Hi all, my nursery contract just changed and I'm a bit confused. Am I right that for kids over 3 we have 30h free childcare? This would mean 3 full days of 8am-6pm childcare. My nursery is giving me instead 5 half days 8-12.35 am. I think I'm missing free hours 🤔 am I being stupid or what? Have I overpaid all this time and just noticing now? Please someone explain. thanks
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We are getting this from September (thank goodness after almost 3 years of full time fees!). So it’s 30 funded hours you get, not free hours. Our nursery is the same and they dictate the days/times these hours can be used. I think it’s because they need to ensure they have got a balance of places for paying parents and funded hours. My boy goes 5 full days per week. We need to split the funding across the year so it works out around 21 hours funded per week. We are getting one full day funded and 2 half days funded. On the full day we pay a £14 charge for consumables and on the half pays £8, then the £40 for the other half of the day. The funding from the government covers term time only so if your child is all year round this needs to be spread across the year. The nursery might only provide funded places on certain days/times so you might not get all of your funded hours and it could work out less than the 30 and you might need to use another nursery for the remaining funded hours x

30 hours a week is term time. If you want to spilt it over a full year it's 21 or 22 (can't remember which) hours a week

When you apply (at least for my council!) you got to see what models each of the nurseries done. Some of them to full days but most of them only seem to do half days or 6 hour days with funded hours. It again changes if its a full time or term time only setting

Your child qualifies the term after their 3rd birthday. With the prices going up & the funding staying the same those 30 hours now are equal to 2-2.5 days depending on your nursery and where you live. 5 half days is also the same as 2.5 days. If you go to a government funded nursery not private nurseries they operate at half a day too for 5 days. Hope this helps.

It depends on the nursery you choose. Some are 50 weeks which gives you 22.8hrs a week = 2 full days and a short session (usually around 3hrs 20). If it’s a 38 week nursery, you either get 3 full days, 5 mornings or 5 afternoons.
These funded hours can be used at private nurseries that offer this, or at a council school nursery.

It's 1140 hrs per year, starting the term after their 3rd birthday. It works out at 30hrs/week over 38 weeks (term time only) or about 22.5 hrs/week if split evenly over the full year. So it looks like they're giving you the 22.5hrs/week funded