Shared 30 hours question

[janminder]

A parent wants to use 18 hours at nursery and the remaining 12 hours with me. As they won't need 12 will stretch over the 51 weeks approx 8 hours. If I claim the 8 hours a week but they won't always use them what happens. It won't be set days as the mums work is flexible.

Many thanks

[bunyip]

More than ever before, I think you need to check this sort of thing with your local authority.

My EY funding team have already warned me there is a lot of concern about how they are going to handle complex situations and they may have to stop making payments for absences, so shift patterns are going to be a nightmare.

I've had children with erratic attendance patterns in the past, and the LA have been fairly relaxed about it. I suspect the funding money is short, so they are likely to get strict in future. Also worth bearing in mind there's no longer any incentive for LAs to pay out so much. They used to be able to 'top-slice' any amount of Treasury money they liked in the name of "admin costs". But now that is limited, so the funding racket is no longer the LA gravy train it used to be.

[janminder]

Thanks, managed to get through to my LA who said they will be sending out info re stretched hours. Hopefully it will all be straightforward 😊

[Pixie dust]

More than ever before, I think you need to check this sort of thing with your local authority.

My EY funding team have already warned me there is a lot of concern about how they are going to handle complex situations and they may have to stop making payments for absences, so shift patterns are going to be a nightmare.

I've had children with erratic attendance patterns in the past, and the LA have been fairly relaxed about it. I suspect the funding money is short, so they are likely to get strict in future. Also worth bearing in mind there's no longer any incentive for LAs to pay out so much. They used to be able to 'top-slice' any amount of Treasury money they liked in the name of "admin costs". But now that is limited, so the funding racket is no longer the LA gravy train it used to be.

In my area they have already said they won't pay for absences unless its an odd sick day, they will not pay if a child is off on holiday we will have to charge parents for the time off ! We have had too supply numerous detailed policies which they LA have to agree with before they will sign a funding agreement with providers .....many Childminders in my area are not going to take funded children from September because of the demands put on us from the LA:mad:

[loocyloo]

In my area they have already said they won't pay for absences unless its an odd sick day, they will not pay if a child is off on holiday we will have to charge parents for the time off ! We have had too supply numerous detailed policies which they LA have to agree with before they will sign a funding agreement with providers .....many Childminders in my area are not going to take funded children from September because of the demands put on us from the LA:mad:

We haven't even had an 'funding agreement' to read or agree to yet, let alone sign.

If we get the same restrictions then I won't be offering any funding.

[bunyip]

In my area they have already said they won't pay for absences unless its an odd sick day, they will not pay if a child is off on holiday we will have to charge parents for the time off ! We have had too supply numerous detailed policies which they LA have to agree with before they will sign a funding agreement with providers .....many Childminders in my area are not going to take funded children from September because of the demands put on us from the LA:mad:

Wow. The scheme is chronically underfunded but they have the staff resources to read every provider's policies. I really wonder if LAs are deliberately trying to put providers off participating.

Settings in my neighbouring county have been told they will have to self-report absences, so that they can be deducted from their next payment, although the LA has admitted it's not sure if their system can cope with all the attendance adjustments. They're threatening some stiff measures against settings which fail to report absences and are found out at audit.

My LA doesn't even have a system that can cope with 30 hours. We have to claim a maximum of 15 hours for the first half term data input, then we'll be told when we can claim the arrears once they've had the computer system upgraded.

I've said I'll trial 30 hours for one place only: I've only one child who's eligible, and won't offer further funded places before Christmas, when I've seen if it works. But since HMRC are taking weeks to issue the eligibility code, there's a chance my client will miss the headcount deadline anyway.

[Pixie dust]

Wow. The scheme is chronically underfunded but they have the staff resources to read every provider's policies. I really wonder if LAs are deliberately trying to put providers off participating.

I don't know of one childminder that has had their policies returned (admission/charging/complaints and SEND are what they wanted) who hasn't had a list of amendments to make then had to return then to be checked, the whole thing is crazy ! It's definitely putting people off.

[miffy]

.

I don't know of one childminder that has had their policies returned (admission/charging/complaints and SEND are what they wanted) who hasn't had a list of amendments to make then had to return then to be checked, the whole thing is crazy ! It's definitely putting people off.

If the LA have time to read all these policies and amend them then why don't the LA write a policy for providers to use or amend!!!

Miffy xx

[Pixie dust]

If the LA have time to read all these policies and amend them then why don't the LA write a policy for providers to use or amend!!!

Miffy xx

This is what we have said, if they are going to be so fussy about the contents and how they are worded surely it would have been better to write generic policies which each setting then adapts .

[loocyloo]

We haven't even had an 'funding agreement' to read or agree to yet, let alone sign.

If we get the same restrictions then I won't be offering any funding.

Well ... we've had an email today telling us how to electronically sign our agreement and that it must be done by 18 August ... but no mention of what the agreement of it or what it actually contains!

They tried to tell us that doing a safeguarding audit and something else were a condition of our current agreement ... but then had to agree that it wasn't, so I suspect it may well be in the new agreement!

[SYLVIA]

At a meeting recently we were told that of LA do not have the necessary software to allow us to do stretched payments.
They are working on getting monthly payments for us instead of the 70% in advance and the stretched payments but they don't know when that will be