fairydollpink Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Right I know there has been loads of great advise about the 15 hour funding but am still confused. My preschool currently runs 2.5 hour sessions and most of our funded children do 5 sessions to get their 12.5 funded hours,any more and they pay. What I am wondering is this-in September can I continue to only offer 2.5 hour sessions or do I have to change them to 3 hour sessions? If I could keep them at 2.5 hour long then I could fill some spaces in the afternoons which are desperately low on numbers. Any advice gratefully received....ps am in Essex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 from what i have been told you are able to keep them at 2 and a half but then must offer 6 sessions to make up 15hrs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairydollpink Posted July 5, 2010 Author Share Posted July 5, 2010 That's what i thought but wanted to check,it would make life soo much easier to do that plus fill some spaces in the afternoons,thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 That's what we do, children have 6 x 2.5hour sessions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Hi Cait How do you manage 6 x 2.5 hr sessions? Do the children do say a mon am session and then come back in the afternoon to do another 2.5 hrs session. Please excuse my ignorance if this is plain to others but my head is at exploding point with the rules and regs of this funding carry on! Debbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 How do you manage 6 x 2.5 hr sessions? I wondered that too, Debbie so if you're ignorant then so am I! I can't imagine parents would want to come and pick them up between sessions. Is lunch club included in the free period I wonder? Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairydollpink Posted July 5, 2010 Author Share Posted July 5, 2010 I'm hoping that lunch club can be charged for as a lot of our children do mornings and afternoons and we charge for lunch club which increases our revenue. If we can't charge funded children for lunch club we'll lose a horrible amount of money. Though it is reassuring to know I'm not the only person who doesn't quite understand it all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 you can do back to back sessions (therefore 5hrs continous) you can only charge for lunch if it is not included in the free entitlement and is not obligatory for your parents. I think you might have problems if you charged for lunch and insisted that they stayed - or go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairydollpink Posted July 5, 2010 Author Share Posted July 5, 2010 Our session times are 8.45 til 11.15 and 12.30 til 3pm with lunch in the middle for those who are staying all day or just the morning who choose to stay for lunch. We don't force parents to keep their children in for lunch club but most of them work so if they book their child in all day they happily pay the lunch club. Hmmm still not sure whether I can continue charging funded children for lunch time or not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 if in doubt check with your advisors ! there are still a few oddities out there i reckon as long as you do not charge for any of their 15 hours you should be ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 We charge for the lunch hour, so they stay at least one full day a week. Most use it for 3 full days and pay for Monday and Friday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenfinch Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Uumm - we are the same as most of you. At the moment we do 9-11.30, 12.30 -3 but can do 9-3 and pay for extra hour. I'm not sure if I can offer this in sept, say by doing 8.45-11.45 then 12.45 - 3.45 and asking for any wishing to join 2 sessions together to pay for lunch time... I thought I had to offer that as 7 hours and not two lots of 3 in which case we are really out of pocket! Does this makes sense to everyone?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 The national framework states no sessions longer than 10 hours no session shorter than 2.5hours not before 8am or after 6pm. the full 15 hours over no fewer than 3 days (equating to no more than 12.5hrs in 2 days, or 10 hours in a single day) parents can access their free entitlement at a maximum of 2 providers per term The core delivery patterns 3 hours per day over 5 days per week 5 hours per day over 3 days per week other common models of delivery flexibility are over 3 days 6hrs per day + 6hrs per day +3hrs per day over 4 days 5hrs per day +5hrs per day +2.5hrs per day+ 2.5hrs per day over 5 days 2.5hrs per day for 4 days + 5 hours on one day No conditions of access/completely free at the point of delivery (par2.7) parents must not be required to purchase additional hours or pay LUNCH TIME charges in order to secure free provision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Uumm - we are the same as most of you. At the moment we do 9-11.30, 12.30 -3 but can do 9-3 and pay for extra hour. I'm not sure if I can offer this in sept, Why can't you do that in september? It's what we've been doing all year with the 15 hour entitlement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristina Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Hi fairydollpink I'm also in essex and went to the meeting last week about single funding etc with essex early years. Basically you can still offer 2.5 hours provided you can meet the 15 hour requirement, so by offering back to back sessions you could achieve this. However you cant charge for lunch club if it is part of the 15 hours, just a couple of other things that were mentioned: you can no longer claim money back from previous settings if a child joins you after headcount day (and you cant charge the parent either), and if you cant meet the 15 hours you will have to show why or your funding can be withdrawn!! This is Essex I'm sure other areas have different criteria. Kris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenfinch Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Hi Cait Do you mean you've kept offer to 2.5 sessions but X 6 say, but if they want to stay for lunch you've been able to charge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Yes, that's right. We could have included the lunch hour as part of the entitlement, but we'd need to do planning etc and satisfy the County that it was conforming to the EYFS requirements. We decided that we like lunchtime to relax! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairydollpink Posted July 6, 2010 Author Share Posted July 6, 2010 Oh Cait you've just made my day!! I wanted to do that but wasn't sure if I could but knowing that another setting does it like that puts my mind at ease. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenfinch Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Thanks Cait. Certainly a lot to think about! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Well there's no problem with it in my County. Double-check with your EY advisor if you like, to be on the safe side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 can i just ask if you have a child who only does 3 sessions at 2.5, which is 7.5, where do you stand with the funding as we have been told we cant claim for half an hours...................................so when you have quite a few children doing this it soon adds up as we are still paying staff............. hope this makes sense????????????????this is why we had to go to a three hour session...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristina Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Hi Simcity We've been told in Essex we can claim for half hours! Kris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Hi everybody have confirmed with our local authority we can charge for lunch club if we wish, or you can allow parents/carers to use as part of their 15 hours entitlement. We have decided for our setting that we will continue to have this as an additional service and will continue to charge. Yes we also have parents that will have 2 x 3hrs per day, go home for lunch and come back, [ parents choice ]. Bring back the days when it was oh so simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 We've been doing 15 hours funding since last September (disadvantaged area) and offer 3 hour am sessions, lunch club (45 mins) and 3 hour pm sessions - LEA are quite happy with that, and have been told that some of our children access their 15 hours with 2 1/2 days (so pay for 2 lunch clubs. However, since we offer 3 hour sessions, they can equally take up 5 mornings or afternoons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 Right I know there has been loads of great advise about the 15 hour funding but am still confused. My preschool currently runs 2.5 hour sessions and most of our funded children do 5 sessions to get their 12.5 funded hours,any more and they pay. What I am wondering is this-in September can I continue to only offer 2.5 hour sessions or do I have to change them to 3 hour sessions? If I could keep them at 2.5 hour long then I could fill some spaces in the afternoons which are desperately low on numbers. Any advice gratefully received....ps am in Essex I have been actively involved in how this is delivered in my area. The minimum hours a provider is available will need to be a ecision that each local authority makes. Some are struggling to ensure that the 15 hours are met because of restrictions placed upon them out of their control ( i.e chutch halls). they have, therfor allowed 12.5 hours to remain as a minimum deliverery. All local authorities will need to liaise with providers to ensure that the children in their area are not left without proivision. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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