Talk

We are in Cambridgeshire and pay £40 per day including food so that does sound fairly reasonable. We paid for the place even if DS was at preschool as it is a place they can't fill with another child ( especially half days)

I must be lucky I pay £28 for 8 hours and it's £1 for lunch and snacks

Sounds reasonable.

Gosh ok, I thought a CM would be cheaper but I think a nursery will be with the 15 free hours and being able to use childcare vouchers. Is that generally the case?

East Midlands it would be £15 with proper meals and drinks included with that

I can use childcare vouchers and free hours with my childminder. When we looked it worked out about the same cost for us. We went with childminder as was right for us

Full day nursery can use 15 hours funding during 38 weeks term time (or 570 hours over full year). Some childminders accept this funding, as does pre-school.

Childminder, nursery and pre-school may all accept childcare vouchers.

Try to look at future needs... is the childminder near your home and also near the local school which your child is most likely to attend? A nursery may be ideal when they are little but they may not provide before/after school care. Nursery may be large, or may be small. A childminder may care for just a few children, or may have quite a lot (if they have an assistant). Compare different providers, there will be pros/cons to each type of care, cost will vary though try to calculate full yearly cost.

I was paying £5 per hour 6 years ago with no meals so yes it's reasonable. I general in my area in the South East nurseries are cheaper than childminders, but spaces at both are like gold dust.

I paid £4.50/ hour to my cm when dd was this age but that included 3 meals too. I think it's usual to charge for the time dc are at preschool too because they can't use the space for someone else.

We pay 4 an hour in North west. It doesn't make any difference if they are at pre school in the middle.

We pay £5 per hour, use vouchers and free hours. We send lunch and she provides snacks (a lot of snacks!!!)

greenyoga where? I'm easy mids and use 2 cm's - ones £32 the other is £30. If you know one for £15 that's amazing!

I pay £4.50 an hour which includes all snacks and meals as well as trips to toddler groups. I would have to pay for 'fancier' trips!

Perfectly normal to have to pay usual rates while your child is at pre-school as the childminder cannot use that time for another child.
I think £5/hour seems fair.

£5 per hour in London seems cheap to me. Around my area (Z3 north London) - it's around £7 - maybe £6 for a less experienced one. Even so CM places are like gold dust. Nurseries are generally cheaper than CMs but it is all to do with what you want from your childcare setting.

I'm in SE and would charge £60 so if say reasonable. Why not ask if you can use the 15 hours with cm instead of nursery?

Englishgirl, Leicestershire. The group of childminders I know all charge 2.50 an hour and include proper meals with puds etc

CM's are getting more expensive than nurseries because less people can afford to provide it and the number of children they can have is smaller which means they can market themselves on exclusivity/more one-on-one care etc.

We pay £4 for 8-6. We do receive the 15 hours free as dd is over 3 and both use childcare vouchers. Northamptonshire.

Seems reasonable. It's don't enjoy paying it tbh. I worked out I could get 6.2 nissan jukes for our childcare cosy but cars don't look after kids

£2.50ph I can't believe people charge this little. With the increases in minimum wage it must make more sense financially to go & get paid employment. If there's s group of cm all charging so low why on earth don't they collectively do something about it & increase to a sensible level.

I am a cm that takes vouchers and provides 15 free hours. Check all your options.

That would be £60 with my child minder (in SE London) including food but not nappies.

We pay £5 an hour not including food in the south-east. Seems standard.