This is really a question for those who will have a child at one of the many local independent pre-school nurseries from next September.

Competition for places means many of us have already booked a place at a pre-school well ahead of when our child will start so will have already made a commitment for next Sept. However, I wondered if your pre-school has mentioned if the changes to the nursery grant are going to have any effect on their opening hours next September or whether it will have any effect on your fees?

The nursery grant is changing to extend the 'free place' allowance to 15 hours from September and the official government line seems to be that nurseries aren't allowed to charge anything extra for those 15 hours - i.e. the place should be completely free. Many of the local pre-schools currently open for only 15 hours a week so I'm wondering what your pre-school is going to do if it currently provides sessions for these hours (e.g. 3 hours a day)?

It would be great if the 15-hour nursery place became completely free wouldn't it? Unfortunately not likely as most of them currently charge 'top up' fees well above the amount of the nursery grant by making their sessions longer than the current 'free place' allowance of 2.5 hours a day/12.5 hours a week. I entirely sympathise with that as the nursery grant is currently unrealistically low and most couldn't afford to stay open if they had to survive on that.

When the free place becomes 15 hours next September has your pre-school told you if it will increase their sessions - e.g. to 3.5 hours each day so they can continue to charge fees that are much higher than the nursery grant? Just curious to know what you've been told, if anything, about the impact of the nursery grant as none of the nurseries seem to be mentioning what they are doing next year in correspondence or brochures. They are only talking about this year's fees and opening times. Obviously it could have an impact on your plans if you chose a nursery because of its current stated opening and closing times for example and have already paid a big deposit for the place! Not ideal if they suddenly change the hours at the last minute!