Childcare help!!
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How can we find child minders ?
@Iqra there’s an app called childcare that you can search for childminders in your area then enquire with them if they have spaces xx
Thank you
You won't get funded hours until January 2026 - the funding starts the term after your child turns 9 months. Depending on your nursery, you will be required to "top up" the funding. It doesn't matter how many hours you choose. We found it wasn't worth the savings to not send our other children for the full funding available. When our baby gets the funding in January 2026, they will be doing 30 hours a week over 3 days, which will cost around £28 a day. We use Busy Bees nursery and stretch the funding to cover the entire year, rather than just term time.
I would advise booking your place now, with the new funding, places are limited! Also, look into Tax Free Childcare as this will save you an additional 20% on your childcare costs. You need an account with the government, pay money into the account, the government top you up by 25%, then you make payments through the government account.
Hey. So we send our 3 year old to nursery and we get the working parents allowance so we pay around £250 a month for her with 2 days at nursery per week every week of the year. We found even with the 30 hours you still pay something as nurseries don’t get funding for consumable costs like food etc. When we send our current baby she will be more expensive per month compared to our eldest for the time being until she can get the 30 hours (they are just allowed the 15 hours from the term after they turn 9 months if you qualify for working parents free hours). The other thing to consider is that we found some small nurseries dont get funding not offer the 15/30 hours funding to all children even if you are eligible. There is a lovely nursery we enquired about up the road from us but they only give funding to 5 children and they have a waitlist. Also recommend setting up and account early on .gov for childcare so it’s ready. :) The whole thing is very confusing tbh but you will get there.
You can’t apply for your funding yet but start looking for and booking spaces with providers now as they can fill up quickly
You apply 30 days before you go back to work then they will be able to send you your code. The hours have gone up in September to 30 hours so you might not need to pay anything but nursery’s have extra costs so depending on what they charge for you might have to pay something towards it. If you enquire with the nursery’s they should be able to help you with the costs including the free hours. My little boy is with a childminder two days a week and we only have to pay £22 on top of the free hours but my friends little boy is at nursery two days and she has to pay £400 extra a month with the free hours xx