Free 15hrs per week - term time only?

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Asking on behalf of a friend. She has her daughter at a local private nursery for 15hrsper week. DD is two, and friend is a LP.

Nursery have said that the free hours are for term time only. Can anyone clarify if that is the case nationally or if it might be something that this nursery alone has decided to do?

Fwiw friend is starting a job this summer and so needs to send her dd there and has been told she needs to pay as the free 15hrs are not eligible in the summer holidays.

[5madthings]

This is the policy nationally.

[Sirzy]

yes that is the case. Some nurseries will average it out over the whole year (so you get less free hours per week) others just charge normal rates during the holidys

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Ah

[13Stitches]

Yep, term time only.

And annoyingly, our nursery's term starts the week after term starts for DH and me (teachers). But hey, 15 hours free is a bonus, right?!

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Ok thanks for the swift responses! I wasnt sure what the score was and neither was she so am chuffed to have an answer so swiftly.

[MirandaWest]

I think there are a set number of weeks per year so the amount of free weeks may not exactly correspond to terms iyswim

[gallicgirl]

It's 15 hours a week for 39 weeks a year.
I've heard some people say nursery insisted the child attended 5 morning or afternoon sessions but I think most childcare settings are more flexible. They must have realised that most mums aren't sitting around for 3 hours waiting for Little Johnny to finish nursery!

[13Stitches]

Slightly related question, and I've asked people in RL but why don't the NRP (have I got that right?) seem to contribute to childcare despite continuing to merrily work full time? Why does that seem to fall to the single parent? Who is also trying to pay for ft childcare, a larger house, food for 2 (or more)?

Sorry to hijack.

[13Stitches]

And I know it's one of those questions which doesn't have a nice tidy answer. More of a mini-rant really then.
I think the person I know in this situation had cited not wanting to 'rock the boat' because he's a 'good dad' and all that.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Probably because the NRP has the child when they arent at work and so dont requre Childcare. In an ideal world (imo) kods would do a week with Parent A and the a week with Parent B and so each parent would be responsible for paying the childcare for their week.

[Metalhead]

Some nurseries offer the option to spread the free hours over 52 weeks, so you get only, say, 12 hours per week, but for the whole course of the year. And most places around her only offer certain sessions, for example Mon morning, Tue afternoon and one whole day. It's a lot more complicated than you'd think!

[cate16]

Its over 38 weeks. :)

[jopickles]

some nurseries offer it all year so you end up with 11 hours every week, I have been doing it this way for the last 18 months so its worth enquiring