There are many questions being raised about settling in at the moment ...one is about whether parents pay for the settling in, the other is the length and opportunities children are given to settle in to a new setting.
Some providers offer a couple of hours while others a lot more

In theory settling in should start once you have a contract signed so you have permission to have the child on your own without parents and have a deposit paid for the contracted hours....you should keep this until end of care.
As an example...if a child is due to start in Sept you could phase in Settling in over the next few weeks but settling in should be free of charge ...then start charging when the care start

During settling in a parent can change their mind on hours but you do not have to repay the deposit for the weeks they originally contracted
Hope you find the answer to your question