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View Full Version : Funding for 3 and 4 year olds help please



Jessymax
27-11-2015, 07:26 AM
I had my inspection last week and already have a child lined up he turns 3 in jan and parents asking about funding I have emailed my family information service and asked them the same thing but what do I do ? Or is it the parents who have to send off for,s etc
How do I get paid the 15 hours and how do u find out how much your LA will pay u hourly and if it's less than u charge would u ask the parents to pay the difference?

Sorry for all the ??'s

Xx

moggy
27-11-2015, 08:22 AM
You need to register with your LA to offer FE- so that is the first thing to do.
They will give you their rules/proceedures and that will tell you how to proceed- LAs have their own ways of doing things so you need to speak to your own LA.

You can not ask parents to 'top-up' any short fall in fees, you will sign a contract with your LA to agree that, probably- check the small print!
You can start charging extra for 'food' but you must allow them to bring packed lunches, those FE-hours need to be 100% free to parents if they choose not to 'buy' the extras from you (like food).

What the LA pay is a local question too- and it is not always simple as there may be extra £ for particular local postcodes for more deprived areas of a town/district, so you have to ask LA specifically for the child you are dealing with- have the child's postcode to hand.

Jessymax
27-11-2015, 06:28 PM
Oh wow I, sure I've seen on here people charge the difference and this particular parent has already offered to do just that should it be cheaper than my hourly rate.

I couldn't afford to take any less than I am charging this is stressful

k1rstie
27-11-2015, 06:41 PM
I suspect for a 3 year old, the hourly rate WILL be less than your rate.
You are between a rock and a hard place really. You either take the child on at the local authority's reduced rate, or loose the child to a local nursery/ preschool who because offer the funding ( they have larger ratios, so have a larger income per adult)

One of the conditions of our registration is to 'ensure that parents are not charged for any part of free entitlement, either directly or indirectly'

moggy
27-11-2015, 08:13 PM
Oh wow I, sure I've seen on here people charge the difference and this particular parent has already offered to do just that should it be cheaper than my hourly rate.

I couldn't afford to take any less than I am charging this is stressful

People try to find ways around but if the LA investigate you will lose your FE status. I came off the scheme because it was such a hassle and too little money.

alex__17
27-11-2015, 11:13 PM
My funded child uses some hours at preschool and I take the rest. I increased my hourly rate so he gets his free hours then parents pay a little extra for the additional hours, they now pay the rate I charge new parents anyway as I'm too soft to increase my fees for existing parents, they're still paying half what they were and I get the same rate I always did for him over all.

Another child I have her parents have asked to pay extra to cover meals and outings as they said there was no chance they were sending her meals with her when she eats my meals better than their own! so again I find it balances out.

However I'm still just trialling all this, the LA have messed up the payment for sept-Dec, I had to wait until 20th Nov to get the money for the term, so working all that time for one child without pay, then their new online system didn't pay enough to the 600 childminders offering stretched funding...its been a week and I'm still waiting for the letter that's apparently in the post explaining when the rest of the money will arrive!

alex__17
27-11-2015, 11:15 PM
Also on a course I went on recently about funded hours someone asked this and it was suggested by the people running it we could offer funded sessions say from 9-12, then charge whatever hourly rate for the rest of the time they were with us, similar to a preschool offering lunch club at extra cost to the parents, even though the parent would still often provide the packed lunch

Simona
28-11-2015, 10:26 AM
The ONE and ONLY rule about free entitlement that is shared by ALL LAs without any difference is that for the 3 hours we are not allowed to charge for anything...it has to be free.

What we charge outside of those 15 hours is entirely our business.
If you contact your LA they will be able to support you in how to get around charging for extra outside of the 15 hours...Moggy is correct there are many way in which you can do so and there are also training sessions for sustainability

Jessymax
30-11-2015, 10:45 AM
no need for me to panic my LA hourly rate they will pay me is much more than mine so works to an advantage ! x