Nursery Education Funding
Eligible Birth Dates
Fees
Childcare Vouchers

Nursery Education Funding

When a child becomes eligible (See Table below) they are entitled to up to five funded sessions per week, if places are available up to the maximum number of sessions for any one term.

Parents may choose to enrol your child at two providers or for more than 5 sessions but will have to pay for anything more than 5 sessions of 2 ½ hours. They can only receive up to the maximum number of sessions designated for any one term.

If two providers are used and one is a Local Authority nursery/school, the Local Authority provider is funded first, up to the maximum of 5 sessions per week. If two providers are used, neither of whom are Local Authority, parents must make it clear to both providers where you wish to claim funded sessions remembering that only 5 sessions in a week can be funded.

Parents must inform both providers if they are using two providers.

When a child starts pre-school or when a child is first eligible for funding, the parent will be given a Parent Declaration Form to complete. This is a mandatory form which must be completed before we can claim funding for the child. Parents will also be asked to provide proof of their child's date of birth, e.g. a photocopy of their birth certificate. In addition, once a child is eligible for funding, parents will be given a Session Declaration Form at the start of each term to declare the sessions their child is attending at our pre-school, any 2nd provider and which sessions are to be funded. This is mandatory each term and is required so that we know how many sessions we can claim for the child. We will invoice parents for any sessions not covered by funding. There are strict deadlines for completion of these declaration forms each term so that we can send the relevant claim forms to the county council to obtain the funding. Children must be attending pre-school at a 'Count' date set by the county council to claim the funding for the full term. The 'Count date' is usually approximately 2 weeks from the start of each term.

New Starters During the Term

Where a child starts pre-school after the 'Count' date, but before half term and is of an age that should receive funding, we may be able to apply for funding providing funding hasn't been claimed by another provider for the session for that term. If funding is refused, the parent is responsible for paying for the sessions. If a child starts after half term, we are unable to claim funding and the parent is responsible for paying for the sessions until the next term.

If a child starts during the term and has previously attended sessions at another provider during the same term for which funding has been claimed, it MAY be possible to ask the previous provider to transfer some of the funding to us. They have no obligation to do this, so if they refuse, the parent would have to pay for the sessions.

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Eligible Birth Dates

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Fees

Where one or more sessions are not covered by the Nursery Education Funding, the parent will be required to pay for the sessions. This may be where a child's birth date is later than the eligible birth dates for the term or because the child has more than a total of 5 sessions with us and any other providers.

The fees charged for non funded sessions are usually kept in line with the Nursery Education funding amount given per session.

Invoices are sent out during the first few weeks of each term or when the child starts whichever is earlier. Usually parents will have the option of paying the fees in 2 instalments.

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Childcare Vouchers

If you receive childcare vouchers via your employer, we may be able to accept them for payment. We will need to register with your childcare voucher provider if we don't already have an account with them. If you wish to use this method of payment, please let us know as soon as possible so we can advise whether the vouchers can be accepted or register with the provider.

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