15 hours free for 3 year olds flexible?

[GEMZ1983]

Hy all, My daughter will be starting nursery in september.
She has been excepted at a surestart nursery, But has only been given 1 full day and 4 mornings at 2 hours. I have however asked for her full day to be changed and was told no and i asked just for a full day and a 5 hour day and told no.
I phoned a private nursery up the road from me and asked about the free 15 hours they do accept and i can have flexibilty a full day and a 5 hour day.

Why are they both different? The goverment supply the funds you would think the surestart would be flexible

[AgentTink]

It will all depend on what spaces they have available and what staffing they have.

We're we live all the local schools have preschools however they only offer eith morning or afternoon sessions for 3 hours a day. There is no additional charge.

When we rang around our local private nurseries they said we could do the hours over 2 days, however because our daughter would be taking up the full days space, and would need lunch etc, and the fact that the funding only covers 39 weeks of the year we would have a monthly cost of £170.

Needless to say we have gone for the pre school hours.

[mushpea]

i take the funding and can offer 12.5hrs over 2 days or 15hrs over either 5 or 3 days.
this term a parent is leaving me before the funding runs out so i have agreed to do one of her funded weeks as the half term week .
so I guess it depnds on the space and how flexible the nursery wants to be as to how they offer the funding.
It also says in the contract that if a child is at the setting on head count day then changes settings you dont have to release the rest of the funding to the 2nd setting as the money would already have been paid to the first setting.

[Jules12Wed]

I called my local Family Information Service as I had a parent asking about 15 hours over 2 days and they said I could do 10 hours one day but the remaining 5 hours had to be used over 2 days.

However the parent has gone to a local nursery and they are doing 15 hours over two days!!! I'm guessing that they probably shouldn't be and would probably be changing the hours on the census forms they submit!!!

[The Juggler]

if it's 15 hours the min. no of days is 3 at the moment.

[blue bear]

Each area runs it slightly different, we are encourages to be flexible with hours and can offer 15 over 38 weeks or 11 over 50 weeks (if we take 4 weeks holiday we are to just make up the hours in the weeks before or after). Parents can transfer mid term to another provider and the money follows them. From September we will be able to offer 15 hours over two days.

That said I can only offer the spaces I have so that might be what the sure start nursery is doing.

[Tazmin68]

My la dictate that I can either offer 12.5 over 2 days and 15 has to be over min of 3 days the same applies to a 2 year old funded place. The same should apply to private nursery.

[loocyloo]

from september i will be able to offer the 15 funded hours to 2 yr olds that meet the criteria, and 3 & 4 yr olds, over 2 days. i think the most i can offer on one day is 10 hours, and it has to be between certain hours, but i can't remember what they are :blush:

[Tazmin68]

Gems is in bham same as myself so at least I can confirm what bham la state and I have been told no changes from sept so still 15 over 3 days

[AgentTink]

I'm not sure if you are aware of the government changes and you may want to let your LA know the goverment rules have changed from September and it can now be shared over 2 days with a max of 10 hours one day.

Here is the link to the government produced document which was sent to all LA a few weeks back

http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=102740

[Tazmin68]

Spoke to fef team on Thursday and was told no changes from sept. I suppose I will have to wait until August when we submit variance forms

[Tazmin68]

Spoke to fef team they said that it is only some pilot areas that are going to deliver the 15 hours over 2 days and that Birmingham is not one of them should anyone be audited and found to have been doing it over the two days will have to payback some of fees paid.