What should parents expect to see in their invoices?
Invoices and receipts should be itemised, and local authorities should work with providers to ensure their invoices break down separately into:
- the funded entitlement hours
- additional private paid hours
- food charges
- non-food consumables charges
- activities charges
This is to allow parents to see that they have received their child’s free entitlement hours completely free of charge and understand that any fees paid are for additional hours or optional services
The provider must inform parents of the monetary value of funded hours at their provision. Funded hours should not be shown as a value of £0. Parents must be able to see their applicable hours are "free", providers could do this by showing the total amount the childcare place would be for the invoice period before the funded hours are deducted. Regardless, if parents request it a provider must be able to show how the funded hours are applied against their normal childcare charges.
