All settings who provide care all year round (51 weeks or more) are permitted to offer ‘stretched funded hours’ to parents. This means if you are awarded 30 hours extended funding, we can offer up to maximum of 22 hours a week, each week of the year over a number of days, or sessions a child attends nursery. If you receive 15 hours funding, this will become 11 hours across the week, per week for 51 weeks. 

As government funding is solely intended to cover the costs of care only, at £4.56 per hour, per child, this does not cover the additional costs such as snacks, meals, nappies, wipes, additional services, or extras that the nursery provides, such as access to our Forest school or educational visits to the setting. The nursery is authorised to charge for these as a voluntary consumable charge. 

Rabbit Patch has recently changed their funding offer and as of1st April ’23 is as follows:

Funding can be used between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

Consumables will be charged at a rate of £11.00 per 5-hour session.

For example, if a child uses 22hrs a week you will be charged 5 consumables. 

Any additional hours, outside of the funded hours will be charged at our hourly rate. 

If you are unable to cover the costs of the consumables, we will ask you to provide your child’s meals to cover the day, in line with our settings Food safety and NO NUTS Policies.

Parents in receipt of government funding are required to fill out a parent declaration form stating the hours to be covered by the funding and any additional hours they will be using.

Click to apply for 3-4 year old Government Funding

Please see the link below West Sussex’s information on funded childcare

Providing free childcare for 2, 3 and 4 year olds – West Sussex County Council