How many hours of funding can children use?
Depending on a child’s age, they may be able to access a funded placement where they are funded for 15 to 30 hours per week. These funded hours are paid for a maximum of 38 weeks per year term time only (TTO). Your LA determines the term dates that they will fund - funded term dates can differ from academic dates, so it’s important to refer to the funding calendar for your LA.
Regardless of how you choose to use the funding over the year, the maximum number of hours available is:
570 hours for a 15 hr per-week claim 9-23m and 2 YO
1140 hours for a 30 hr per-week claim 3 / 4 YO
Term time only funding
Most Local Authorities will fund a certain number of weeks within each term, for example as 14 weeks in Autumn, 11 weeks in Spring and 13 weeks in Summer. This number of weeks may vary per LA, and some will allow more flexibility than others in the weeks that you can use funding in.
When you use funding on a term time only basis, you will claim funding for the number of weeks that the LA will fund, and for the most part use the funding during school term weeks. This may not cover all term weeks, and any hours outside of the funding period may need to be charged to parents.
This can mean that parents’ invoices fluctuate, with higher invoices in months with school holidays, particularly over the summer holidays.
Stretched full-year funding
Stretched funding is an alternative offer when the equivalent of 15 hours x 38 weeks (570 hours) or 30 hours x 38 weeks (1140 hours) entitlement is used (stretched) over more than 38 weeks, by using fewer hours per week. You can choose if you want to offer stretched entitlement places and to do so is regarded as a business decision.
A benefit of a stretched offer is the fees charged to parents can be evenly spread across the year, so you as the provider can forecast your expected earnings for private, and the invoices to parents won’t change significantly throughout the year.
How to stretch?
To calculate how a stretched offer can be offered, you need to decide how many weeks of the year your setting will be open.
Example 1: A childminder takes 5 weeks leave per year, and is open for business the remaining 47 weeks per year.
Open for business weeks- 47
Child A receives 38 weeks* 30 hours- 1140 hours per year
1140 hours/ 47 weeks = 24.25 funded hours per week - equivalent to 24 hours and 15 minutes.
Example 2: A childminder takes 2 weeks leave per year, and is open for business the remaining 50 weeks per year.
Open for business weeks- 50
Child A receives 38 weeks* 15 hours- 570 hours per year
570 hours/ 50 weeks = 11.4 funded hours per week - equivalent to 11 hours and 24 minutes.
Whether funding will be used on a term time only or stretched basis will be included in your tiney contract.
When processing your funding claim for the term, not every LA supports a stretched claim on their portal - so you may need to make a claim on a term time only basis, and track the hours that are used within each term. This can mean that for some terms, you’re paid for a different number of hours than are actually used, but this will work out over the full year.
Things to consider:
Children who are claiming funding at another setting: miscalculations and changes to attendance can affect the number of hours you can claim. This is particularly important if they are receiving a stretched offer with you and term time only funding at the second setting.
Unplanned closures e.g. sick leave: You must offer the undelivered hours at another time. This is permitted, but it means you will need to keep accurate records of attendance to keep track of hours used and still available.
Late starters, early leavers: Again, accurate record keeping is your best friend, but a stretched offer becomes a lot more difficult to calculate and keep track of.
If you are new to funding, or generally find funding admin time-consuming or confusing, we strongly recommend you start with a TTO offer to avoid the possible complications that can arise from a stretched offer.
Once you decide upon your offer, stretched, TTO, or opt to offer both, you will need to adapt your policies to reflect the options, and you will require agreement from parents before you can implement any changes that may affect your current offer.