweak it to favour children in catchment. At the moment, our admission arrangements are something like:

Attendance at our 2 year old nursery
Vulnerable children (SEN, FSM etc)
Children in catchment
Siblings of children out of catchment
Out of catchment

I think we will have to add "in catchment" to the first 2 categories as we already offer up to an additional 15 hours free of charge to families eligible for FSM.

One of the nearest nurseries to us only offers morning or afternoon spaces and only has a September intake so I think their organisation will be more affected than ours.

it may be that over time we end up not being able to offer places to the January and Easter intakes, depending on the uptake of sessions by the September intake.

As the national roll-out is not scheduled until September 2017, I doubt that many people have given it much thought yet. We are all waiting to see how the pilot area roll outs go in September 2016 and we have been given full details of the eligibility criteria and can work out how many children might be affected.

As a childminder I offer the 15 hours as do the majority of childminders in my area. I didn't do seasons, charge for extras, its just exactly as its meant to be - 15 hours free to the parent. When the 30 hours come in I will be offering that, again it won't be in sessions etc, it will be to suit the parents needs. I know the funding isn't always as much as we all charge per hour, but they are reviewing that, and I would rather have that than have no work. Most childminders are much more flexible with the funded hours than a lot of nurseries. So if you do find yourself not being able to access the funding at your nursery, go and ask a childminder. 30 hours a week is a big saving to parents, far to much to not have.