OUR FEES

Knaphill Pre-School fees are set at a competitive level in order to maintain a sustainable and well equipped pre-school setting. A standard rate of £21.00 per 3 hour morning or afternoon session will be charged for attendance. A 30 minute daily Lunch Club is also available for children to attend which will be charged at £3.75 per session. Any child attending a full day must also attend Lunch Club.

Any combination of attendance can be requested as shown below:

The standard session rate will apply to children from the age of 2 years, up until they qualify for Universal Funding. Universal Funding of up to 15 hours per week is available to all children the term after their third birthday. More details about Universal Funding can be found on this page.

• Fees are due every half term in advance. Fees will be invoiced at the beginning of every half term where funding does not apply.
• Fees are payable in advance for all sessions, even if absence is due to illness or holidays.
• If you wish to remove a child from our setting or want to reduce the number of sessions attended, parents/guardians must give at least 6 week’s notice of the change in writing. Fees will be payable (or grant claimed by us), until that date.
• Fees are reviewed annually. We will provide notice of at least 1 term if fees have to be increased for any reason.

Funded Early Education for Two Year Old’s (FEET) offers eligible families up to 15 hours of funded early education and childcare per week, for 38 weeks each year. You can find out if your child can get FEET by checking the financial and automatically funded criteria below.

Automatically funded criteria: If your child is in one of the groups below they will automatically be eligible:

• Child looked after by Surrey County Council.
• Child who has been adopted or has left care through special guardianship or child arrangements order.
• Child with a Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan
• Child getting Disability Living Allowance (DLA)

Financial criteria: If your family receives one of the following benefits then your child may be eligible to claim FEET:

• Income Support
• Income based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income related to Employment and Support Allowance
• Support through Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit and have an annual household income up to £16,190 before tax
• Working Tax Credit and have an annual household income up to £16,190 before tax
• Universal Credit if you and your partner have a combined income from work of less than £15,400 a year after tax

Funding can be applied for the term of your child’s second birthday but it won’t start until the following academic term. Your child can continue to receive FEET until the term after their third birthday when they will become eligible for Free Early Education for 3 and 4 year olds (FEE Funding) which our pre-school also supports. For a full list of the FEET criteria, and to get specific advice about your particular circumstances, visit the Surrey County Council FEET page.

In England all three and four year olds are entitled to up to 15 hours of funded early education and childcare a week for up to 38 weeks a year. This is to give children the opportunity to take part in planned learning activities, and help prepare them for school through the early learning goals set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage. This is a universal offer and is available to all children regardless of their family circumstances.

• As a general rule, children can get the free entitlement from the term after their third birthday until they either start in a reception class at a local authority maintained school or reach compulsory school age, which is the school term after their fifth birthday.
• If you are unsure as to whether your child is eligible just call or email us with their date of birth and we will be happy to advise you.
• All you have to do to claim the Free Early Entitlement is complete a registration form, which we will provide, and show us your child’s birth certificate or passport as proof of identity. We will then take care of the rest to make sure that everything is in place.
• You will also need to complete a Free Early Entitlement Declaration Form at the beginning of every term, stating the exact number of hours your child will be attending.
• You can choose to take up the full free entitlement with us or you can split the hours with another early years provider if you wish.
• Where a parental contract has been signed agreeing to take the free entitlement, the Pre-School will get secure funding for a full term. It is important that you are aware that once you have signed a contract of attendance, you will not be able to transfer the entitlement payment to another provider during the same term.

All three and four year olds living in England are entitled to 570 hours of funded early education and childcare a year. This is usually offered as 15 hours a week for up to 38 weeks a year and is a universal entitlement. Since September 2017 working families who meet the eligibility criteria can also claim an additional 15 hours of funded childcare a week. This means that eligible children will be able to receive up to 1140 hours of funded childcare a year. This change was introduced as part of the Childcare Act 2016. The extra funded hours will be made available to families where both parents (or the sole parent in a lone parent family):

• are working and earn on average a weekly minimum amount equivalent to working 16 hours at either National Minimum Wage (NMW) or National Living Wage (NLW) have an income of less than £100,000 each per year
• live in England (parents who are non-EEA nationals must have recourse to public funds to qualify)

You may still be eligible to apply if you or your partner:

• are taking paid time off work, such as maternity leave, paternity leave or sick leave
• are temporarily away from England for a period of up to 6 months, such as on military duty

You can also apply if either you or your partner are employed or self-employed and one of you gets one or more of the following benefits:

• contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Incapacity Benefit or long-term Incapacity Benefit
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• National Insurance credits because of incapacity or limited capability for work
• you’ve been assessed as having limited capability for work for Universal Credit purposes

How can I check if I am eligible?

You can check your eligibility for the 30 hours through the Childcare Choices website or by using the Childcare calculator. These will also show if you can get any additional government help with childcare costs. If you meet the eligibility criteria for the additional hours you should also qualify for Tax-Free Childcare, which can be used to help pay for any additional childcare costs. You can apply for this and the 30 hours at the same time through the Childcare Choices website. If you are eligible for the 30 free hours, you will be given an 11-digit code and will be told when you can start to use your funded hours. Once you have the code, give it to us and we can then help to submit a form to Surrey County Council. It’s really important that you check your eligibility as soon as possible as Surrey County Council will not fund children without confirmation of eligibility codes first.

If you have any problems when applying for the 30 free hours children, you can contact the government’s Customer Interaction Centre on 0300 123 4097.

We are always happy to help, so if you need any additional information please speak to the Pre-School Manager, or visit the Surrey County Council website.

Every working parent is entitled to use between £97 and £243 per month, tax free from gross salary towards their childcare costs in the form of Childcare Vouchers. We recognise that such schemes are tax efficient and that Childcare Voucher Schemes might be a key benefit offered by your employer. In light of this, we are more than happy to work with parents where possible to join any Voucher Scheme you might use.

We are currently members of the following schemes:

• Edenred Voucher Schemes
• Kidsunlimited Childcare Vouchers
• Busy Bees Benefits
• Computershare Voucher Services
• Allsave Childcare Vouchers

If you would like to discuss your Voucher Scheme requirements with us please call or email us and we will be happy to help.

The government’s Tax-Free Childcare scheme enables eligible working families to save 20% of their childcare costs. It is available for working parents with children under 12 (or under 17 for children with a disability). For every £8 you or someone else pays in to the account the government will add another £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year (or £4,000 for children with a disability). This means that families will receive an extra £20 for every £80 they save towards childcare costs, totalling £100.

The scheme is available for working families where:

• both parents are in work or it is a single parent household
• each parent earns at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours a week and no more than £100,000 a year
• parents aren’t already receiving support through Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Universal Credit or childcare vouchers.

It can also be used by parents who are:

• self-employed (newly self-employed parents will not have to earn the minimum income levels during their ‘start-up’ period)
• on paid sick leave
• on paid or unpaid statutory maternity, paternity or adoption leave

If you’re not working, you may still be eligible if your partner is working, and you get Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance.

How can I register for the scheme?

You can apply for the scheme through the government’s Childcare Choices website. You, and your partner, if you have one, will need your:

• National insurance number (s).
• Details of one or more of the following – your UK Passport, tax credits, P60 or a recent payslip.
• In some cases, additional checks may be needed to confirm whether you’re eligible. If you are found ineligible you will be told why.

Once you have opened your account it can be used to pay in money to use towards your childcare costs with a childcare provider who has also registered for the scheme. Grandparents, other family members and employers will also be able to pay into the account if they choose. You can find additional information about Tax-Free Childcare on the gov.uk website.