30 Hours Funding - how will you allocate spaces?

[Mother_Goose]

If you are restricting the number of 30 hour funding spaces available, how are you allocating them? Are you offering on a first-come first-served basis, or do you have any criteria for allocation? We're limiting the number of places available to 5, and although we don't anticipate that they'll all go (we only have 1 family who is eligible so far), we'd like to make sure our policy covers every eventuality. Thanks in advance

[finleysmaid]

we have offered 15 ..all had been taken but I've had one family whose parents have split up ( I've known them for some time ..really sad), one family who have decide to only take 15 and another who have decided to go elsewhere because we wouldn't give them 3x10 hour days (! :rolleyes: ) but we have sold one of these :1b

we offer by criteria

1...sibling link and 'village'

2 sibling link

3 'village

4 local community zone 1

5 wider community zone 2

these are done in birth order per term.

(we have usually quite busy!!)

we had a long conversation about 2 and 3 and which way round they should be. :blink:

first come first serve doesn't work for us because people put their names down early and we need to restrict the number of 2 year olds we have.

[Stargrower]

I couldn't limit the places available as about half our existing families are eligible so I couldn't give to some and not to others.

[Mother_Goose]

Thanks both.

 

finleysmaid - will you re-assess all the requests each term then ("...in birth order per term") or once someone has been allocated a 30 hour space, it's theirs to keep?

 

What I can't get my head round in our case, is that parents with Autumn children, could possibly take all the 5 spaces, leaving none available for those with spring or summer term children. I'm trying to find a solution that makes it fair *throughout the year*, rather then just giving the spaces to those with the oldest children and who become eligible earlier on in the term. Equally, it seems wrong to deny someone a space on the off-chance that someone else may become eligible later in the year (and which could never happen)...

 

We could re-assess each 'application' each term, but that would possibly mean that someone who was allocated a 30 hour space in Autumn, could lose their space in Summer when someone else who has more 'points' is higher than them in the list. I can't see that being fair to either parent or child as they're relying on the space to go to work, and may possibly have to find new childcare to cover their working hours.

 

It's all such a headache, but we have to limit the number of spaces available due to the financial impact. Given how low the eligibility in our area is though, I'm possibly getting my knickers in a twist about nothing, but I like to have our policies in place *before* we need to use it..

[finleysmaid]

finleysmaid - will you re-assess all the requests each term then ("...in birth order per term") or once someone has been allocated a 30 hour space, it's theirs to keep?

NO! once they've got it they've got it. What I mean by that is that the oldest on the list gets the first stab. Most of our children start in September so we have very few spaces left through the rest of the year. For us this is unavoidable. I need to be full I cannot keep spaces for later in the year. But the birth order system means that if I suddenly get a 4 year old on the list they would get the place before a just 3 year old.

 

What I can't get my head round in our case, is that parents with Autumn children, could possibly take all the 5 spaces, leaving none available for those with spring or summer term children. I'm trying to find a solution that makes it fair *throughout the year*, rather then just giving the spaces to those with the oldest children and who become eligible earlier on in the term. Equally, it seems wrong to deny someone a space on the off-chance that someone else may become eligible later in the year (and which could never happen)...

I suppose you could try offering 2 a term as a sort of rolling programme but if this is the case and you have children for more than a year then you could end up with12 children on 30 hours...so if you wanted less you might only have 1x30 hour place per term!

 

We could re-assess each 'application' each term, but that would possibly mean that someone who was allocated a 30 hour space in Autumn, could lose their space in Summer when someone else who has more 'points' is higher than them in the list. I can't see that being fair to either parent or child as they're relying on the space to go to work, and may possibly have to find new childcare to cover their working hours.

Don't think this would work...unless you want a headache!!

 

Given how low the eligibility in our area is though,

Lucky you!!!

 

I'm possibly getting my knickers in a twist about nothing, but I like to have our policies in place *before* we need to use it..

I suspect as we hit the new term a whole host of issue are going to arise that people have not thought about!!

We have cancelled out theatre trip this year because I can't close for a day and parents would ALL need to pay...which I know won't happen!...when I rang the theatre they said "Ah yes we understand lots of nurseries have done the same