Childcare hours?

Sorry, no advice hun. Following as I too am curious x

I wanna know too!!

OK so it's 30 free hours from the term after theu turn 9 months so for us we get 30 free hours from September because that's the term after they turn 9 months. You get 30 free hours for 38 weeks of the year and the other 14 weeks you have to pay for (because free hours are only for the school year). However a lot of nursery's allow you to spread the hours to cover the whole year instead (52 weeks) which equals 22hrs a week free instead of 30hrs. So if you do 2 full days a week which is roughly 10hr days your week is covered buy funding however a lot of nurserys charge non core free or additional fees which isn't covered by government funding, for example my sons nursery will be 2 full days a week for free and them a non core fee of £10 a day so £20 a week. Some nursery but not a lot do allow you to spread the funding over 48 weeks a year which gives you 4 weeks of holidays a year which gives you 24hrs a week which is 3x 8hr days a week if you want to maximise ur funding. Hope that makes sense x

Feel free ro message me or reply in hear of u have any questions. Also Barr in mind that you will still have to pay for addition charges/non core fees even if your child isn't in for there dedicated day be that because they are on holiday, the nursery shuts, bank holiday, illnesses etc. Say you do the 22hrs a week free and covers u for 52 weeks but you want to 3 full days the first 22hrs will be covered and if they are 10hr days for example you will have to pay yhe hourly rate to cover the remaining 8hrs of the last day, which is generally £50-£80 for the rest of the day plus any additional fees per week x

My LO is going two full days a week and we spread the free hours over the year so it’s 22 hours a week. We will be paying £15 a month

Very confused why, with the funding, I’ve been told that my bill for two days a week will be £250 a month!

@Kristina it will be if ur baby is starting in the term they turn 9 months or if they are younger then 9 months. Also the 30hrs starts from September 2025 only, so if they are already in nursery or starting before then then you will be charged. You also have to meet a certain criteria to meet 30hrs free a week x

@Willow she will be 11 months when she starts and meet the criteria. I’ve asked the nursery to break it down for me. I get that you need to pay for extra costs but £250 does seem like a lot for the two days 😕

Following! I think itl work out 2 days annoyingly.

@Kristina think it depends on the nursery. One we looked at told us it would be £350 a month with the free hours, not sure how they figured that out!

The "free hours" are for the childcare. If you go to a nursery that provides all food / nappies / milk etc, they have a loophole where they can charge extra to cover those things. So while you won't pay the full fee, there will still be £X to pay per day, which does add up! Childminders or pre-schools possibly won't charge this extra, but you will be expected to sort your child's lunches etc. Hope that helps!