Nursery Vouchers for pre school year - How much will i actually get?

[NotanOtter]

I know it is 2.5 hours a day 5 days a week but..have just had horrific bill from the nursery we have chosen. In small print at the bottom it says we will be reimbursed the voucher total at the end of each term.

Ok but how much in cash terms is that?

Anyone know?

NAO

From the dcfs website:

"Q - Will parents be expected to make a financial contribution towards their child?s free early education place?

A - No. Parents cannot be required to contribute to the cost of the basic free entitlement but may be charged fees for any services which exceed the minimum entitlement. Parents should be made aware of the charges that will apply in advance of their child taking up a free place. Providers should not levy any fee in respect of the free entitlement nor should they charge parents fees in advance for the free entitlement to be refunded at a later date. Providers that normally charge fees should reduce the fees by the amount that they would normally charge for those sessions if the child was not accessing a free place.

Look here

Your nursery absolutely cannot do what they're doing.

gosh plonker

thanks for that - will also mail link to my bursar friend!

No problem. Hope you get it sorted

I am so cross about your nursery school when the rest of us are jumping through hoops to obey it all fume fume fume.

Actually just refuse to pay and take a copy of that sheet with you!

Whenever they incorrectly charged me for a day I didn't pay it and told them why. I'm stubborn. Can either of you pay via the childcare voucher scheme so you get tax relief, or do they not accept that either?

we have only just leaned of the scheme- we are self employed and not sure if we are entitled tbh

i am scared of p ing them off before i start as they seem very up themselves despite not having full classes and it is a recession

i think they know ds will only be there for one year and therefore i am not a 'proper' parent!

hmmm I have no idea if you can do salary sacrifice if you are self employed?

Please drop them in it, seems like they are ignoring all that applies to them!

thanks so much for educating me!

watch this space

The whole point of why it is this way is so parents who do not have money can still let their dc have a nursery education. What if you didn't have the money to pay that bill and then wait for the refund? Your dc wouldn't be able to go.

That is the whole point of it. If an accredited place has spaces they must allow dc to come and use it without any charge for 5 x 2.5 sessions every week term time.

( grrr feeling all wound up now!!)

Thanks cargirl and plonker

Here it is quite normal for sessions to be 3 hrs and to pay a huge amount for the additional 30 mins - our nursery grant covers a third of the fees

hmmm here is surrey at a preschool (ie not daycare) we are charging £2.50ish for the extra half an hout but yes some ones were charging more like £5 but then with the grant that is £15 for the session which is £5 per hour so still cheaper than the going rate for most childminders in the area and certainly cheaper than daycare nurseries!

I agree with cargirl NAO - drop them in it!

Have you got any alternative playgroups/nurseries that you could send your ds to?

no i dont plonker
may play naivity card!!!

Yes, thats prob your best bet if you don't have an alternative you are happy with.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

OK! rang the lea and explained situation. Girl said she was new and could not help but would talk to her manager.

Half an hour later manager rings back and hoorah they have rung the school

I am Mrs Popular in that establisjment the night before my baby boy goes!

Anyway upshot is....the direct debit does not start until October by which time school will issue me with the cheque...

I fret all morning and then brace myslef and ring school bursar i played the ' I have no idea why LEA rang you i was simply checking how much i was entitled to ' card!!

Bursar said they have this silly rule about which they are very strict ..basically they dont want us to hang on to your money !

So that is that/ I am paying 9 months direct debit for three terms ( no holiday cover) £473 a month

for that i get care up until 12.45 pm

the lea will reimburse me £10.11 ( ish) a morning

glad to hear you got it sorted

Glad you got it sorted but the school are missing the point, they are not supposed to charge you for the 2.5 hours in the first place only for the additional time you have

Rather than all this faffing with giving you cheques why not just invoice you for the correct amount?

I don't quite understand [thicko emoticon]

How much childcare are you accessing over and above the standard 12.5 hrs paid to the nursery by the LA?

Your child finishes at 12.45? What time does your child start?

9.00 am

they say they will not deduct at source so to speak unless i pay fees in full at outset which is over 900 ....

i have to accept their rules

Ok, so you should be paying childcare for 1hour and 15mins?

The will obviously invoice you for these fees and I don't know of any rules which say they can't invoice you in advance for these fees (but that isn't my remit so I don't know for sure) but they can't ask you to pay in advance for the free [the clue is in the word, lol] education place (NEG funded place).

The link I sent to you are govt guidelines so I'm pretty sure that this doesn't vary from authority to authority?

The LA pay the nursery directly, they don't pay you, therefore how can the LA reimburse you?
The nursery gets paid an interim payment based on an estimate of how many children are accessing the funding. After headcount day (cut off day) they are paid the full amount. The point of the interim payment is so that the settings aren't [too much] out of pocket whilst they are running their free education places.

What did the LA say about the practice of the nursery?

I can only speak about my LA for the last paragraph there though. I don't know if it varies across authorities or not. It may well do..

the la said school was not allowed to hang onto money but as my direct debit does not start untiloctober that is when they will refund me

my friend is the bursar of another private school in leeds and it is standard practice to do it this way

i do not agree with it in principle but that is why my dcs go state

no state nursery provision though so catch 22

the LA pay £10 and some pennies per 2.5 hour session
amounts to around £55 per week term time only

nursery charge much more than this per hour

they dont pretend i am topping up the fees - just say nvs contributes to the fees

Well with the lack of an alternative (and if the LA are aware that the nursery is operating this way) there doesn't seem an awful lot more you can do.

Hope your dc have a lovely time at nursery