Childminder or nursery
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I would personally suggest that you look at a couple of different settings. For my first child I looked at a nursery and a childminder. I looked around got a feel for things. I saw how my LO reacted to the settings. In the end I went for a childminder because I wanted the homey feel and for my LO to mix with different age ranges. His childminder is great, they celebrate different festivals/events throughout the year as well as the kids birthdays. We will be sending our September baby too. Ultimately you have to do what works for you. Remember Childminders are subject to Ofsted too so you can get reports and read up on them too. Visiting in person with your little one as well will help. Also consider carefully what you may need in the future, My partner and I are both teachers. We needed someone who opened early but also someone that could do babysitting that would tack on to the end of the childminding day when we have parents or information evenings at the school.
The funded hours changes to 30 hours from 9 months from September. Also funded hours is term time only usually. My little one will be going to nursery in March so we will have to pay until September and then she will have some of it funded
Please remember its the term after they 9 months for 15 hours and term after 1 for 30 hours. Didn't want you to get tripped up. My lo is going to a childminder when I return at the end of April x