Free nursery hours

Hey everyone, I'm just wondering how the free hours work as I've seen people say so many different things such as you need to also pay for so many hours to get the free ones? I have a just turnt 2 year old and a 10 week old, my partner works full time and I've been off work since having our first 2 years ago as unfortunately we don't have family who could look after the kids while I work, we tried it for a few months when my first was 9 months but it never worked out as I had to depend on several people and they work full time too and have children of school age. I wouldn't be able to afford to do nursery unless it is funded purely from the free hours.

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You and your partner both need to be in work, earning at least £2380 each before tax every 3 months, in order to qualify for the free hours. Only exception to this is if you receive certain types of benefit or carers leave. You can find more info here https://www.gov.uk/check-eligible-free-childcare-if-youre-working

I would speak to the child care settings in your area as each one is ran differently. They are funded hours but the nursery my children go to I have to pay a ‘voluntary contribution’ of £1.59 per hour for the 30 funded hours.

hello! my partner works however i dont and my two year old gets 15 hours free a week due to me not working. its 15 hours if your unemployed and 30 if your employed

They aren't free hours they are funded... Each nursery has a different way of doing it, so best to speak to them

Yes best to approach some local nurseries but be aware none will be completely free until your child is in school - you will still have to pay for food etc and the funded hours are only during term time. You may qualify for 15 hours a week if you are on benefits

It's not so much you have to pay for some to get the free, it's more that the free hours usually only cover the certain amount of hours a day if it's a private nursery. So our nursery is open 51 weeks a year but the hours are 'stretched' to cover 47 of those weeks. The hours only ever cover term time so that's why they are stretched in private to cover half terms. Private you will pay wrap around fees and any hours during the day that are not covered. Plus costs for meals and extra curricular. Local authority run nurseries you will usually still pay a contribution but it's usually far less. Only issue with Local Authority ones is that they are ONLY open in school terms. So unless you're a school teacher it's not ideal for being childcare while you work and they are usually open between 9am and 3pm again. No good for most working parents.

A working example would be ours. It's privately run. Open 7:45 until 5:45. Only 6hrs of funding allowed per day. For a full day we pay for 4hrs then 3 meals for the day and extra curricular activities. We do two full days a week and pay 438 a month. A local authority would have been no good for us because there's no way we could make it work with work, making it pointless.

I have same issue! Because I'm a sahm my daughter doesn't qualify for free hours. So I'm looking to get a part time job just so she can go to pre school as we can't afford to pay for it x

@talia how has this worked ? Told repeatedly we don't qualify as I don't work and don't need the childcare x

It’s not free hours it’s FUNDED hours. The amount you pay on top is depended on the childcare setting. You will need to speak to your chosen setting to see what their policy is.

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