Up to 3yrs         Over 3yrs      Over 3yrs

                                                                         per month           per month      per month

                                                                                                                       Net of the

                                                                                                                          N.E.G.

 

TWO DAYS PER WEEK                                          £426             £385               £235.12

 

All our "Over 3s" claim up to 15 hours per week N.E.G. “Free Entitlement”.   See beloe.

To request current availability please click <here>.

 

In order to deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage to a high quality standard, our minimum programme is normally two days per week (subject to availability). Extra days are charged at £47.00 (£51.00 under 3). Extra hours are charged at £5.30 (£5.82 under 3). Our fees are subject to an annual review on the 1st April each year.

Your Free Entitlement to High Quality Early Years Provision

Under the last Labour Government the Nursery Education Grant (NEG) was re-packaged as the “Free Entitlement” and legislation was introduced, know as the “Code of Practice”; effective from September 2010.

Each Local Authority across the U.K. is interpreting the Code of Practice differently and each has set down their own rules for “Providers” of Nursery Education. In Oxfordshire the Free Entitlement is for no less that 2.5 hours per day and no more than 6 hours per day; for up to 15 hours per week, and for only 38 weeks of the year – i.e. Term-Time only.

Inside of term-time you will need to pay for the additional hours of education and childcare you require for your child from Willow Cottage. Whereas outside of term-time you will need to pay for all the hours of education and childcare your child receives from Willow Cottage. However, we will average out the charges for each month of the year into a regular Net Monthly Charge[i].

From September 2010 your invoice will show the hours of Free Entitlement[ii] your child is expected to receive on each day of the week and on what days of the week they are expected to receive this. Your invoice will also show, on a separate line of the invoice, the Net Monthly Charge for any additional hours of provision you are receiving.

In order to deliver the Free Entitlement at no cost to yourselves, Willow Cottage Nurseries will be subsidising the Free Entitlement and recovering part of the subsidy where it can through the Net Monthly Charges for any additional hours. This is clearly “unsustainable” for very long. The alternative strategy would be to compromise the quality and grade of education and childcare that your child receives from Willow Cottage. We have not chosen this strategy but we would very much like to hear your views.

Your sincerely,

Neil & Valerie Grady

Directors, Willow Cottage Nurseries

01865 864604

http://www.willow-cottage.com/

Further information

From September 2010, the Code of Practice legislation applies directly to Local Authorities, like Oxfordshire County Council, who act as the Government’s agents for the distribution of the NEG to Private Nurseries (like Willow Cottage), Voluntary Pre-Schools, Play Groups, Council Maintained Nursery Schools and Nursery Classes in local Primary Schools.

The Government’s Code of Practice places a duty on Local Authorities to secure early years education and childcare, delivered for 15 hours a week, for 38 weeks of the year, for all children in the County who are over 3 years and under 5 years. It should be delivered free,flexibly and be of high quality. However, the level of government funding that underpins the Code of Practice is wholly inadequate for many settings to provide “free high quality early years provision”. For many Private, Voluntary and Independent Providers in Oxfordshire, high quality provision requires a higher level of funding than the £3.95p per hour that is on offer to us from September 2010.

At Willow Cottage we aspire to provide flexible, high quality early years provision. However, high quality early years provision requires high quality professional leadership, and adequate funding to support the high levels of hands-on direct nursery staff, the hours of out-of-rota planning time and effective management and administration. Across the country, and particularly in the South of England where staffing, premises and operational costs tend to be higher, many Nurseries are irate that they are being asked by the Government to subsidise the true cost of delivering high quality early years provision.

Neil Grady sits on the Oxfordshire Schools Forum where he is the elected representative of the 325 Private, Voluntary and Independent “Providers” of Early Years provision in Oxfordshire.

Recently he met with Councillor Mitchell, the Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, to express our concerns {and those of the many other providers of Early Years Education and Childcare within Oxfordshire who he represents} on this and several other issues facing Providers across Oxfordshire. He has subsequently written to David Cameron M.P. and Nicola Blackwood M.P.