How do you get the free part time pre-school?

[fluffyanimal]

Hi, can anyone tell me how you go about claiming the free part-time pre-school care, or point me in the direction of a useful website about it? DS is 3 in March and currently at nursery full time, so i want to know if I'll be able to use this to pay for part of the fees. Thanks!

fluffy, your nursery will receive forms every term for them to fill in with details of all kids over the age of 3.....you will then have to sign it and state how many sessions (2.5 hours, and a maximum of 5 sessions) you would like a week. Your nursery then takes that amount off your bill. In my area 1 session = 2.5 hours = £9.

Your DS is 3 in March so come April (I think thats the start of summer term?), you will be entitled to 5 sessions a week (since he is there full time), at £9 a session (it could be different area to area), so thats £45 a week you don't have to pay. Bear in mind this is for term time only. my nursery split the year into terms, so Jan - April is 13 weeks, April - July is another 13 weeks and then Sept - December is the remainder (think its a total of 38 weeks a year), all other time you are paying full wack.

Thanks neeerly, that's really helpful!

And it starts a full year before they will start school, not when they turn 3! I was most disgruntled when I found this out, had to wait until dd was 3.6!

i didn't know that songbird - mine were 3 in the december and started getting the grant in the following jan - then again, they don't start school til this september, so that was well over a year, so would make sense.....

It starts from the beginning of the term after your DC turns 3.

So chidren born 1st Sep - 31st Dec would get grant from 1st Jan.

Children born 1st Jan - 31st Mar get grant from 1st Apr.

Children born 1st Apr - 31 Aug get grant from 1st Sep.

DD (just turned 3) will get grant from 1st April when she is 3 and 1 month, but her friend who is 6 weeks younger (and birthday on 1st April) won't get it till 1st September when she is 3 and 5 months.

I've always felt the system is very unfair.

Thanks all.

redsky - my friend's dd has just turned 4, and my dd is 4 on 1st April! How weird! Your dd wasn't 3 on the 9th was she?

Songbird - LOL, so we are nearly twins!? DD's birthday is the 5th so sadly not "quite"...

Is this grant given to anyone? is it means tested?

Thanks

no it is not means tested