Nursery asking for extra fees for 15 hours funded

I think speak to them. Explain you have not been made aware of any charges until now. Is there anything that can be done? They are breaking the rules and while you understand why, it’s leaving you in a difficult position because you don’t have any spare money.

Is there a fund to cover these amounts for low income families? Is there any fund raising? Is this something that could be done and can you be involved in setting this up?

That's why if it is affordable I would advise paying it or you may be left without childcare.

@fruitbrewhaha nurseries cannot charge additional fees as a condition of using the free hours - they can charge additional fees that are part of their usual pricing structure.

This means they can charge an administration fee, so long as it is to all pupils and not just to those who are claiming free hours.

They are well within their rights to charge the registration fee, so long as all parents are paying it. It is not against the law.

Most nurseries are private companies - you cannot expect them to operate in a way that isn’t profitable / incurs a loss.

Yes, nurseries can be a business. I sent mine to a non profit nursery that was outstanding, they don’t need to be.

What ever the economic ins and outs though, as pointed out by other posters, they cannot legally make charges for administrative costs they incur. So it doesn’t matter if you think it’s not extra or not part of the funding, legislators have already mulled this over the made it clear the OP cannot be charged.

Uniform I’m easy on, they will have to wear clothes of some sort so in essence you need less clothes. You can probably pick up some second hand for little or even free if you ask around. I’m assuming this is polo shirts and joggers rather than top and tails though.

You need to clarify the uniform situation with the nursery then but they're perfectly in their rights to charge a registration fee. I've never known a nursery not to, but since you've apparently never came across this why not put you kid in a nursery you can actually afford?

Yes I thought that also. Nurseries usually have waiting lists so surely they take the children who will be using them for more than the free hours and recoup the money from the fee paying portion

surely they will just tell anyone who only wants the free hours that they are ‘on the waitlist’

I thought private nurseries could have a uniform policy requiring parents to purchase uniform.

I've just attended a meeting at my DC's nursery about extra charges. They said that legally these charges have to be optional (although they did spend the rest of the meeting explaining how difficult they would make it for anyone who chose not to 'voluntarily' opt in to the extras).

I haven't looked into it any further because, in my case, I think the charges are fair. But it might be where they stand legally if you don't agree with the charges/their approach (my nursery said they were limited in what they could do because they draw down government funding. This makes them different to other private businesses).

It’s a bit of a grey area OP and I don’t think they are allowed to enforce any charges which block you from accessing the free hours.

However, if you’ve signed a form saying you agree to their T&Cs, and that outlines a fee, you’ve probably shot yourself in the foot because the time to discuss it was then. If they’re oversubscribed, they could agree to destroy your registration and put you back on the waiting list.

You need to speak to the nursery.

Yes, a gym is a business, but a nursery is a business too. They need to make money or what is the point? Do you think nursery owners want to slog their guts out for no reward/profit? And before anyone says the owners don't work hard, the owners have been very hands on in both my kids nurseries and I want their businesses to be successful.

Registration fees are normal but if you weren’t told about it in registering then I’d question it.

The free hours are somewhat disingenuous. Usually they do not cover the costs for the nursery, so the majority of nursery's will find a way of charging for this, both my DCs private nursery and the school pre school she attends charge additional fees. You can refuse to pay but they can terminate your contract. Pretty much every nursery find a way to charge it and most nursery's have very long waiting lists. So if the fee isn't crazy and I needed child care I would pay it.

This is completely different to funded hours. A registration fee has nothing to do with funded hours. My 2 have been to different (private) nurseries. Both charged registration fees and also deposits (deposits refunded why they left if all fees were up to date)

The nursery are only breaking the rules if they are exclusively charging it to parents claiming free hours.

It is in all likelihood a standard registration fee charged to all parents however (the vast majority of nurseries have these, and £100 sounds about average) - which is fine.

Otherwise about 90% of nurseries in Britain would be breaking the law - as nearly all charge registration fees, and nearly all children are able to claim some free hours now.

Nurseries locally to me are already not claiming ‘that free money’ because they can’t make it financially vianle
to do so.

If they reject the op because she doesn’t want to pay the optional fee that they have disingenuously presented as compulsory, then the LA should be informed because the nursery are breaking the rules.

The hours may be free to the parent but they are paid for by the local authority/government. Its guaranteed income for the nursery and I bet they would be complaining if they lost out on all that funding money.

This. Don’t let them pressure you.

Do you think a nursery isn’t a business?

The nursery isn’t obliged to take OP on as a customer if she doesn’t follow their terms and conditions.

The free hours cover the cost of the hours the child is at nursery - it does not cover, as the nursery have highlighted, the cost of administration / technology / uniform.

They need to cover their costs, and yes make a profit, to make the business viable. A one off £100 fee for otherwise free childcare is really not a huge sum - and, it’s not attached to the hours eg an extra £10 a day for X, it’s a registration fee.

I think the idea a school needs to just accept a pupil isn’t going to wear the uniform, isn’t going to be using the usual platform for monitoring progress etc because the parent doesn’t fancy paying for it, doesn’t really pass the sniff test. Would you advocate a parent with a child at a primary school just refuse to buy uniform? No.

Have you signed a contract OP?

If your child was is over nine months old, is he entitled to 30hrs, not 15?

But a gym is a business so they add on fees where they can to make money.

Registration isn’t an optional extra. They have to keep data on the children. It doesn’t cost £100 to fill out the database, they are doing to raise some revenue. I know why they are doing so, because it’s well reported that the funding to too low to cover the costs but they cannot legally insist OP pays for what is a normal administration for the business.

It is also necessary for the nursery to keep a progress record of the children. They can do it in a book. It’s very cheap and effective. Or they can use an app which is pointless and expensive. OP is not obliged to pay for an app. Tell them you don’t need tapestry they can tell you at pickup of any pertinent news and fill out a book with the rest which has worked for 10s of years.

No, private day nursery.

I think the nurseries attached to the private schools do similar however.

The registration fee non-refundable, the deposit returned when you leave.

No it's not legal. The DofE have made it perfectly clear that it is not acceptable to make accessing early years funding anything other than free at the point of delivery. You don't have to send a child in uniform and any charges must be voluntary. I'd make a complaint to your LA if you can afford to loose the place. Not sure I'd be sending my child in if I complained about somewhere.