Currently Essex County Council is providing funding for 38 weeks per financial year which means that each child’s fees can be fully funded and no top-up fees are payable. However, we do ask parents for a healthy snack fee which is payable at the start of each half term, payable in advance. This enables us to provide a healthy, more interesting snack and we hope also encourages the children to try new foods and tastes.

For non funded places the fees are payable half-termly in advance, even if your child is absent plus the healthy snack fee as above.

Each child’s place and attendance at Rainbow is conditional upon continued payment of fees, so please speak to the supervisor if there are any difficulties in making the payments, or in the case of a prolonged absence.

Schedule of Fees

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING RECONFIRMING ELIGIBILITY

As you are aware, every three months, you are required to reconfirm that you remain eligible for 30 hours. You do this through the HMRC website using the log in you created when you first applied. If your details have not changed, you only need to tick a box in your childcare service account to confirm your details remain the same – this will then automatically be fed back through to local authority systems.

You should receive two reminders to reconfirm (4 weeks and 2 weeks before your reconfirmation deadline). If you miss the reconfirmation deadline, despite the reminders, you will receive a message from HMRC telling you that you are no longer eligible for 30 hours however (where you are already claiming extended hours) you will remain entitled until the end of your current grace period . If you have not claimed Extended Hours with a provider – you will not be able to start a new claim in the grace period.