How much does your nursery charge for funded hours 'top up'

It clearly isn't in England as the private and charity run nurseries around me are still open.

Also they don't call it "top-up" - we are paying for meals and other hours that aren't free.

Nurseries will lose their funding if the council find out they are charging "top-ups". It's against their contract.

Free, funded hours means just that - free. They can charge for snack or lunch unless you are in Scotland as our children are entitled to free school meals but that is as much as they can charge without being fined and having their contract with the council terminated.

We’re in Derbyshire and the only places that are ‘free’ are the ones as described above by @TrippinEdBalls .

My DS won’t access the 30 hours until January but is interesting to see what it will ‘really’ come to.

Same for us - the only place around here you can get genuinely free is a preschool that is open 9-1 Monday, not at all Tuesday, 9-2 Wed and Thurs and 9-11 Friday, term-time only - ie, this is actually only an option if you don't need childcare, just preschool education (which is great if you're in that position; I'm not). Private nurseries all charge around the same level of fees. At the nursery we use it's about £28 a day top-up so it knocks a lot off the bill (a non-funded day is £73) but it certainly isn't free.

@Reugny Cheshire

£1.50 an hour for consumables plus lunch which is about £3.

They were one of the last nurseries I the area to hold out on top up fees and were clear that it was this or closure.

Where do you live?

The only way for us to get 30 free hours with no top ups in London is to use a nursery attached to a primary school. However they decide what sessions your child can attend during term time.

My childminder will actually pick up a child she has minded for at least a year from local nurseries.

Anyway with nursery we have 22 hours stretched over the year. The nursery we use is charity run and our bill is £300 a month for 3 days. What you pay depends on earnings so some parents pay nothing, while others pay a bit more. They don't take children under 2. We also pay childminder for other days. It's worth it because the childminder is flexible, can do slightly longer hours, does different things and the children vary more in age.

£26 a day for a funded hour day.

£51 a day.

The nursery only offers full day care and the cost is pretty much the same at all of the full nurseries round here.

Ignoring the eye watering cost and looking at the principle, I have no issue with paying something extra, call it a top up or additional charge or whatever. The government funds five hours per day. DC is there for 9.5 plus has meals, snacks, nappies, suncream and so on. Of course there's going to be an additional charge.

If parents only need/want 30 hours there are other term time only nurseries where it's possible to go and not pay any additional fees.

@Lilacsbloominspring is that for me? If so then it's my 30 hours used over 4 days. All food included but that might be because they don't allow packed lunches.

That can't be for a 30 hours funded place though surely?

Does that include food, though? And is that just 9-3?

Wow, can't believe some of these charges! Some of them are more than I was paying for a non funded full day place in a tots (age 1-2) room in 2021 which was £47!
I use exactly 30 hours at a local private nursery term time only and pay nothing extra at all. There was an 'optional' top up which was £5 a day and they made it clear that you could opt out, which I did.

At DD nursery I used to just pay for any additional hours above the funding plus £1 a week for snacks.

£7 a day but this is for food, and if you send in your own food you don't have to pay anything extra.

I'm aware the funding is way too low, but I'm surprised so many places get away with explicitly charging a top up that isn't allowed. I suppose local authorities have neither the time nor resources to check and enforce the rules (and I guess they also have no desire to see local nurseries close if they can't afford to stay open).

£30 a day for ours

£18.20

It's term time and something like 6 hours a day, so you're being charged for anything you use outside of this.

My child goes to a school linked nursery so school hours and school terms. I pay £3 a day to cover the lunch half hour (I'm welcome to tke him out and bring him back if I don't want to pay).

If I need him cared for after 3pm I pay after school club rates.

I'm a childminder and charge 20. Yes it's not allowed but it's that or I don't offer funding at all (and I'd easily fill spaces). I'm not working for less than my day rate. I'd rather help a parent by offering the funding than just tell them to leave. I need to pay my mortgage too!

22 a day 8-6

None at the school nursery DS goes to though they ask for 50p a week for craft materials.

Nurseries don’t have to offer funded places. But where they do they must comply with the guidance. Additional charges must be clear and invoiced. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring nurseries offering the funding are invoicing correctly, not charging top ups and a whole host of other things.

As pointed out already though, enforcing the guidance is likely to mean some nurseries either don’t offer the funding or become unsustainable and close. The current funding arrangements screw over providers and parents

It is explicitly forbidden by the guidance which governs the early education funding. Pages 13 and 14 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1149556/Early_education_and_childcare_statutory_guidance_-_April_2023.pdf#page7

local authorities must ensure providers do not charge a top up.