Nursery want £400 pm for "free" hours?

[5minutestobed]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me understand. My son has just turned three so I have been looking for a nursery so he can get his funded hours. I went to see one the other day and they sent me an email explaining the funding. They want £400 pm even though he would only be doing 15 hours a week?! Can someone explain how they can charge this much for free hours?! Is this a normal thing for private nurseries?
I thought free meant free!

[Sofabitch]

My Dcs all did there 12 and then 15 free hours. I never had to pay anything.

[Sierra259]

That does sound a bit expensive. However, our nursery only offers the funded hours for one session per child, per day. So we get free mornings, but still pay for the afternoons and lunches the 2 days she's there. All I can think is that your nursery is doing something similar? So you are paying full rate for the pm sessions? However our monthly bill is still only around £250 for that, in London.

It's annoying but it's not childcare provider's faults that the government promised these free hours to parents, but then doesn't subsidise them properly. Nurseries and childminders simply cannot afford to offer just free places as they are not reimbursed the full cost of them and actually end up losing money.

[Ilovewillow]

Unwound double check with them, they may have just made a mistake. I pay £487 per month for three full days (8.00-6.00) with the funding split equally over 12 months.

They should be able to break it down fully for you so you see where the charges are coming from and why!

[5minutestobed]

Thanks for all the replies.
I hadn't got back to them and they have now sent me an email saying they have magically found a space for one fully funded child if I want it... Hmm!

[Sweetpotatoaddict]

No idea what use these free childcare hours are supposed to be. If they're childcare then find me a job working 0915-1115 Monday to Friday, and if they're education then why can they be used for childminding. This is in no way a criticism of childminders, I am wholly against formalised learning in the preschool years.
As I've said before we get robbed in scotland of one year of state education in comparison to england......

[AndNowItsSeven]

No you don't get robbed, your dc get the luxury of being children for at least an extra 6 months compared to English and Welsh dc.

[SauvignonPlonker]

Yes, I agree that governments need to make their mind up between childcare & education.

I really don't believe a 3-4 year old needs 30 hours of education a week, as the increase is supposed to be in future years.

However working parents need childcare - and the "free" hours model doesn't tie in with working hours for most.

The only people I know who use school nursery are SAHP's or those with grandparents nearby to do the childcare wrap-around.

I've never found s childminder who accepts the finding, so those of us working end up paying a fortune for childcare. Like a bloody 2nd mortgage!

[Sweetpotatoaddict]

Depends where their birthday falls.........If their birthday is in February they start formal education at exactly the same time.

[SauvignonPlonker]

You can defer January & February birthdays, by choice, or equally send them to school. I deferred DS. & he started school at. 5yr 8m - he has really benefited from another year at home my bank balance didn't as I had another year of childcare to pay for.

[AndNowItsSeven]

No in Scotland the earliest a child starts school is 4.6 months , in England and Wales it's 4 years 0 months.

[BikeRunSki]

What you lose in Early Years funding SweetPotato, you gain in uni fees.

[whywonthedgehogssharethehedge]

It's madness. Both my girls did 9.00 - 11.00 each day in term time and I paid nothing. DS did 9-1 in term time-. The funding covered 9-12 and then I paid £10 a week for him to stay the extra hour and be fed. It was a bargain.

Both were private nurseries. The one DS went to ran a before and after school club for the girls school so the funded hours were slotted into the space between the two clubs using the same rooms. When holiday club hit no funded children were in that area. Genius idea. Any 3 year olds who stayed all day just went up to a different room at 1pm, the same room they were in before 9 and in school holidays.

[museumum]

The free hours are almost no use at all for childcare. We use a private nursery 3 days a week. Ds has just turned 3. Together with the nursery we worked out what it would cost as five free sessions plus breakfast club, lunch club and after 3pm club and it works out the same. So we are paying the £600/month and they'll reimburse us the £1200 council funding in three instalments when they get it.
As a private nursery most of their staff work 7:30-6 and they employ a chef etc and open all year round so the overheads mean it's just not feasible to fill the rooms with "funded places" for two three hour sessions a day.

[Peonie7654]

15 hours does mean 15 free hours here.

I didn't use all of my hours, I sent them for two days only which was about 6.5 hours. They didn't offer half days and I felt two days was good. It was a preschool though attached to the school.can you not find a preschool in a nicer area. ( lots of children commuted to our preschool😄)

[Peonie7654]

Sorry 5.5 hours. So I used 11 a week.

[Peonie7654]

Just read pp about only sahm using the free hours ( I am) wow I hadn't realised everyone couldn't just use them, thats a bit crap.

It's a flawed system. I can see why CM don't want to take them.

[TheGruffaloMother]

No idea what use these free childcare hours are supposed to be. If they're childcare then find me a job working 0915-1115 Monday to Friday, and if they're education then why can they be used for childminding.

It's not for either, it's for socialisation and learning the 'rules' outside of the immediate home and family environment.

[ninjapants]

*SauvignonPlonker:
'*The only people I know who use school nursery are SAHP's or those with grandparents nearby to do the childcare wrap-around.

I've never found a childminder who accepts the funding, so those of us working end up paying a fortune for childcare. Like a bloody 2nd mortgage!'

Not all of us are SAHPs with nearby grandparents I work full time, as does DH, and our families are too far away to help with childcare. I work shifts though and we are lucky to have a lovely childminder who collects DS and other children from nursery when required. So, it is possible to make the 'free hours' work for some families, just not very practical for most.

[Sweetpotatoaddict]

Is "learning" not education gruffalo

[TheGruffaloMother]

Of a sort, yes, but a childminder is perfectly equipped for social learning hence the free hours are fine to use with a childminder if they offer them.

[prettybird]

When ds was at that age, GE went into the council nursery in the morning and the childminder immediately afterwards (who also covered full time for holidays)

However, we were fortunate that dh was working from home so was able to pick him up to take him to the childminder. My work was flexible enough that on those days that he had other commitments, I could drop him off (and go on to work) and/or pick him (using my lunch hour).

A few months in, we were offered the afternoons plus lunch (charged for) as they had space, but we chose not to take it up as we were coping and there were others who probably needed it more. Plus he was very happy at the childminder (literally our next door neighbour) and we wanted to keep our place with her.

[SauvignonPlonker]

I used a CM for DS, but had to pay the full daily rate, as none of the local CM here accept the funding. Probably as it's less than the hourly rate paid by parents & they'd be losing money.

I've heard of CM accepting the finding elsewhere in Scotland, and in England, but none locally in Edinburgh. So it limits the options even more for working parents.

I wonder how things will look in the future with the supposed "free" hours being increased in 2018. I doubt many private nurseries or CM will economically be able to offer the hours. And I'm not sure I'd want my 3 year old in education/school nursery for 30 hours a week.