Nursery World - Kent parents could lose out on free places due to change in funding administration

Changes to the way Kent County Council administers funding for free early education could see parents of three-and four-year-olds losing out on free nursery places and having to wait until January 2013 before they can claim their entitlement.

This term, children must be enrolled between 17 and 21 September to claim the free entitlement.

A letter from the council states, 'Going forward we will, within Kent, only allow movement of funding at the start of a term and we will no longer make adjustments to a child's free entitlement at half term. The free entitlement hours collected in headcount week will be those funded for the academic period. A child's hours cannot then be changed until the following term's headcount collection.'

This means that any children joining a nursery after the cut-off point of 21 September will not be able to claim their 15 hours of funding until January 2013. However, nurseries will be able to keep the funding if a child drops out during the autumn term.

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