Our fees are £9 per hour (correct @ March 2025). Fees will increase to £9.50 per hour from September 2025.
Sessions can be either paid at the hourly rate or are available as funded (for eligible families). When sessions are funded we ask families to sign a declaration to confirm their eligibility and the number of funded hours they wish to use – this allows us to claim funds from the Government via Essex County Council. The funding we receive falls short of our running costs, as it is meant to cover just a basic Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision. We provide so much more than this and this is why we ask for a small voluntary contribution from families of funded children (£6 for a full day and £3 for a half day). This represents fantastic value when compared to our standard hourly fees shown above. Families unable or unwilling to pay these contributions should contact us to agree an alternative, typically this will involve providing suitable snacks for each session as well as any consumables and resources that are beyond those ordinarily expected to be provided as part of a basic EYFS provision. A full list is available upon request.
As a non-profit body we are not set up to make money – any profits are reinvested into the setting ensuring we can continue to offer the enhanced provision we are so proud of – a provision which has now twice been rated Outstanding by Ofsted – you can read their reports here: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/16/EY395027
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Eligibility for funding can be checked here:
www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
Effective 1 April 2025
Our full-day sessions run from 8.45am to 3.15pm, of which 6 hours are available as funded (8.45am—2.45pm). This allows families wishing to access just funded hours to collect their children at 2.45pm. Morning (8.45-11.45am) and afternoon (12.15-3.15pm) sessions are 3 hours and are available as funded.
As such, families entitled to funding can use 3 hours funding for morning and afternoon sessions and 6 hours for our full-day sessions – enabling a fully funded place of either 15 or 30 hours to be accessed (subject to availability). Additional hours are chargeable at our hourly rate.
Changes to the way we allocate funding have been made so that we adhere to revised Department for Education guidance which is available to view here:
The funding rules can be complex, if you have any questions please get in touch.