FREE nursery places for 3 yr olds info?

[NicolaLC]

hi
I know I'm entitled to 5 free sessions a week when my son turns 3 years old.. but does anyone know if you have to use one session per day, or if I can combine them into fewer days? He's only at nursery 2 days per week.
Any tips v handy thanks!

My dd has just started making use of the 'vouchers'. It seems to vary a bit around the country, but down here in Sussex it is really a grant for a certain amount per term, according to the number of hours your child is at nursery. For us, a session = 2.5 hours, but some of the playgroups allow the money to cover a slightly longer period. You can claim two sessions per day, but they must be separated by one hour (so, you need your little one to go to nursery for at least 6 hours in one day to claim for 5 hours of care and you'd have to pay for the extra hour).

It depends on how your nursery works as to how helpful the funding is. A friend's dd goes to a nursery that offers long sessions (7.30 am - 1.15pm/1.00 am - 6.00 pm) and getting 2.5 hours of funding when you have to still pay for the remaining 3 hours or so that make up the session helps, but still leaves you with quite a bill to pay.

Hope that doesn't just confuse you more!