Fees and Funding
Operating Hours
Sunshine Day Nurseries are open weekdays Monday–Thursday, 6:45am–6:30pm and Friday 6:45am–6:00pm for 52 weeks of the year, not including Bank Holidays and up to 2 inset days where it closes for staff training and development.
Sessions and Fees
We ask for a minimum of 1.5 days per week during core hours to be booked to ensure attendance over at least 2 days per week. The hours booked are the times you arrive and depart the setting and must be adhered to at all times, as child:staff ratios are set to the numbers of children in the setting at the times requested. Sessions are available for booking as follows:
| NHS Rate | Flexi Contract (STH Only) |
Non-NHS Rate |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Hours Charges 8:00am-5:00pm |
Full day 9 hours (incl. lunch & snacks) 8:00am-5:00pm |
£55.23 | £66.28 | £58.14 |
| Full day 8 hours (incl. lunch & snacks) 8:00am-4:00pm |
£49.10 | £58.92 | £51.68 | |
| Half day 5 hours (incl. lunch & AM snack) AM 8:00am-1:00pm |
£30.69 | £36.82 | £32.30 | |
| Half day 4 hours (PM snack) PM 1:00pm-5:00pm |
£24.55 | £29.46 | £25.84 | |
| Extended Hours Rates 6:45am-8:00am / 5:00pm-6:00/6:30pm |
6:45am-7:30am charge (incl. breakfast) | £9.21 | £11.05 | £9.69 |
| 7:30am-8:00am charge | £4.60 | £5.52 | £4.85 | |
| 5:00pm-5:30pm charge | £4.60 | £5.52 | £4.85 | |
| 5:30pm-6:00pm charge | £4.60 | £5.52 | £4.85 | |
| 6:00pm-6:30pm charge (incl. a snack) | £6.14 | £7.36 | £6.46 | |
| Additional Charges | Late charges after booked time (per 15 minutes) |
£25.00 | £25.00 | £25.00 |
| Lunch Charge (any day FEL claimed) |
£3.06 | £3.06 | £3.06 | |
Flexible Days Contracts
(Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Employees Only)
The Flexible Days (Flexi) Contract is for STH shift workers to enable parents / guardians to work different days to meet departmental needs. Flexi Contracts have a minimum of at least three sessions per week to be used and paid for at the Flexi Day Rate. A Flexible Days Contract only offers flexibility with regards to which days in the week the child attends, not the hours in the day. There are a limited number of Flexi Contract places available. For further information about this type of contract, please contact the Nursery.
Lunch Charge
This will be charged on any day where FEL / Universal hours are being claimed and will be included in the calculation of fees. If parents / guardians are unwilling or unable to pay the meal charge for days where funded hours are used, the Nursery requests that this is raised at the earliest possible opportunity to ensure a mutually agreeable resolution can be sought.
Late Collection Charge
This will be charged per 15 minutes, when a child is picked up past the contracted collection time. Sunshine Day Nurseries reserve the right to suspend a place (until Late Collection Charges are paid) or terminate a contract if late collections exceed 5 per 12-month rolling period.
Funding
30 Hours Funded Early Learning (FEL)
Sunshine Day Nurseries offer FEL hours to all eligible children and parents / guardians. FEL is offered for 30 hours per week for 38 week per year, making an annual allocation of 1140 hours. At Sunshine Day Nurseries this allocation is stretched over all 52 weeks in the year, giving a weekly allocation of 21.92 hours.
FEL hours must be prioritised to cover core hours first. If there are any remaining hours, these can be allocated to extended hours, up to a maximum of 10 hours per day and cannot be used for ad-hoc bookings. Stretching the FEL allocation over 52 weeks means that fees can be calculated annually and divided in twelve equal payments.
15 Hours Universal Funding
Where a child is not eligible for 30 hours FEL, they may be eligible for Universal Hours (all children from the term after their third birthday and in some circumstances, from the term after their second birthday). Universal Hours are offered for 15 hours per week for 38 weeks per year, making an annual allocation of 570 hours. At Sunshine Day Nurseries this allocation is stretched over all 52 weeks in the year, giving a weekly allocation of 10.96 hours.
Applying for FEL / Universal Hours Funding
The following link gives more information about the Government’s Funding Early Learning and Universal Hours entitlement, including how to apply:
Childcare & Early Years Education - Best Start in Life
Parents / Guardians must fill in any necessary paperwork provided by Sunshine Day Nurseries and return it by the date stipulated, so that funding can be claimed on behalf of the child. Where deadlines are not met, and therefore funding can be claimed, the parent / guardian must pay for those hours.
Calculation of Fees
Stretching the FEL allocation over 52 weeks means that fees can be calculated annually and divided into twelve equal payments. Each child’s “funding year” starts at the beginning of the term from when they were eligible for FEL hours.
The hourly rate charged is reviewed each year, to ensure that the Sunshine Day Nurseries can sustainably continue to cover all of its costs (including covering staff pay on bank holidays and days when children do not attend nursery due to sickness and annual leave).
As statutory bank holidays are included in this annual review, Parents / Guardians are still charged when a contracted day falls on a bank holiday (and Sunshine Day Nurseries are unable to offer an alternative day).
Full fees are charged in the event of absence due to annual leave or sickness absence.
Childcare Vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare
Sunshine Day Nurseries accept Childcare Vouchers and funds from Tax-Free Childcare funds.
For Further Information
If you have any questions, please speak to a member of the Nursery team.
Royal Hallamshire Hospital Sunshine Day Nursery: 0114 2268847
Northern General Hospital Sunshine Day Nursery: 0114 2266066
HMRC helpline telephone number: 0300 1234097