Fees and Early years funding

We have a variety of sessions on offer at both of our nurseries with a range of prices.  We believe there is no one fit for all and we have worked hard to ensure the range of sessions we have on offer fit in to a variety of work schedules and family life as well as ensuring our sessions remain affordable for families.  For more information on our session availability and fee structure please contact us at kiddlywinksnursery@gmail.com or by calling 01768 864000 (Penrith) 01768 210500 (Meadows)

Our offer

• Full day care or sessional day care.
• School run sessions
• Flexible settling in sessions
• Part time sessions can be a combination of different days and am’s and pm’s.
• We also offer Term Time only places for those who work in Term Time education.
• Term Time only and annually stretched 15 Hour and 30 Hour Government subsidised places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds
• Shared funding places between two settings
• Holiday Club for children 4-10 years during school holidays

Children who attend morning sessions can extend their time with us for additional hours in the afternoon on a casual basis if we have room for them. This will be charged at an hourly rate. Please enquire for prices.

Our nursery fees for non-government funded places are inclusive of a light breakfast, two course freshly made lunch, am and pm nutritious snacks, drinks, nappies and wipes.

Powdered milk will need to be supplied by parents/carers to ensure it meets your child’s unique nutritional needs.

If you require a specific make of nappy you may be required to supply your own, please discuss this with a member of our team.

Please contact us to get our up to date session offer and our latest nursery fee structure.

In addition, you may be eligible for support with your childcare costs (see below).

Discounts

We offer discounts for full time places and a 5% sibling discount is available for children who are not in receipt of early years funding.

Tax Free child care

Tax free childcare is a government scheme which has been set up to support working families, who are not eligible for universal credit help, with childcare costs
You can get up to £500 every 3 months (up to £2,000 a year) for each of your children to help with the costs of childcare. This goes up to £1,000 every 3 months if a child is disabled (up to £4,000 a year).

If you get Tax-Free Childcare, you’ll set up an online childcare account for your child. For every £8 you pay into this account, the government will pay in £2 to use to pay your provider.

You can get Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as 15 or 30 hours free childcare if you’re eligible for both.

Tax free childcare can be used with early years and education settings as well as schools, provided the setting is registered and signed up to the tax free childcare government scheme.

More information can be found at  
Tax-Free Childcare - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Universal credits

Universal Credit supports your family through regular monthly payments, which do not necessarily stop when you start work.  These payments can help to support living costs and childcare costs.

Universal Credit will help you combine work with being a parent. It makes it easier to take part-time, flexible or temporary jobs to help you gain valuable skills and avoid CV gaps.

Your Universal Credit payment is based on your earnings, not how many hours you work – which means greater flexibility for you. You can apply for a wider range of jobs and get back to work sooner because Universal Credit tops up your earnings if you’re on a low income.

Depending on your circumstances, you could still get support and advice on increasing your earnings when you’re in work.

If you’re a parent you can claim back up to 85% of your actual paid out childcare costs.

In any month this payment is capped. You could receive a maximum childcare payment of:

• £950.92 for one child
• £1,630.15 for 2 or more children

If you’re claiming with a partner both of you normally need to be in work to receive help with registered childcare costs. This help is available no matter how many hours you work.

Eligibility criteria for universal credits

To get Universal Credit you must:

• be living in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland
• be 18 or over
• be under State Pension age
• not be in full-time education
• not have savings or capital over £16,000

Anyone can apply for Universal Credit – not everyone can get Universal Credit, it depends on the circumstances.

Help From Employers – Childcare Vouchers

Childcare Vouchers are a great way for employers to give working parents help with dependent children. Currently you can claim up to £243.00 per month through this scheme and, because you don’t pay tax or National Insurance on Childcare Vouchers, you could save around £1,000 per year.

We are registered with most childcare voucher companies, please ask for more details.

Funded early learning for 2 year olds

Kiddlywinks Nursery is registered by Cumbria County Council to provide funded early years education for 2 year olds. Funding is available for working families and applications can be made at www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

Eligibility criteria for families who are not in receipt of working family 2 year funding

For those who do not qualify for 2 year old funding through the working families criteria there is a separate 2 year funding available. As a provider we can make this application for you and this can be discussed further at your viewing appointment.

In order to apply your family MUST be in receipt of one of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• Income Based Jobseekers Allowance
• An income-related employment and support allowance
• The Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Child Tax Credit provided the annual gross income is no more than £16,190 as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, (this figure changes annually in line with changes to wider tax credit thresholds) and are not in receipt of Working Tax Credits (except during the four-week period immediately after their employment ceases, or after they start to work less than 16 hours a week)
• or be a Child Looked After by the Local Authority

When is my child eligible for a free place?

If your child’s second birthday falls between: Your child will become eligible for a funded place from:

• 1 January and 31 March – The start of the Summer Term (April)
• 1 April and 31 August – The start of the Autumn Term (September)
• 1 September and 31 December – The start of the Spring Term (January)

The offer

Eligible children are entitled to 570 hours annually. We offer our funding alongside all of our current nursery sessions and these can be used term time or alternatively they can be stretched over the year if agreed with the family and childcare provider.

You can also use two settings when using the free early years entitlement, but this will have to be discussed with those settings to ensure that it is in accordance with the other setting’s admissions policies.

For more information please see www.childcarechoices.gov.uk Some families will also be able to access universal credits or tax free childcare in addition, to further support childcare costs.

15 hours and 30 hours entitlement for three and four year olds

We are registered with Westmorland and furness to offer the government's early years entitlement for three year olds.

Children who have their 3rd birthday between these dates will have a free place from the following month:

• 1 April and 31 August – September
• 1 September and 31 December – January
• 1 January and 31 March – April

The funding entitlement is for 15 hours or 30 hours and can be claimed in a variety of ways such as termly, inline with schools or spread throughout the year. Please contact us to discuss the various options available.

For those parents who wish to combine free entitlement with wrap around care, the free entitlement hours used will be delivered completely free at the point of delivery and additional services will be charged in accordance with the present nursery fee policy.

Children who take up free entitlement within their day care will also be able to stretch out their free entitlement throughout the year.

Because of the nature of the nursery and the wide availability of other partnership settings that are able to offer the flexibility of entitlement e.g., local school nurseries, pre-school nursery groups etc, to meet the needs of individual families, Kiddlywinks Nursery will allocate places that will meet the needs of parents requiring the services that we specialise and excel in which is day care and wrap around care over 51 weeks of the year.

To register with Kiddlywinks for early years entitlement we will need to see a copy of your child’s birth certificate to support the governments auditing systems and our contractual obligation. We will also require you to sign an Agreement Form, known as a Free Entitlements Contract.

If you believe you are eligible for 30 hours free funding after the term your child turns 3 then you will require an eligibility code to enable nursery to access this funding on your behalf. Please go to www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. There is a strict timeline on accessing funding so please ensure you plan ahead.

Early Years Pupil Premium

From April 2015, nurseries, schools, childminders and other childcare providers have been able to claim extra funding through the Early Years Pupil Premium to support children’s development, learning and care.

National data and research tell us that children eligible for free school meals tend to do less well, e.g. in 2014, 45% of children eligible for free school meals achieved the expected level at the end of the early years foundation stage compared with 64% of other children. The Early Years Pupil Premium will make available to us extra funding to help close that gap.

We can use the extra funding in any we choose to progress the quality of the early years education that we provide for your child. This could consist of, for example, additional training for our staff on early language, resources to support home learning, investing in a partnership working with our colleagues in the area to further our expertise or supporting our staff in working on specialised areas such as speech and language.

The money is paid directly to the provider by the Local Authority. The nursery manager has forms to enable you to apply for the funding or can give you the number of the Local Authority so that you can check your eligibility.

Families may be eligible if they are receiving any of the following:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support from NASS (National Asylum Support Service) under Part 6of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The Guarantee Element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (with no Working Tax Credit) with an annual income of no more than £16,190
• Working Tax Credit run-on
• Universal Credit

For more information, see: www.childcarechoices.gov.uk