What is Stretched Funding?
The standard 15 or 30 hours funding is usually spread over 38 weeks of the year.  The regular contracted term time at Early Days is 40 weeks and as the majority of children used a minimum of 5 weeks of discretionary holiday, we are stretchingour funding entitlement to cover 45 weeks (40 weeks of term time plus 5 weeks of holiday from the 12 weeks of holiday club of your choosing).  This means that your funding will stretch to up to 12.5 hours (for 15 hours funding) or up to 25 hours funding (for 30 hours a week funding).  This means funding is applied more consistently over the course of the year.  The 12.5 hours or 25 hours are applied at a maximum of 6.25 hours of funding for up to four days deducted per day against our core operational hours/minimum session time of 8.45 am to 4.00 pm.

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How we apply funding and what you can expect to pay?

As a result of the Government’s misleading advertising behind 9-23 month, 2, 3 and 4 year old funding, there is a common misconception that when parents claim funding it allows for ‘free childcare’.  Government policy dictates that the fixed hourly reimbursement is not designed or sufficient to cover the full operating expenses of a nursery program.  The funding subsidies distributed to childcare providers are specifically intended to cover basic care and education but do not cover all the high quality education expenses which benefit a child’s development. This includes costs related to more experienced staff, curriculum materials, enrichment activities, and developmental supplies. These additional core costs like healthy meals, nappies, changing supplies, other consumables, enrichment activities and tuition based learning resources are understood to be covered by supplemental private payments.

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Government reimbursement rates to childcare providers are tiered based on the age of the children receiving subsidised care. Due to differences in staff-to-child ratios, activity costs, and general developmental needs at various nursery ages, the hourly funding levels are higher for our 2 year old rooms compared to care for 3 and 4 year olds. Specifically, the government’s hourly funding amount to help cover a 2-year-old’s nursery placement is significantly higher than what they allocate for 3 and 4 year olds. However, our nurturing programming and engaged activities for all ages come at similar operational expenses on our end regardless of reimbursement levels.

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As our core day equates to 7.25 hours and only 6.25 hours of these are funded, parents can expect to pay for the balance of the unfunded hours in our minimum session time, along with lunch, two healthy snacks and, for children in both our Hedgehogs and Squirrels classes, a daily consumables charge for nappies, wipes and associated consumables.  The charges for these additional hours, meals and consumables are billed at a higher rate in our funded core package in order that the comprehensive care costs are covered by reasonable nursery fees.

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Parents can add additional time to our core hours at either the beginning or the end of a day.  These hours are unfunded.  For those requiring breakfast, we have Breakfast Club for drop offs between 7.30 am and 8.00 am only.  We also offer an early morning drop off window for families wishing to drop their child between 8.00 am and 8.45 am. For later pick ups, we offer Tea Club sessions ending at either 5.00 pm, 5.30 pm or 6.00 pm.  The cost of all Tea Club sessions includes a tea that is served between 4.15 – 4.30 pm.

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Children on 25 hours of stretched funding that are attending only two or three days per week are offered a funded rate for both Breakfast Club and/or Tea Club additions, so they can maximize their funding to 25 hours.  This is not applicable for children attending four days with 25 hours of stretched funding and those attending two or three days on 12.5 hours of stretched funding as funding hours will have already maxed out within our core/minimum session hours.