Funded childcare hours: Mumsnetters share their experiences

[LibbyMumsnet]

From September, eligible working parents can access up to 30 hours childcare per week for children aged 9 months up to school age.

If you’re a parent who’s already using funded childcare - or planning to later this year - we’d love to hear from you.

Sharing your experience could make a big difference to another parent trying to figure it out.

Whether funded hours have helped (or will help) you return to work, take on more hours, or simply support your family life - let us know how it’s working for you.

We’re also keen to hear how your child is getting on - is childcare helping them settle into a routine, build confidence, or try new things?

Post your experience by 31st July 2025 and you’ll be entered into a draw to win a £100 VEX gift voucher (T&Cs apply).

Prize draw now closed - thanks to everyone who entered!

Do your research and don't feel you have to get it right first time. Do what your child is happy with and change it up if they don't gel with the provider.

I am getting access to the 15 hours funding in September for my twins. It should save us a full day of nursery costs (as it works out as 11 hours stretched over the year). Should save us about £700 a month which I look forward to!
Nursery allows us to work our full time jobs, gives the children time to socialise, build confidence and learn how to make friends, share and more. It’s been great for us… but I do look forward to that cost saving!

It has inspired my to get a part time job and retrain, giving me extra income, time to spend with work colleagues, and a career I did not think possible, all while my DC's are thriving.

Our nursery has put prices up to cover the ‘funded’ hours so the price is now the same with the free hours as it was without 🤣

I still pay £500 a month per child for 4 days a week 8-4 even with the 30 hours funded.

Whilst this is around half what it would be without funding, it’s hardly worth returning to work if you’re on minimum wage and factor travel time to/from work. Without the funding and with 2 children in nursery it just wouldn’t add up to return to work at all.

So there is a benefit. But realistically more needs be done to help bridge those few years when let’s face it - women- are forced in to a difficult financial position. This would help retain skills and reduce the motherhood penalty.

Especially worth considering when many public sector jobs which are struggling with retention / recruitment are female dominant and poorly paid roles like teaching, midwifery etc.

Funded hours massively helped us (at one point had 3 5 and under) I ended up having them in a few different places, again it is a learning process of what works for each child. It still meant that despite the free hours most of my wage went on childcare but it was short term ( didn't feel like it at the time! ) and has meant that my job has had no to little impact from being off on maternity leaves. For anyone's mental health I think the time being you in a work environment not just mum is vitally important and these hours, having no family around made a massive difference to us

It has helped me return to work - part time knowing my DC's are being looked after whilst I get some experience in work, which would mean I could improve my career once my DC's are at school.

We will be home schooling but the socializing opportunities for DSs age is limited in our area so we will be using the hours so DS can socalise with other kids his age and have exposure to alternative learning styles. We hope it will benefit him socially and educationally. Wenplsn to use it until DS is of school age and then return to homeschooling. It gives me 1 on 1 time with our baby so we can attend groups for his age.

I currently access the 15 hours funded, but it's spread over the year so works out as 1 free day at nursery a week. However, I also work at my sons nursery so I get a discount on days I work. He goes 3 days a week altogether and it comes out to £550 a month before this discount, including the 15 hours free funding. The other 2 days he's at grandparents house, and we do pay them as well. The funded hours have helped our family, as it means I can return to work full time, and my mum can also work the days she doesn't have my LO, since our original plan was for her to have him full time.

It did take him a month or so to settle in, part of that didn't help seeing me once or twice a day and knowing I can't get him. But he eventually settled, his confidence has grown, and he's learning everyday. I'd say one of the downsides to nursery and school, is children learn bad behaviours from one another, but they can also learn good ones.

I'd say do your research on the nursery you choose, have a look at ofsted, review websites, if they've been in the news. Book a tour around the nursery to get a first impression, then most places have settling in sessions, they give a good vibe of the place and your LO before you choose them officially. If you find the nursery isn't for you after choosing, they will most likely have a 4 week notice period before you can actually leave, so bare this in mind.

@Kentishbirdlifesimilar thing, mine got 15 hours in April but the fees went up so much we are actually paying £200 a month more

I don’t get the hours as I earn over the threshold.

Next year I will have two in nursery and lose >£18,000 in childcare support.

Meanwhile my nursery costs have gone up to cover the underfunded government hours plus of course the NI increase.

It isn’t working for me at all. I am thinking about working part time to enable me to claim, so huge is the financial loss of not be eligible.

Both I and Hubby each earn over 100k so presumably we aren’t going to qualify - we never do!

We split the 15 hours over the whole year so it’s 11 hours or one day for us. It definitely helps - we would send our child to nursery anyway so it just means we have that money to save up or put towards something special. Our nursery is great, and even if I did stay at home to do all the fun activities instead of sending her, I can’t recreate the presence of several other children so my child gets the opportunity to spend time with others that I can provide for her. She also eats better at nursery (peer pressure I think!) so I feel happy that she is getting a good variety of food. She is happy to go and often talks about the nursery ladies and the other children. I find going to work gives me a bit of something, I’m quite senior in my career and I feel that it is a good role model for her to be whatever she wants to be.

Funded childcare is an absolute godsend. Prior to this I was paying a small fortune on nursery fees. It’s so helpful for being able to get back into full time employment.

Just remember, its not 'free'. Even though the childcare is supposedly fully funded, our nursery went from initially charging £5 a day for lunch (we weren't allowed to provide a packed lunch), to £5 for lunch plus £2.50 per day for a morning snack (a single cracker with cream cheese), another £2.50 per day for afternoon snack (apple or satsuma), £5 per day for 'consumables' (we were told this is crayons, paint, paper etc despite never actually seeing much to show for it. Maybe a picture once a month) and £1.50 a day for 'miscellaneous'. 18 hours a week over 4 days (we were told this was all the funding covered as the funding is term-time only and spread over the year as the nursery only closed at Christmas). £66 a week for 'free' childcare.

Any lone/single parents: when do you clean your home with the DC. I’m a mum to a disabled 2yr old and I’ve been alone since pregnancy . I do my best to clean and keep our clothes & bed sheets clean but I’m exhausted now and it’s all catching up.

I’m in Scotland, where we don’t get any funded childcare until age 3. At our local nursery, prices for under 3s have increased by over 50% in the past four years, and a full-time place now costs nearly £2,000 a month. There are no childminders in our area either.

We have a decent household income, but even so, both my partner and I have had to reduce our working hours and rely heavily on family support, which I appreciate we are very lucky to have.

We have used the 15 hours free childcare, which has helped but I’m no longer working full time when it would’ve helped the most. We’re going to receive the 30 free hours in September and I’d love to see how much of a difference it’ll make. On paper it’s a huge help and I think it will have a big impact but what no one ever told me was how many changes to work and family occur during the first few years of parenthood, so waiting to see the impact 30 hours will have in my life in reality. Without the funded hours working in my current part time job would be virtually out of reach. Funding helps but there’s wider structural changes that need to be made to parental leave for both parents so that women can work more easily. Wider changes will also change societal attitudes which is also at the root of issues around women working when they’re Mums.

I work at a hospital with a nursery attached.

They have just informed me that you will now only be able to use your funding for EITHER a morning OR an afternoon.

I am not sure how this is at all appropriate, the funding is supposed to be keeping parents in work.

I cannot do my job for only 5 hours a day.

They have also added on some changes to sundries and consumable charges, which sounds like it means if you don't pay a set fee a day your child will sit and be excluded from activities not understanding why.

They've claimed this is due to the government funding not covering their fees and the national minimum wage and employer NI contributions going up.

I'm heart broken as this will really complicate my ability to return to work and may mean we either pay a huge bill and only use 10 hours of our allocated 30.

If your nursery doesn't average the hours over the year - make sure you save for July/August. I save extra each month by leaving it in the taxfree childcare account. It also helps you use more of the taxfree allowance because that resets every 3 months.
Talk to work about flexible working. I work full-time compressed into 4 days so I save a day in childcare fees. They can't reject your flexible working request unless they have a valid reason.

Sadly my grandchild to be will not be eligible due to parental income / means testing so for our family some things are worse than they were with regard to childcare when I had DC over three decades ago, when my employer paid 80% of my childcare for my first year back and Child Benefit wasn’t means tested then as it is now. Even six decades ago I benefitted from a free part-time state nursery school place from age 3, so not much change there. Surely childcare shouldn’t be means tested even if you do earn 100K; just consider the tax take over a career.

Also, very poor that some Civil Service departments are still only giving 2 weeks paternity leave. If you want mothers and fathers to step up in the workplace you need to help men step up at home by giving a reasonable period of fully paid paternity leave. The public sector is now lagging behind some private sector organisations.

Finally, on comms, fathers need childcare too - please stop with the dated ads that promote the idea that childcare helps women to work - both fathers and mothers need childcare to work.

My tips are start looking for childcare early. In South London some good nurseries need you to register and pay your deposit when you are pregnant to get a baby place. Also, look at the education of the EY staff; graduate-led settings generally achieve better outcomes. And when you get home, make sure you read with your child every single day.

tiny violin 😂

This!!!

You laugh, but to earn back the equivalent support for a one year old and a three year old under the new scheme - you might need to earn an extra £40,000.

We used the 30 hours with our youngest under the old scheme and it honestly made a massive difference at the time as it meant I could carry on working without ALL my wages going on childcare, and it gave our child a lovely, settled routine in a very lovely setting. He really thrived in nursery, and it helped prepare him for school. I think it's great that it's expanding. We really struggled without any help in the very early years. I think it's massively important that nurseries are transparent about their costs tbh. I know from friends' experiences that it's often very vague about what the charges will be even with the funding.

We’re not using nursery care anymore, it’s all about wraparound now, but that’s where we’ve hit a bit of a wall. It feels like there’s a lot more help and talk about funding for early years, but not as much support once your child hits school age. Would love to see better options (and more availability) for wraparound – especially for parents who don’t work 9–3!

Just wondering if others are finding the same? Has the 30 hours helped long term, or does it all get tricky again once school starts?