A Guide to Your Funded Childcare Place

Important Information About Funded Childcare

The Government has updated its guidance for funded childcare places, which has an impact on both our nursery and your family.

You may have seen reports about the new guidance regarding charging parents for meals, snacks, consumables, and other activities. The Government’s funding for your child’s high-quality place does not include these costs.

In its new guidance, the Government states: “Government funding is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.”

While the guidance states that these charges are voluntary, it’s clear that the funding does not cover everything involved in providing high-quality childcare. Essentially, the Government is funding the childcare sessions but not all of the services that go with them.

For this reason, we will be charging for food and any non-funded hours. However, please note that extra consumables will remain free of charge.

Why We Provide Meals

We employ a professional cook to prepare fresh, nutritious meals and snacks for your child every day they are with us.

We do not currently accept packed lunches or snacks from home for a number of reasons:

• Nutritional Standards: As a nursery, we are inspected by Ofsted to ensure we provide nutritionally balanced meals and snacks for all the children in our care.
• Convenience for Parents: For children in nursery for long days, from breakfast to teatime, preparing nutritious meals at home can be challenging.
• Health & Safety: We would struggle to provide adequate storage space to keep food at the required temperature.
• Allergies: We have many children with food allergies, and providing all meals allows us to carefully monitor and cater to their specific dietary requirements.

Additional Activities

In addition to the early education and childcare places paid for by the Government, our nursery also offers activities like “Musical Mischief” and “Little Kickers.” We are pleased to confirm that these will remain free for all children.

Our Commitment to Transparency

The Government requires us to be open and transparent about these charges and to ask for your agreement to them. We will provide you with a full breakdown of what these costs entail.

We understand that everyone’s situation is different. If you genuinely believe you will struggle to pay these charges, please speak with us. Our priority is always what’s best for your child, but meals, consumables, and activities do come at a cost to us.

We hope this information helps you understand the reasons for these changes and the benefits they provide to you and your child.

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