Anyone else awaiting 30 hours capital funding decision?

[FSFRebecca]

I emailed "Childcare Works" who are project managing the 30hours role out for the DfE and their response was "in December".

Yes, that's what we were told on Monday

[BroadOaks]

Any further news on this....

[FSFRebecca]

Not as far as I know

[Littlesparklesnursery]

Same here. no news

[Littlemay]

No news here either....

[Littlemay]

This wait is painful!!!! Decision must be any day surely...?!!!!

[Littlesparklesnursery]

Yes Little May. I know very well how your feeling?.

 

I'm hoping they let us know this week. or maybe they'll inform LA when everyone is on holiday!

[Foreveryoung]

 

I'm hoping they let us know this week. or maybe they'll inform LA when everyone is on holiday!

 

I'm with you on that one, tell LA within deadline but keep us hanging till January !

[Littlesparklesnursery]

I guess no news for anyone yet?

[Littlemay]

Nothing. I spoke to the LA yesterday and they are as much in the dark as we are.

[catma]

We're waiting on the outcome of three bids - to be fair LAs know as much as anyone else! Nothing can really start until January anyway so it's surely not that much of an issue if you found out on January 3rd rather than December 23rd??

[Littlemay]

For many of us this decision dictates the future of our business and livelihoods which is why we are all so desperate to hear. The uncertainty is very uncomfortable especially over the Christmas period when we'd like to be relaxing and celebrating with our families so forgive us for being so impatient!

[Littlesparklesnursery]

Agree with littlemay 100%. preliminary work has already started at our end since timescale is very tight for completion of project.

[Mouseketeer]

Good luck to you both .. we went for capital funding a few years ago and as you say the timescales to get it spent are so tight, it's a catch 22, if you sit around twiddling your thumbs for the decision you've wasted a fair bit of time, but if you are proactive and start prep and then it doesn't come through you may have wasted money and definitely a lot of hours, I remember it being really stressful at the time, especially when it's only little old you trying to pull it together :-)

[Foreveryoung]

This is agony! I've got 2 weeks off if I knew in the holidays I could get a lot of work done! I've purposefully not given much thought to finer details such as staff deployment etc as didn't want to waste precious time on things that may never be, so I could be homing in on these aspects, for us it's a big change and an extra week of being in the know is unmeasurable. I will be leading the whole thing - yep I'm good at DIY but project managing a new build is scary and also continuing to run a very busy setting which as we know there arnt enough hours in the day.

The implications of not receiving the money have a big impact on us as we carnt provide the 30hours in our current form and the building is at risk of closure that we rent, literally every e mail notification I'm on my phone as if i am some mad woman!

I keep looking on here to see if anyone has heard - wishing you all luck

 

Mousekeeper exactly my thoughts, the pulling it together completely by yourself was horrendous - so you value the time you have and not wasting it on things that may never be.

[Littlemay]

Thank you Mouseketeer, you are right it's incredibly stressful. We've invested thousands on planning permission as we had to have this in place in order to meet the timescales. Wouldn't it be the best Christmas present for us all to receive some good news from the DfE this week?! Keeping everything crossed for everyone (whilst trying to prepared for Christmas and keep two very excitable kids of my own entertained!)xx

[Rafa]

Feel for you all. Hope you get a happy result sooooon!!! X

[hali]

we are still waiting too ^_^

[FSFRebecca]

Apparently the results of the bids have been announced ... anyone had any news to share?

[Littlemay]

I've heard nothing?! Is this news confirmed?

[FSFRebecca]

Someone posted on Twitter to PLA to say they had had their result - 2 bids from one LA, both bids rejected

[Littlemay]

Thanks Rebecca, now frantically trying to get hold of my LA but all on holiday!!

[Littlesparklesnursery]

no news here either

[catma]

I am part of an LA team who put in bids - and I still don't know! They may be telling LAs over several days...Nothing can change between now and the new year anyway so I'd just relax and not worry about it.

Cx

[catma]

Ok, my LA got their response on December 23rd. The instruction is not to share the result until the DfE make an announcement in the New Year.

Cx

[Littlemay]

Same here.

[Littlesparklesnursery]

thanks for update. much apreciated.

[catma]

In my LA we are taking responsibility for the work timelines and the management of meeting the bid outcomes - not the settings...our planning department has been sorting this all out prior to the DfE outcome, along with our contingency plan if we don't get the bids agreed. In the way the bids are structured it's the LA who are responsible not individual settings as far as I am aware. (I am part of our delivery group!)

Cx

[Littlemay]

Hi Catma, Thanks for sharing your insight. So on the basis that the LA's are responsible for the management and delivery of the projects they submitted do you think it's likely that as an LA they will either be successful or unsuccessful in their bids? For example either all the bids for an LA are approved or none?

[catma]

Hi Catma, Thanks for sharing your insight. So on the basis that the LA's are responsible for the management and delivery of the projects they submitted do you think it's likely that as an LA they will either be successful or unsuccessful in their bids? For example either all the bids for an LA are approved or none?

Hmm - good question. They were very clear how many bids each LA could make...but I don't have any sense re this. I would like to think they would look at each project against the criteria and decide accordingly!!