Do you pay your nursery's essentials and extras fee?

How old are your kids? The fee is absolutely nothing compared to what fees used to be before the additional funded hours kicked in (for kids under three). Ours have started it to for my 2yo but it’s nothing compared to what I was paying for when my now 5yo had no funded hours at that age.

As someone whose DC were at nursery before the free hours came in I think you are pretty lucky to get a discount. If you want your nursery to fold or stop offering the free hours then you are going the right way about it.

Are they allowed to charge more for the non funded hours to cover their costs? Obviously they are.

I think one of two things will happen, they will stop proving funded hours or will reduce costs and in turn places and I can guess which children they won’t have spaces for -those who’s parents don’t pay the extra charges.

Your decision doesn’t just affect your children but all children currently attending your nursery and all future children who may end up with only the choices of fully private provision with no funded hours or Local authority term time only pre-school.

It’s suddenly appeared because a parent challenged in court they could not access 30 hours completely free care anywhere so now all settings are having to sign contracts saying they will offer this to receive the funding but the funding no where near covers the costs!

Because they have to tell you that. They've been forced to because the government wants parents votes. They'd rather piss off the settlings than the parents.

They didn't email you today because they've suddenly decided they don't need your money.

I know. I was on the PTA and we held funds so that school trips to continue and the low income families wouldn’t pay.

it was fab and worked so well

Big national chain here as well. Two children. I'll be paying it.
It's more hassle providing own nappies, suncream, wipes, toilet paper. I like the fact they are able to have paint, crayons, paper, resources without any worry.

I provided lunch at a childminder for a short period of time, I loathed making packed lunches 😂.

You could attempt to find a setting that does just funded hours? They don't usually charge a top up fee.

I don't disagree, but the school can only charge the cost of your child's place. They are not allowed to charge a bit more to cover those who can't (or choose not to) pay. So if everyone doesn't pay up then the trip doesn't go ahead - or it comes out of elsewhere in the schools budget.

Anyway - I'm derailing the thread now. I just meant that things can be labelled as optional, but there are still consequences if you choose to opt out of paying.

If it’s anything like ours; they’ll hike the day rate if people opt out. At the end of the day, they are for-profit businesses… if there’s less or no profit, they’ll close. That doesn’t help you decide whether to pay or not, but it’s the longer term impact.

I'll be paying it.

Because my daughter is happy at the nursery and she eats well there and enjoys what she does.

Because if all parents don't pay it, there will have to be cuts because where will the nursery get the money for these things?

Because if there are cuts, my child is the one who suffers and/or loses out on something she loves.

Would you prefer it if the nursery closed down OP?

I opted out of paying the extras. I paid for a full year prior to getting any free hours and my child was out of nappies so didn't really require any 'extras' . Ours was a very big chain nursery. Probably the same one as yours. I just emailed them to say please remove this from my bill and it was with no issues.

If people don't pay, they will just increase the price of non funded hours.

I pay it. I think of it as discounted, so instead of £78 (plus £3 for food which is optional as can take a packed lunch) for a day it’s £23 (again plus the £3). Out nursery does the hours over the full 8.30-5.30 and spread over the year which means you get 2.5 days at the £23 (the .5 of a day is £18 I think) and then 2.5 days at full price. It’s not free but it’s a damn sight cheaper than 5x full price.

Other private nurseries offer the hours 9-3 so the daily “top up fee” if the nursery day is 8.30-5.30 is higher (e.g £45) but you get 5 days out of it so you pay 5x£45 and it works out broadly similar.

Our nursery offers so many extras, if I didn’t want to pay that I’d put them in pre school tbh where they don’t tend to charge any additional fees. I understand the fees are optional but they pay for all the extras you get in a private nursery (I had my eldest in a pre school and the difference in what facilities / people coming in to do fun maths / science / the zoo was huge). If you don’t pay it, how do you propose they fund all this stuff? It’s absolutely fine not wanting to pay it, but I’d feel a bit cheeky and would just move them to a setting without the fee.

Is the extra fee for things like nappies? Guessing that they will eventually tell you to supply your own etc

It's a hideous situation with the bottom line that the government (past and present) are not funding early years childcare sufficiently.
The funding received from the government does not cover the outgoings and costs and nurseries are forced to either increase their daily rates or charge for extras.
It doesn't look like you have to pay anything voluntary at this stage but I expect the reality is that they will put up their daily fee soon anyway.
I cannot afford nursery for my second child. Even with the so called 'free' hours discounts kicking in from 1 year old the invoices would be more than when my first went through it 3 years ago- and more than my monthly take home wage.
And there we have it- a decline in the birth rate- which might not seem a bad thing to environmental enthusiasts but will cause problems later on if the capitalist model of society does not change. Although if you ask the right wing tories we should have been saving for maternity leave and nurseries this since we were 16. Forget saving to buy a house and being able to afford a mortgage.
Must stop writing now before I get really really annoyed....

Legally you don’t have to pay it. Ask for a breakdown. Our nursery took the absolute piss and when we asked for a breakdown they were rude and aggressive so we left. Made a complaint to our local authority and all top up fees were refunded by the nursery. Absolute chancers.

I didn’t mind paying for the school trips though

i I totally believe the low income families should and be able to use the free places and for us to fund that. I’m fully aware that me paying would mean another family could take the voluntary places etc

I’m not sure what that will achieve for her though.

An alternative for your nursery is to not over places through funded hours.

Because if nurseries close then women will be forced to not work. Our nursery is the only one for miles and only has 50 children in it, despite there being thousands of preschool age children in the area. That in itself is an indicator of the number of (usually) mothers who have had the choice of working taken away from them.

Nurseries don't have to offer funded places. I think lots of them will stop doing so.

Wait until your child is at school, and the school asks for a 'voluntary' contribution to their school trip. It is technically voluntary, except the cost of the trip can only be divided by the number of children (so no cross subsidy), and therefore if not enough (i.e. not all) parents volunteer to contribute then the trip can't go ahead.

My point is, they say things are voluntary/ not compulsory, but if you choose not to pay then the thing you are not paying for will disappear.

And I guess that means that legally OP doesn’t have to pay it?

however it would have consequences. But from a legal standpoint?

so legally are they allowed to do that then?