"30 free hours"

[BlueRaincoat1]

My 3 year old DS attends pre-school, has done since he was one. He is entitled to the "30 free hours". He attends 3 days a week, from around 8.45 til 5.30, so taking that as being billed 8-6, it is literally 30 hours per week.

My bill this month was £389.70, reduced to £292.27 after the 25% tax free element which we use. We can afford it and our childcare bill is SO much less than it used to be when we had two in nursery/pre-school, with limited entitled to "free" hours.

But I really think the title of "30 free hours" is ridiculous, when my DS attends for 30 hours and the bill is still nearly £300 per month.

Its because it is only term time, so 38 weeks a year or something like that. It is so annoying though why not cover it for the full year? Its not like we all only work term time jobs!

Yes, its only 38 weeks a year, and the pre-school also has a very large "additional service charge". Its a lovely provider, with great staff, but I am bothered by the mis-labeling of this benefit by the government, when it is so clearly not true.

Its "funded" hours not free childcare. It is to fund the education part, nothing else. Settings cannot afford to run on the pittance that the government give them (less than £4 an hour in a lot of places) for these places so they have to make up the costs for consumables etc........

Kick off at the government and local councils (who also take a slice of the funding from the government) and how this was ever sold as "free" as on the figures it could never be free.

How can you pay someone minimum wage, national insurance, pension contributions, rent, heating, lighting, business rates, education materials, food etc...... on less than £4 an hour per child for 38 weeks a year.

What are the additional charges?

I think you should be grateful that you are getting your childcare subsidised by the tax payer.

you are focusing on the wording of a policy, how ridiculous?! Appreciate what you are getting and how it’s more money in your pocket on payday is my thoughts on the matter

What’s the additional charge? The government are very clear. It’s 30 hours for 38 weeks and it just covers the base cost. Not extras.

Additional charges are for food mostly and other "consumables". He's not in nappies any more so wouldn't include that, and trips are charged separately anyway. As @ItsSnowJokes says, there's no way they could operate on the too-small amount provided by the government.

Oh give over!
I'm not even going to go into it, but without the subsidised childcare, loads of women would be unable to work

When ours were are nursery your could only use a maximum on 3 hours per session. So for three full days, you could only use 18 funded hours. Then there was an hourly top up. And you had to pay in full for unfunded hours.

My daughters first nursery had extortionate charges on top of the funded hours.... £1.50 p/h for consumables such as nappies, wipes etc etc (that parents had to send in themselves) then £15 per session on top of that (so £30 if a full day) then £7 for lunchtime - packed lunch sent from home. This was a term time only nursery too.

When she joined the nursery as a 2 year old, the charges were completely different but they changed them the following term following a management overhaul. Thankfully we moved house part way through the year and she went to a much more sensible setting with much fairer charges!

My daughter isn't old enough yet but our preschool charges £80 a month surplus for the 30 hours. I suspect they'll want her to do a bit less than the 30 but they don't add on tons of excess costs and they list the £80 as a contribution.

It is to fund the education part, nothing else

Thats not totally true, because you have to be working a certain number of hours to qualify for the thirty. Otherwise it’s fifteen (I think.)

Our additional charges were £200 this month, it was more more than the actual hours charge.

Is it because they only offer funded hours during the ‘school’ day? Our preschool you can only use funded hours between 9-3. Anything before and after that is billed as before and after school club.

Trips are normally subsidised so although you pay it wont be full amount.
Snacks etc

My dds preschool does 8 45 to 3pm
£30 no additional extras at all. But wr do lots of fundraising towards like trips etc. They have 2 small trips farm etc and 1 big a year, theme park. We pay about £5 towards them Inc coach.

They get am and pm snacks. Varies from fruit, veg sticks, cereal, crackers all sorts. Om a 2 week menu rota.

Any additional charges must be voluntary - it must be possible the 30 hours without additional charges otherwise they are not following the guidance. You can ask the council to look into charging if you consider it unreasonable (As per this case). The risk is that the nursery decides not to offer the 30 hours at all, and you end up having to move or pay full fees. It’s a bit of a minefield.

Possible to access* the 30 hours

That sounds a lot! We pay £60-70 a week depending on how many days in a month for food and “materials”

My daughters first nursery had extortionate charges on top of the funded hours.... £1.50 p/h for consumables such as nappies, wipes etc etc (that parents had to send in themselves)

Your nursery charged for nappies and wipes sent in by parents??

I didnt know this, interesting case. I have always found the billing extremely complicated but I believe it is 'correct'. However the additional charges are very high now. We can afford it, and it is a lovely setting. The staff are great and there is a fairly low turnover and it is the most convenient provider for us by a long way in terms of proximity to our house. So I'm not likely t rock the boat at this stage.

I sympathise a lot with nurseries trying to provide the 'free hours' element for such a pittance from the government. I want the workers to be reasonably paid and for their to be nice amenities for the kids. So I can see why they may need to inflate these charges a bit. Its pretty brutal for lower paid families though.

You are 100% allowed to take just your 30hours-however, these are counted as during “school hours” so your extras are the fact that you’re using the setting till 6pm plus any extras such as meals

Oh I see, so hours after 3pm can be charged outside of the 30 free hours?

You think I'd have figured this out by now...

We pay around £550 per month (after the 20% tax deduction), for 3 days per week, with "30 free hours". Our nursery is open 7.30-5.30 and only allows us to claim 6 free hours per day (then obviously its only valid during term time). Childcare in the UK is a joke!

😮
Are you in London at those prices? (Not that that makes it OK!)

“You are 100% allowed to take just your 30hours-however, these are counted as during “school hours” so your extras are the fact that you’re using the setting till 6pm plus any extras such as meals”

^This. Was this not explained to you?