Nursery vouchers for 3+ year olds?

[Eelis]

Hiya I am wondering if anyone can help me understand the childcare/pre-school voucher thing that the government offer.

I was under the impression that parents are entitled to put children into pre-school/nursery for 15 hours a week once they turn 3.

But then someone else told me that you cannot start using the vouchers until the September AFTER they are 3.

And then someone else told me that it depends what nursery you use??!

I found this on a government site:

Children born between 1 April and 31 August (inclusive) will be eligible to a free place from 1 September following their third birthday.

Which seems to confirm what the my first friend told me.

Am I missing something here or confusing 2 different things?

I am so confused, nothing is straight forward is it!

 

[mummy0704]

hi i've just claimed this, they stagger it out over 3 terms, my son was 3 years old on the second of september so i have got 15 hours for free from the 1st january, it goes on the main term after they turn 3. whens your childs 3rd birthday ?

 

[Waiting4Bump]

It is the term after your child turns 3. So say your child turned 3 in October, then you couldn't claim vouchers until the new term starts in January.

It's all realy complicated as well - well, I think it is.

You can only claim 2.5 hours per session. So your child can do up to 12.5 hours, free. BUT, they have to be spread over 5 sessions. A session is counted as either a morning or an afternoon.

So, say your child went to pre-school for 5 mornings a week, from 9-1 (or whatever the morning session is at the individual pre-school), then that's 5 hours, and you could only use the vouchers for 2.5 hour, so would still have to pay for half of your childs pre-school bill.

Well, that's how it works here anyway. Not sure if it's different for council run pre-schools or private ones either

 

[Eelis]

Oh god really? There goes my plan to go back to work for a weekday