Split placement
A child’s funded hours delivered across more than one setting.
What it means
A split placement is when a child’s funded hours are delivered across more than one setting. A child might attend a council nursery in the mornings and a childminder on two afternoons, with both funded from the same entitlement.
Some councils and Scottish Government guidance call this a blended placement. Others say split. The idea is the same: one entitlement, shared between settings.
Split placements are hard to administer by hand. Each setting needs to know its share of the hours, the shares must not add up to more than the entitlement, and a change at one setting changes the sums at the other.
Also called blended placement, blended model, split funding or splitting hours.
How Admit handles it
Parents can ask for a split placement when they apply, where their council allows it. Admit divides the child’s funded hours across the settings involved, from the attendance pattern at each one.
Council settings and partner providers work from the same sums. If the pattern changes at one setting, the hours are recalculated for every setting involved.
Funded hours
Worked out from each child's attendance pattern, split placements included.
Partner providers
Council and partner nurseries on one system, working from the same figures.
Funded hours
The Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) entitlement a child receives at no cost to the family.
Partner provider
A private, voluntary or childminding setting that delivers funded hours on the council’s behalf.
All glossary terms
Every term, with the names councils use for it.