Overview
Currently the Oxfordshire County Council offers funding to all children aged 3 and 4, and to certain children aged 2, to help with childcare costs. This funding scheme allows parents to access up to 570 hours of free childcare over a 12 month period. No more than 15 hours can be accessed in any given week and there is a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 6 hours per day.
How is funding applied at Polstead?
Funding is applied as a discount to the relevant session fees as in this example:
The amount of weeks Preschool is open for in a school year is entered in the Polstead settings area. This is currently 38 weeks.
The number of weeks in the school year that are funded is 38 weeks.
A ratio is then determined: funded weeks/open weeks, which is used for determining the Funding discount. This ratio is currently 1 for Polstead but might change if a decision is made to open for longer than 38 weeks. For example, if Polstead were open for 50 weeks this ratio would be 38/50 = 0.76 and funded hours would be 0.76 * hours.