Splitting Your 1,140 Funded Hours Across Two Providers

Most parents in Scotland use a single setting for their child's 1,140 funded hours — one nursery or one childminder, full stop. But you do not have to. Scottish Government policy allows you to split your child's funded hours across up to two registered providers. For some families this solves problems that no single setting can: covering school holidays when your council nursery is closed, getting a popular nursery on the days you most need it, or combining the structure of a nursery with the flexibility of a childminder.

This guide explains how splitting works, the cases where it is worth the extra coordination, and the practical pitfalls to watch for.

What splitting actually means

A split placement divides your 1,140 hours between two settings. Each setting delivers a portion of the entitlement, and the council pays each one for the share they cover. Common patterns include:

• Nursery + childminder: 3 days a week at a council nursery, 2 days a week with a childminder
• Two nurseries: a council nursery for term-time mornings, a private partner-provider nursery for afternoons or holidays
• Term-time nursery + stretched childminder: nursery during term time, childminder for school holidays

The total cannot exceed 1,140 hours per year, but the split between the two providers can be anything from a small minority share to a 50/50 division.

The hours maths

The council tracks the entitlement as a single annual pot, so both providers' funded hours count against the same 1,140. It helps to keep two things separate in your head:

• The proportional split — the share of the annual total each provider is contracted to deliver (for example 700 hours to one, 440 to the other).
• The weekly pattern — how each provider's share is actually timetabled, which can be term-time at one setting and stretched at the other.

That second point is what makes splits so useful. One provider can deliver its share as term-time sessions while the other spreads its share across the year, including the school holidays. A single setting can only offer you the delivery patterns it runs; a split lets you combine two patterns into a schedule neither could deliver alone. For a refresher on how the patterns differ, see stretched versus term-time delivery.

Why parents choose to split

The most common reasons are practical rather than ideological:

• Holiday cover gap: a council nursery delivers term-time only, but you need year-round care
• Limited session times: your preferred nursery only has spaces on certain days
• Geographic logistics: a nursery near work plus a childminder near home
• Curriculum and social mix: parents wanting both the structured group setting of a nursery and the home environment of a childminder
• Sibling care: a childminder who can do school pickups for older siblings plus a nursery for the funded child during the day

How it works step by step

1. Identify two funded providers — both must be on your council's funded partner list. Check the council website or ask the family information service.
2. Confirm availability at both — phone each and ask about taking a funded child for a partial-hours arrangement.
3. Agree the split — decide what proportion of the 1,140 hours each setting will deliver. A common split is 60/40 or 50/50.
4. Notify the council — submit a split-placement application or update through the council's funded childcare team. Some councils have dedicated forms; others handle it through normal correspondence.
5. Sign agreements with both settings — you usually sign separate written agreements covering each provider's share of hours, holiday policy and any extras.
6. The council pays each setting directly — you do not handle the funded payments, only any top-up hours you buy from either provider.

A worked example: term-time nursery plus holiday childminder

The most common reason to split is the school-holiday gap, so it is worth seeing how that split actually fits together.

A council nursery delivering roughly 30 hours a week over 38 term-time weeks uses the full 1,140 hours on its own — there is nothing left over for the holidays. To free up funded hours for holiday cover, the nursery share has to come down: fewer days per week, or shorter sessions, with the remainder of the entitlement allocated to a childminder who works through the school breaks.

In practice the arrangement looks like this: during term time, the child attends the nursery on its reduced pattern (and possibly the childminder for a regular session too, which helps the relationship stay warm). During the holidays, the nursery is closed and the childminder becomes the main setting, drawing on the funded hours reserved for their share. The child keeps one familiar carer year-round, and the family avoids paying full private rates for six or seven weeks of summer cover.

The trade-off is obvious once you see it: fewer funded nursery hours in term time in exchange for funded holiday cover. Whether that trade is worth it depends on your work pattern — our guide to funded hours during school holidays sets out the alternatives if it is not.

What the providers receive

Each setting receives the council's hourly rate for the hours they actually deliver. A typical council pays £5-6 per hour. If you split 700 hours to Nursery A and 440 hours to Childminder B, the council pays Nursery A for 700 hours and Childminder B for 440 hours over the course of the year.

You never see the funded money. Your only payments are for top-up hours you buy privately from either setting, plus any genuinely optional extras each provider charges. If you are buying top-up hours regularly, check whether Tax-Free Childcare applies — it works alongside the funded entitlement at registered providers.

Limitations and friction points

Splitting is allowed but rarely easy. Issues that come up regularly:

• Council reluctance: split placements create more administration than single placements, and some councils discourage them informally even when policy permits
• Provider reluctance: some nurseries prefer full-time or full-funded placements because they are simpler to fill and to plan around
• Settling in twice: your child has to settle in at two settings, which can be hard for younger or more anxious children
• Two sets of paperwork: enrolment forms, medical information, photos, holiday letters — all duplicated
• Coordinating holidays and closures: aligning two providers' calendars takes work, and a closure at one is not automatically covered by the other
• Communication: making sure both settings know about allergies, naps, current themes and pickup arrangements requires effort from you

Questions to ask before you commit

A split lives or dies on details agreed up front. Before signing anything, put these to both providers and the council:

• Are both settings currently on the council's funded partner list, and taking funded children at my child's age?
• What proportional split are we agreeing, and can it be adjusted at each term or intake?
• What happens to funded hours when one setting closes — do they transfer, or are they simply lost?
• What does each setting charge for optional extras, and what notice period does each require?
• Who do I contact at the council if the two settings' paperwork gets out of sync?

Get the answers in writing, even if only by email. Split placements involve three parties — you, two providers and the council behind them — and a written record is what untangles disagreements about who agreed to what.

Making a split work day to day

Once the paperwork is done, the real work is logistical. Families who run splits smoothly tend to do a few simple things:

• Keep a one-page child summary — allergies, naps, comfort words, pickup adults — and give the identical sheet to both settings, updating both whenever anything changes.
• Duplicate the kit. A spare set of clothes, sun cream and wellies living permanently at each setting removes the single most common morning scramble.
• Ask each key worker to share observations. Both settings plan around your child's development; a quick note about what one setting is working on helps the other reinforce it rather than duplicate it.
• Diary both closure calendars in one place at the start of each term, so a training day at one setting never lands as a surprise.

When splitting is worth doing

Splitting is most worthwhile when one of your preferred settings cannot offer the full pattern you need, or when you are using a term-time nursery and need stretched cover during school holidays. It is also useful for families with complex schedules — shift workers, parents with hospital appointments, or families who use a childminder for sibling continuity but want some nursery exposure for the funded child.

It is usually not worth the effort if you could fit the same hours into one good setting. Two half-good settings will rarely beat one great one.

Alternatives to splitting

Before committing to two settings, check whether one of these simpler routes solves the same problem:

• A single stretched provider. If the driver is holiday cover, one setting delivering around 22 hours a week across 52 weeks may meet the need with none of the coordination cost. Many partner nurseries and most funded childminders offer stretched delivery.
• Paying for holiday weeks privately. Keeping a single term-time setting and buying holiday sessions at full rate is administratively painless, and Tax-Free Childcare can soften the cost. It usually works out dearer than a well-designed split, but for families who only need a couple of covered weeks it can be the pragmatic answer.
• Waiting for a transfer. If the problem is that your preferred setting only had partial availability, a term or two on its waiting list may consolidate everything into one place — splits can be a bridge rather than a permanent arrangement.

Talking to your council

If you want to split, raise it as early as possible — ideally before you submit your funded childcare application. Phrasing such as "we'd like to use our 1,140 hours across a council nursery and a registered childminder, both on the funded partner list — can you walk me through the process?" tends to produce better answers than asking generically whether splitting is allowed.