3 and 4 Year Old Funding at Rainbow Nursery

All 3-year-old children are eligible for the Universal 15 hours per week of Early Education for 38 weeks per year (School Terms) from the term (September, January or April) after their 3rd Birthday.

You may be eligible for an additional 15 hours, totaling 30 hours per week, 38 weeks per week, subject to these criteria:

Parents must be working and earning between the equivalent of 16 hours per week at National Minimum Wage and £100.000 per year each. If one parent earns over £100,000 you will not be eligible. In two parent families both parents must work, in single parent families, the parent must work.

Families do not have to meet the minimum earnings criteria if both or single parents are employed but one or both parents are temporarily away from the work on parental, maternity or paternity, adoption leave, or SSP or if the parent is employed but their partner either has substantial caring responsibilities or is disabled or incapacitated. This is dependent on one parent being entitled to specific disability or caring benefits. For the 30 hour a week offer, families must have recourse to public funds

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if I am eligible?

You are automatically eligible for the Universal 15 hours; we apply for these on your behalf and will give you a Parental Declaration from Somerset County Council (SCC) and a contract from us. If you think you will be eligible for the 30 hours offer, you can apply at www.childcarechoices.gov.uk You will need to have, or set up a Government Gateway account before you can apply.

When do I apply for the 30 hour code?

You can apply 3-6 months before your child’s 3^rd birthday. If you become eligible after your child turns 3, you can apply at any time, we will validate your code and funding will start from the following term.

When you apply for the 30 hour offer, you will set up an online account via HMRC, if you are eligible, you will receive an 11-digit code. You will need to give us your code, National Insurance Number and consent to share your information with SCC to validate your code. When we have confirmed your eligibility, we will give you a Parental Declaration from SCC and a contract from us. We must have these returned to us and we must send the declaration to SCC before your child’s first funded session. You must reconfirm your code every 3 months via your HMRC childcare account.

What happens if my circumstances change and I am no longer eligible for the 30 hour offer?

If you fall out of eligibility for the 30 hours you will go into a grace period:

Eligibility ends between:        Grace Period will end on:

 1^st Jan – 10^th Feb                     31^st Mar

 11^th Feb – 26^th May                31^st Aug

 27^th May – 21^st Oct                  31^st Dec

 22^nd Oct – 31^st Dec                  31^st Mar

 When your grace period ends you will still receive the Universal 15 hours but not the extended 15 hours unless you become eligible and reapply. You will be responsible for paying for any sessions taken over the Universal hours, 4 weeks’ notice is required to change sessions. If you change settings whilst in your grace period you will only be able to use universal hours.

What if I’m a Foster Carer?

Foster carers apply for the extended entitlement hours via SCC not online. Confirmation of a foster carer’s eligibility is only via an 11-digit eligibility code starting with ‘400’. Somerset County Council will be responsible for checking ongoing eligibility for foster carers.

What happens if I can’t work?

If you can’t work, you will receive 15 hours and may still be eligible for 30 hours if your partner is working (if applicable) and you get Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance.

What if I am self- employed?

The earnings criteria don’t apply if you’re self-employed and started your business less than 12 months ago. If you have been self employed for more than 12 months and don’t expect to meet the earning criteria in the next 3 months, you can use an average of what you expect to earn in the current tax year.

What if I work irregular hours?

If you work through the year but don’t get paid regularly, you can use an average of what you expect to earn in the current tax year as your earnings criteria.

Can I use Childcare Vouchers, Tax Free Childcare or apply for Universal Credit alongside the 15/30 hours?

Yes, you can, see www.childcarechoices.gov.uk for more information on help with childcare costs

How does Rainbow administer these hours?

Funding is paid during school term times (38 weeks per year)

There are 3 terms per academic year (Sep to Aug):

Autumn Term: 1^st September – 31^st December,

Spring Term: 1^st January – 31^st March,

Summer Term: 1^st April – 31^st August.

The maximum allowance of hours for the academic year is 570 (15 hours x 38 weeks per year) for the 15 hour offer and 1140 (30 hours x 38 weeks per year) for the 30 hour offer. We invoice based on the actual number of sessions your child attends in each month. We stretch the funded hours across the 12 months that we are open so the number of funded hours you receive will vary based on how many sessions your child attends in each month.

Most Children start school in the September after their 4^th Birthday so depending on when they turn 3, they will receive 3,4 or 5 terms of funding before starting school. If your child starts with us mid-term, we will calculate your remaining funding individually.

Do you charge a Registration Fee or Deposit?

Our deposit of two weeks’ worth of your fees is required to secure your child’s place unless they are already with us when they become eligible for funding. This deposit is refunded from your first month’s invoice. If you are accessing Government funded sessions only, this is deposit is not charged.

Can I have my funded hours whenever I want them?

All places are subject to our set sessions and our occupancies as we have statutory ratio and space requirements. We have a minimum attendance of 2 sessions per week.

What does my child get in their funded hours?

Government funding pays for your child’s early education, it is not intended to pay for the things that as a full day care setting we provide such as: snacks, a 2 course high tea, spare toiletries, consumables, an online learning journey, yoga and / or sports sessions (where applicable), emergency medication, sun-cream and trips in to the community with higher staff ratios, so we apply a voluntary additional services fee per session to cover the costs of all of these things, we ask that you provide your child’s lunch and if your child is in nappies we ask that you supply these and wipes, we include everything else in our additional services fee, please see our Sessions and Fees document for more information. Parents who are unable or unwilling to pay this, please speak to us to discuss your options.

Can my child attend on a Term Time only basis?

Not at Rainbow, we are open 51 weeks per year and stretch funding so that children can attend every week. We make parents aware that this is our policy and other settings operate differently.

Can I split my hours between different providers?

The law says you can split your funding between 3 providers a week on 2 sites per day. We have a minimum of 2 sessions per week so we will share funding with another setting. You must tell us if your child will be attending another setting so we can work out how to split funding and add the details onto your Parental Declaration. Failure to do so may result in you being charged our standard fees in the case of an over claim of funded hours.

The law says I do not have to agree to extra hours or additional services to get my funded hours?

That’s right, delivery of these hours is legislated for in the Statutory Guidance and we are not allowed to make it conditional that you buy extra hours or services in order to get your funded hours, it also clarifies that we do not have to offer funded hours. Our decision to offer stretched funding with a voluntary additional services charge as standard has been explained above but we make all parents aware that this is our policy and other settings may deliver these hours differently to us.

What if you do not have my preferred days available?

You can join our waiting list or we’ll offer the days we have then switch when your preferred days become available.

What if my child is ill or we go on holiday?

Occasional, short term absence such as illness or a family holiday is fine. Where extended absences occur for medical reasons, SCC allows us to continue to claim funding and hold open your funded place. We will notify SSC of any absence of more than 3 weeks; we ask that you always notify us if your child will be absent. Your usual fees will still be charged to keep your child’s place open. We offer a payment holiday of 2 weeks per year for your family holiday, we ask for 4 weeks’ notice of your holiday dates for this please.

What about in exceptional circumstances?

We strive to be as family friendly as possible, we always consider exceptional circumstances and temporarily adjust our policies to help where we can, please speak to us for more information.

How long do you retain my information?

SCC place up on us the responsibility of checking original copies of documentation to confirm that your child has reached the eligible age for early years funding, we do this by asking to see your child’s Birth Certificate or Passport, we may retain a digital copy of this, which will be stored securely, in accordance with data protection and privacy requirements. In accordance with our Provider agreement with SCC we will store this information with a copy of your Parental Declaration for the year the funding claim relates to and for 6 years afterwards then securely disposed of it. Rainbow Nursery is registered with the Information Commissioners Office 

What if I want to change my childcare provider?

You can change provider subject to giving us 4 weeks’ notice, if notice is not given, we will claim 4 weeks funding during or in lieu of notice, if your child starts at a new setting during these 4 weeks you will be responsible for paying for any hours taken at either setting over and above your maximum funding entitlement. If your child joins Rainbows whilst in their 4 week notice period from another setting you will be responsible for their full fee before we can claim funding

Where can I get more information? You can visit www.childcarechoices.gov.uk or speak to us.