Childcare Funding Information for Grace Dieu Manor Park

The Free Early Education Entitlement Funding (FEEE) is allocated by the DFE for 38 Term Time

weeks per year. Therefore, if your child attends all year round (51 weeks), you have the option to stretch your funding – so you can spread the total number of free funded hours per week over the whole year (if attending less than the max 30 hrs per week). This means that you will avoid larger bills in the school holidays.

We calculate the funding yearly - from September through to August and average the monthly cost over 12 months (if attending all year) or 10 months (if attending Term time only)  -  so you will know what your monthly bill will be for each month for the whole year.

We will require a copy of your child’s birth certificate and a completed parental statement of undertaking form which we will provide for you prior to any funding being claimed.

Funded Childcare Sessions

To access a fully funded “free” place – during term time only, we offer a choice of:

• 5 x Mornings  9am-12 noon

• 5 x Afternoons  1-4pm

These sessions can be used as a block of 5 or tailored to suit your requirements – i.e., 3 mornings per week. No extra hours can be added onto these fully funded sessions. Snacks are included at no extra cost to you. In the event of a trip / optional activity being offered during your child’s normal session - you would be asked to make a voluntary contribution towards the cost.

Parents accessing funded sessions with additional hours and therefore incurring additional charges:

Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours per week of free, high quality flexible early education and childcare. Government funding is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.

We can charge parents for extras in connection with the free hours – these charges are considered voluntary. For any parent / carer who does not want to opt in to any additional charges, please refer to the unwilling / unable to pay policy attached at Appendix 2.

• Additional private paid hours of childcare over and above the “free hours”,

• Food charges  – breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks ;

• Non food consumables - online journal, nappies, suncream, spare clothes;

• Additional activities charges such as – yoga, dance, drama, football, forest school, multi sports;

The following sessions are available with additional costs:

• Full day  7.30 am – 6pm (10.5 hours – 7.5 hrs FEEE claimed)

• Morning 7.30am – 1 pm (5.5 hours - 3 hrs FEEE claimed)

• Afternoon 12.30 pm – 6pm (5.5 hours - 3 hrs FEEE claimed)

• School day 9am  – 3pm (6 hour session 5hrs FEEE claimed)

Enabling Utilisation of Childcare Funding

4 x full days (30 hrs) / 5 x School days (25 hrs) / 5 x am / pm per week (15 hrs)

– some stretching of hours across the year can be arranged if the full amount of allocated funding is not used each week.

Additional sessions or a mixture of sessions can be accommodated.

Please see Appendix 1 for the cost breakdown for each session.

Disability Access Fund

This is designed to support children with disabilities or special educational needs (SEN). To be eligible to claim your child must be in receipt of child disability living allowance (DLA) .

Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)

The EYPP is extra government money to boost learning in eligible children from the age of 9 months onwards. We will work with you to decide how best to spend the money to ensure your child really benefits. You may be entitled to receive this extra payment if you are in receipt of certain benefits. Please ask for further details.

Appendix 1 - Cost Breakdown Per Session:

Full day funded session
7.5 hrs	Funded hours	-	NIL
3 hrs	Additional childcare	£5.50 per hour	£16.50
	Meals and snacks	£6.25	-
	Consumables / Tapestry	-	£2.00
	Extra activities	-	£10.00
	TOTAL		£34.75
Funded School Day Sessions
5 hrs	Funded hours	-	NIL
1 hr	Additional childcare	£10 per hour	£10.00
	Meals and snacks	-	£4.00
	Consumables / Tapestry	-	£2.00
	Extra activities	-	£7.50
	TOTAL		£23.50
Funded Half day session
3 hours	Funded hours	-	NIL
2 hours	Additional childcare	£10 per hour	£20.00
	Meals and snacks	-	£2.25
	Consumables / Tapestry	-	£1.50
	Extra activities	-	£3.00
	TOTAL		£26.75

Appendix 2 - Unwilling / Unable to Pay Policy:

At Grace Dieu Manor Park, parents / carers can claim the Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) for their child/ren.

Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare.  The 15 or 30 hours must be able to be accessed free of charge to parents / carers.  There must not be any mandatory charges for parents / carers in relation to the free hours.  It is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.

This policy sets out what options parents and carers have if they are unable or unwilling to pay for the additional services provided by Grace Dieu Manor Park.

Grace Dieu offers a limited number of fully free spaces which come at no cost to parents / carers.  If these are all full, parents / carers may request to join the waiting list for a fully free space.

The fully free spaces will operate in accordance with the admissions policy and will prioritise those families with disadvantaged children.

If parents / carers who are unable or unwilling to pay choose to access a fully free space, they must understand and agree to provide the following which are not covered by FEEE and are classed as an additional service.  Our standard model of delivering the funded hours is to include everything included in our private package.  As stated above, FEEE is not expected to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services. 

To access a fully free space, parents / carers agree to provide the following for every session their child/ren attends (if you are bringing in your own food, please provide ice packs in lunch boxes (labelled with your child/ren’s name) as there is no space to store food in our fridge).  Due to some children’s severe allergies, please ensure that any food containing nuts are not brought into the setting.  Please note that we are unable to reheat food, so please ensure that any food which is brought in can be eaten at room temperature.  If you choose not to do this, children will not be able to attend.  This is imperative as we want to ensure that children accessing FEEE get the same quality and access to provision as those using private paid hours:

Breakfast	Cereal / Bread and butter for toast
AM Snack	Fruit / Vegetable Sticks
Lunch	Packed Lunch, including sandwiches (no jam or chocolate spread), crackers or rice cakes.  Vegetable sticks, fruit, cereal bars. Please do not send crisps or chocolate products.
PM Snack	Breadsticks / Bagels / Oatcakes / Unsalted plain rice cakes with butter or cream cheese (this should match the snack on the menu which other children will eat to ensure equality).
Tea	Packed Lunch, including sandwiches (no jam or chocolate spread), crackers or rice cakes.  Vegetable sticks, fruit, cereal bars. Please do not send crisps or chocolate products.
Water bottle	A refillable water bottle
Children in Nappies	Nappies, wipes and nappy bags
Medication	Calpol and Piriton
Toiletries	Toothbrush and toothpaste
Spare Clothes	All Year Round
Wellies	All Year Round
Winter Months	Waterproof all in one / hat / scarf / gloves / warm clothing to be worn
Summer months	Summer cap / Suncream

By utilising a fully funded free space, parents / carers understand that they will not receive the following:

1	Access to an online learning journey or care diary.  Statutory documentation, such as the 2-year check will be provided.  Any other progress reports will be passed on verbally.
2	Weekly update photos of their child/ren either via an online learning journey or WhatsApp.
3	Children will not be able to participate in any additional activity, such as yoga / forest school / sporting activities / park visits / trips.
4	Children will not be able to attend certain events, such as Christmas, Halloween or graduation.
5	Children will not receive any gifts.