The extension of free nursery hours to two-year-olds has been blighted by a lack of places, admin errors and all-round confusion
It had already been stressful, and then the government said my son didn’t exist. After an initial administrative fiasco, we were all set to claim our “free” 15 hours of childcare for our two-year-old as part of the government’s expansion this April. But then another spanner hit the works.
We hadn’t been able to get our code due to a totally foreseeable government error, so, like the thousands of others affected, we’d been issued with a temporary one. But when our actual code was confirmed, meaning we then had two codes, the nursery was told he didn’t exist, and then that we couldn’t use the hours until next term, since our code had been issued in April. It’s as Kafkaesque as it sounds and, though it was eventually sorted out thanks to the brilliant nursery administrator, it’s another example of the confusion and chaos that has afflicted parents since the announcement that the already labyrinthine system would be expanded.
