Nursery Fees

NURSERY FUNDING

The Garden is a registered provider for the Early Years Entitlement (EYE) funding which funds up to 12 or 24 hours per week for 45 weeks of the year for 3-4 year olds.

The Garden claims these hours on your behalf. This does not fully cover consumables or extras such as specialist lessons and you will still receive a monthly invoice. Please contact our admissions department if you require a detailed breakdown of these charges.

The Garden is also a registered provider of tax-free childcare. More information about help with childcare fees can be accessed at www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

As you are aware, the Government have extended the Early Years Entitlement (funded hours) so that more children are eligible to claim. Starting from April 2024, existing childcare support will be expanded in phases. This means that:

From September 2024, 15 hours childcare support will be extended to eligible working parents of children from the term after they turn 9 months.

From September 2025, eligible working parents with a child from 9 months old up to school age will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare support a week. Non eligible parents will still be entitled to 15 hours of universal hours from the term after their child’s third birthday.

15 or 30 hours apply only to settings that offer just term time only places. As we are open for 45 weeks per year, this funding is stretched over all these weeks and therefore works out as 12 or 24 hours each week. This means that there will be a reduction in your bill for each of these 45 weeks. Any sessions booked during our ‘extra’ weeks or as ad hoc sessions will not have the funding applied to them.

Currently we are running two different ways of applying the funded hours, and from September we will be consolidating these so the same system will apply across all rooms in the nursery. From September the funded hours can be used in The Garden between 08.00 and 12.00 and between 13.30 and 17.30 each day. These hours will be covered by the government funded rate and there will be no cost to you.

There will be a charge for the 90 minutes in the middle of the day that the funding does not cover if a funded child is attending a full day, or for the 45 minutes not covered for a half day attendance. We are also able to charge for items not covered by the government funding. These include consumables, all meals and snacks, specialist lessons, and special events such as Christmas parties, workshops, parents’ events etc.

If you are eligible for 15 hours of funding (taken as 12 hours per week all year round), this means that there will be a charge of either £30 (for children aged 0-2 years) or £35 (for preschool children) for your first funded day, where 8 hours of funding are used. For your second funded day, where the remaining 4 hours are used, there will be a charge of £10 (0-2 years) or £12 (preschool) for the morning, and then normal fees will apply for the afternoon session if your child is attending for the full day.

If your child is in preschool and you are eligible for 30 hours of funding (taken as 24 hours all year round), then the funded hours will cover the mornings and afternoons for 3 days of attendance, and you will be charged the daily fee of £35 for each of these days.

Any extra sessions not covered by the funding will be charged at normal fees. Please also note that normal fees will apply for each session if you are not eligible for the funded hours. To check whether you are eligible for the funded hours, please apply on www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

This needs to be done by August 31st 2024 for any new claims for September funding. If you apply later than this date, then your code will not be valid until January 2025.

If you are eligible, this will generate a code and you will need to complete the form issued by us, giving us the code and a few more details so we can claim the funding back from BANES. This code must be verified by parents every three months, and the responsibility is on parents to do this. If the code is not valid or has lapsed, then full fees will be payable for the whole of that term.

If you have any further questions regarding the funding, please contact Anna Ballanger by email ([email protected]) or via Famly for more information.