Nursery Education Funding
Eligible Birth Dates
Fees
Childcare Vouchers

Early Education Funding

When a child becomes eligible (See Table below) they are entitled to up to 15 hours per week of Early Education funding.

Parents may choose to enrol their child at two providers or for more than 15 hours per week but will have to pay for anything more than 15 hours per week. They can only receive up to the maximum number of hours 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 15 hours 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 15 hours per 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 Parent/Provider Contract Agreement to declare the hours their child is claiming funding at our pre-school and advise any funding claim with any 2nd provider. This is mandatory and is required so that we know how many hours we can claim for the child. We will invoice parents for any hours not covered by funding. There are strict deadlines for completion of these declaration forms 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.

Once funding is being claimed for a child, parents must inform pre-school of any changes to their funding claim with us or any other provider and an adjustment form must be completed.

New Starters During the Term

Where a child starts pre-school after the 'Count' date, and is of an age that should receive funding, we may be able to apply for funding. The parent will need to provide full details of the reason for the delay and we will contact Bucks County Council to apply for funding. If funding is refused, the parent is responsible for paying for the sessions.

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 some hours or all sessions are not covered by the Early Education Funding, the parent will be required to pay for the hours. 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 15 hours per week with us and any other providers.

The fees charged for non funded hours are usually kept in line with the Early Education funding amount given per hour.

Each term's fees are payable by 4 monthly instalments and are non refundable. Invoices are sent out towards the end of the previous term or a few weeks before the child starts whichever is earlier. Where children are registered late for the term, the fees may be payable in 3 or less instalments. Parents can contact the assistant treasurer or another committee member if they wish to discuss alternative arrangements for paying fees.

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Childcare Vouchers

If you pay for 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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