How much for funded place?

[amyp]

Ow much do you get for the 3-4 year old 15 hour funded places? I know the 2 year old is £5 per hour.

Thanks

[blue bear]

Depends on your area, you will need to contact your local authority.

[amyp]

Ok thanks I will do

[hectors house]

Definitely does depend on where you live - in my area of Somerset I think the rate is £4.63 for 3 year olds, but just over the border (5 miles) into Wiltshire they get over £6.00. So afraid you will have to contact your Local Authority for advice.

[charleyfarley]

We get £3.58 for our 3 year olds!!!

Due to a mistake on pre school filling form in wrong, yes we share funding, I haven't been paid!!!!!

Carol xx

[AdeleMarie88]

Here, east London, It's £6 for 2yr olds, £3.80 for 3yr olds. The difference is quite staggering. I don't know of anyone near me who has signed up for it! X

[charleyfarley]

Here, east London, It's £6 for 2yr olds, £3.80 for 3yr olds. The difference is quite staggering. I don't know of anyone near me who has signed up for it! X

Gosh that is a big difference, how do they come up with these fees??

Carol xx

[VeggieSausage]

£3.95 here.....my usual rate is £5 or £5.50 per hour.....

[bernesewalking]

It's £5.00 for both 2 and 3 year olds in Dorset.

[loocyloo]

i can't remember the exact amount but its about £5/hr for 2, 3 & 4 yr olds in north Yorkshire who are with a childminder. ( I think the rates are different for settings )

[AdeleMarie88]

Gosh that is a big difference, how do they come up with these fees?? Carol xx

I know!! The average hourly fee around here is £5.63 so £3.80 is a massive cut. I personally wouldn't want to take on a two yr old for £6 per hour, when I. Know I. Would have to give them notice when they turn three!

Also you are audited on how you spend this money, fairly regularly. I read a post about it on here, I'm sure someone was saying it was a yearly audit, and you have to prove that you are only spending this funding on resources and equipment, it isn't meant to be a wage. Xx

[AliceK]

I know!! The average hourly fee around here is £5.63 so £3.80 is a massive cut. I personally wouldn't want to take on a two yr old for £6 per hour, when I. Know I. Would have to give them notice when they turn three!

Also you are audited on how you spend this money, fairly regularly. I read a post about it on here, I'm sure someone was saying it was a yearly audit, and you have to prove that you are only spending this funding on resources and equipment, it isn't meant to be a wage. Xx

This is exactly what I told the guy from our LA when he was trying to get us to take on the 2yr olds. They pay around £5 per hr for 2 yr olds and then 3/4yr olds they only pay £3.17 I can't run my business on that and morally I wont take a 2yr old on knowing full well that I would give notice when they turn 3, that's not fair on the child.

xxx

[Tazmin68]

Yes I'm in Birmingham and 3/4 year olds as £3.59 and 2 year olds £4.89. I had an audit last week and yes you do have to show what the funding has been spent on. They are not happy about part of it being classed as a wage. I actually pick up and drop off children who attend for the funded hours and the fact that I put through 45p per mile to pick up and drop off these children also did not go down too good.

[MAWI]

Yes I'm in Birmingham and 3/4 year olds as £3.59 and 2 year olds £4.89. I had an audit last week and yes you do have to show what the funding has been spent on. They are not happy about part of it being classed as a wage. I actually pick up and drop off children who attend for the funded hours and the fact that I put through 45p per mile to pick up and drop off these children also did not go down too good.

That's mad!!! I am in the processing of completing my forms for Funding in Kent. Do they want us to do it for free?

[Smiley]

I shall check with my LA on Monday about the audit, slightly worried at the prospect of having to inform them about what I have spent payments on!

[JCrakers]

Our measly base rate is £3.46 and I get a £3.49 (3p for level 3 and an Ofsted Good) which is 1p less than my going rate.

I think the deprivation cost has changed recently though so I think I might be level at the moment

[loocyloo]

As far as I know, our audit just checks that numbers of children and funding match.
How can you not use the funding as a wage? Settings who only have funded children have to pay staff! I am the biggest resource and piece of equipment in my setting. Without me there is no setting.
Obviously I do buy resources etc but I am recommended to children taking up funding because of me, not what setting I have.

[FussyElmo]

We don't have to show how we spend the money.

We just have to show that the children are attending the "setting"

[Simona]

I know!! The average hourly fee around here is £5.63 so £3.80 is a massive cut. I personally wouldn't want to take on a two yr old for £6 per hour, when I. Know I. Would have to give them notice when they turn three!

Also you are audited on how you spend this money, fairly regularly. I read a post about it on here, I'm sure someone was saying it was a yearly audit, and you have to prove that you are only spending this funding on resources and equipment, it isn't meant to be a wage. Xx

The LAs have the right to find out if the funding they are giving us is being passed on to the parents and we are not charging for those 15 free hours...no top up or additional expenses added
The way for them to check is to see the invoices we give parents where those hours are clearly not charged for...so worth keeping a copy
Any hours above that we can charge normal rate

I don't think they have the right to audit our accounts or where we are spending the money...it is obvious that in most cases, as we receive less than our current fees, we are in fact subsidising the care, education, paying for taking the children places, covering insurance, petrol and also feeding them.

I feel LAs should be clear what their 'audit' entails as they should have no access to financial accounts

The funding money they give us, usually by Bank transfer will be the same we have given in free hours....that can easily be traced in our bank statements.

[bunyip]

We get around £5 for 2 year olds and £3.75 for 3-4 year olds.

I find it annoying that the LAs demand we are 'good'/'outstanding', but they base the funding payment on the average cost of childcare: presumably they include 'satisfactory' and 'total sh1te' (or whatever the official term is) provider's fees within the data they collect to calculate that average. It's rather like you or I going out for a meal and ordering the lobster and champagne, but only being prepared to pay the price of an average customer's bill at the end of the evening.

IIUC LAs have the right to audit our income and attendance registers, to check the children are attending as claimed and that we aren't making additional charges for funded hours. I'd be very surprised if LAs had any right to audit what we spend the money on. For one thing, the rules say nothing about 'ring-fencing' the funding income for use on resources. If it were not allowed to be used for wages/profit, then most nurseries and preschools around here would be out of business. How many of us could agree to take children on just for the fun of it and make no profit to live on? We'd have to tell the LA we can't afford to have more than 1 funded child on that basis, and I somehow don't think the LAs would accept that.