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forecasting places for 2017 with 30 hours


laura
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Or they could turn their school nurseries into PVI and not have to pay a teachers wage??

That's what we are! We are the academy's pre-school. They never had a nursery. Parents use us as well as the before and after school club (also run and governed by the school) to be in direct competition to day nurseries. We started this in Sept to be able to then offer the 30 hrs from next Sept. We share premises with the club and the pre-school is run by level 3 qualified staff (so pay costs less as no teacher employed). We do work in close partnership with the Reception teacher. Parents chose the hours that they want to send their children. So far we do not have anyone taking up more than 20 hrs/week at the pre-school. Most of our parents use the 15 hrs but this can be over 2.5 full days. We do not stipulate that children have to attend every morning or every afternoon. We built up a good reputation from being a morning only setting based in the village hall (still run by the school but separately OFSTED) but due to the prospect of 30 hrs funding and the fact more parents wanted hours to fit around work the school decided to move us onto the premises. We are much busier than last year for Sept, although we have plenty of spaces. i think its still going to take time. We are in an area though where I believe most of my parents will qualify for the 30 hrs funding.

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I threw it out there at our AGM. Most were oblivious to it (damn should of kept quiet) and then shocked at the qualifying threshold of 100k for both parents, now planning on gaining feedback from them, I envisage the main problem being staff ( nor me particularly) not wanting increased hours and the costs that will be involved with having to take on more staff to work extended hours....more payroll expense, more uniform, more managing .....

 

I also think the likely hood of parents not being eligible and then appealing and automatically becoming eligible whilst appealing will be a real headache if that stays in place :-(

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The main issues for us (i think) and leaving aside the fact our funding is currently £1 .07p per hour less than our fees will be

 

Not knowing who qualifies or what eligibility will be when we allocate places (normally March onward)

 

Children being eligible when they start, then not or vice versa.

 

I wonder if anyone has even realized that we require more than just a few weeks notice to administer and implement these changes. I cant help think it would have been better to have run a pilot scheme and then had a year to review, consult, decide and ensure it can be fully embedded etc BEFORE starting.

But hey, what do I know

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The NDNA are running a half day course called 'Thrive and Survive; making the 30 hours work for you' and some local authorities have commissioned them to deliver it free to settings in their area. I am hoping it will answer many of the queries we all have about how it's going to work. I will certainly post any information I get on here.

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I'm sorry but what a waste of money, how can they tell us how to Thrive & Survive- when the money that we use to thrive and survive now i.e. the additional hours our children do over and above 15 hours are what subsidize the lowly funded 15 hour funding. We have a difference of 1.09p per hour now and cannot afford to lose any of that.

This makes me really very cross that they are probably paying them money that could be paid to us! No wonder it only seems to be the PSLA that are asking questions about the 30 hour funding

 

 

 

and I bet they're not told they are having their costs cut or made to wait 3 months for their money!

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So far my parents are sending back the forms saying they will be eligible for 30 hours and they will be taking it... Only 1 parent has said they are eligible and won't be taking it, they even emailed me to confirm! They mentioned the costs and said it wasn't fair on us. Seriously panicking about how i'm going to fit all these children in...Think I've decided that I will have to let them know a date that they can send me sessions wanted, on this date I will email them a form and then it will be first come first served and I will accommodate where possible!

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The NDNA are running a half day course called 'Thrive and Survive; making the 30 hours work for you' and some local authorities have commissioned them to deliver it free to settings in their area. I am hoping it will answer many of the queries we all have about how it's going to work. I will certainly post any information I get on here.

 

I went along to our roadshow and yes it answered lots of questions, not that I liked many of the answers, but it still didn't answer the most worrying one for us .......(aside from the actual rate) is how the hell am I going to fit them all in ...do I stop taking any new children now, sit with empty spaces so I have enough extra hours for the ones with me now that will be eligible ....why has early years turned into one bl**** headache after another ???

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I am nervous about asking my parents what they will want as I may not be able to provide it! And with the government being SO good at planning I am concerned that I may then offer something that is not possible!!!

There are several questions that I have running around in my head.....we have 30 places per session...so could in theory halve the amount of children we have..so making us full day care and changing the way we have run for over 50 years! I suspect I am going to have to work out a possible percentage of fully funded places and take the risk of losing some children to other settings (though I don't know where they are going to go!) I could not hold places so September entry children will have to be given priority...hummm need to go and have a lie down I think!

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so having taken my head out from the sand for the minute around 50% of my parents are eligible ...so I could offer 30 full time places 8.30-11.30 and 12-3 ...they can add lunch club if they want (like anyone is going to take their children out for 30 minutes! ) BUT I currently 'lose' £1 per hour...so that's £6 per day ...so if I charge £6 for lunch club then I would cover costs. HOWEVER that means I can only offer 30 places in September...I can have NO flexibility ...I will not take 2 year olds and I will only have half the amount of places ...as for SEND money I get nothing at the moment so twice nothing is still nothing!!Anyone not booking in for a September start will have no chance and parents will have to pay for a full time place until they are funded....sounds pants really doesn't it!

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so having taken my head out from the sand for the minute around 50% of my parents are eligible ...so I could offer 30 full time places 8.30-11.30 and 12-3 ...they can add lunch club if they want (like anyone is going to take their children out for 30 minutes! ) BUT I currently 'lose' £1 per hour...so that's £6 per day ...so if I charge £6 for lunch club then I would cover costs. HOWEVER that means I can only offer 30 places in September...I can have NO flexibility ...I will not take 2 year olds and I will only have half the amount of places ...as for SEND money I get nothing at the moment so twice nothing is still nothing!!Anyone not booking in for a September start will have no chance and parents will have to pay for a full time place until they are funded....sounds pants really doesn't it!

That's pretty much what the nursery manager said!

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And then what happens if they don't qualify in the second term?

I'm guessing these are the issues that will come out as the 'Early Implementers' continue - the point was made several times that these are the issues that have come out 'so far' given that they've only been going 7 weeks!

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I've had a trawl through various news and media bits and attached links below if you want to know more or find out more - some of the sites will be 'members only' but I know lots of you are member of different things - this is just a bit of a collection if you need more help or advice:

 

If you want to add more links then please do! the more help we can give each other the better

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They are already with me, and i'm turning away new children now as I know I won't have room in September. Two thirds of our current children do 6 to 15 hours a week, with the rest doing up to 40ish. I've got 76 children in this age band

 

Laura ..are these children who are already with you or new starters? confused .com!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Must admit that I hadn't realised that York were the only area offering the 30 hours to ALL eligible families. So what are the other areas offering to whom? How is this going to be assessed? Still so many questions!

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When I went to the NDNA regional meeting it was explained that different early implementers focused on different things. Swindon focused on flexibility, Newham were looking at provision for SEND.

This quote came from the original announcement: "Early innovators in each local cluster will work together to focus on special educational needs and disability, flexibility, availability of places, and making work pay"

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  • 2 weeks later...
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