Nursery response on hours
I'm waiting for nursery to get back to me on this but in the meantime wondered if anyone who knows exactly how the funded hours work or who works in a nursery might know what this means...
I lost my job so I'm no longer eligible for the 15 funded hours. When I notified HMRC of this they said there's a grace period of when you can still access the funding and to check with your provider when this will end.
When I asked nursery about this they didn't seem to understand so I looked online and it looks like the grace period will take me to the end of March which I went back and told nursery and they said "don't worry, we'll stretch the funding as long as needed".
What does that mean? Surely it will have to end in March because they won't receive any funding from the government for my child after that? So how could they stretch it? There'll be nothing to stretch?
Or have I completely misunderstood how it all works?
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@Courtney I understand that, and we've previously stretched the 15 hours over the whole year so we've ended up with 11 funded hours weekly. But I'm not eligible for the funding anymore. So there will surely be nothing to stretch? Xx
Yes, I just meant that maybe they’re stretching what you’re entitled to within the grace period to extend beyond it, in an attempt to help you out so it’s at least slightly less that full price? That’s the only way I can see it making sense xx
@Courtney ah I see what you mean! I obviously need them to clarify as I can't see how they can make less than a month's funding stretch for an unspecified amount of time! I think you're right in that's probably what they mean though xx
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Stretched funding can look very differently, depending on how much they use week by week. We use ‘stretched funding’ to cover the full 52 weeks of the year, rather than just using it within term times. This means parents have access to funding every week but it does also mean their entitlement for funded hours is less each week as it’s spread over a larger period. So while they still get the funding that they are entitled to, you pay a higher non funded amount per month that you would if you were to use all 15 hours in a week…if that makes sense xx