Nursery breaching Childcare Offer for Wales and charging top-up fees

[DavisZ10]

Hi everyone. Has anyone had any experiences of nurseries charging a top up even when you're claiming the 30 Hours Childcare offer? We've signed up our son for two mornings at a private nursery and they are insisting we cover the shortfall between their fee and the government funding (rather than just food and transport). But the Childcare Offer is meant to cap the price so that there are no top-ups.

We understand that we will need to pay £5.75 per morning for food, but the nursery are claiming the remaining £4.25 of what is essentially a top-up/ pay the difference fee is for transport/ wrap around service. Our son is not transported anywhere- we drop him at the nursery and collect him from the nursery. The nursery is claiming that because they charge a flat daily rate for all parents (to include a wrap around service) then we are obliged to pay this regardless of whether our son uses the wrap around service (even during school holidays, at which point no children are receiving the wrap around service).

The council aren't interested because it seems to be a loophole that they are exploiting. We are reaching out to our MS Julie Morgan, who happens to be Deputy Minister for Social Services, so this scheme falls under her role.
Has anyone in Wales fallen into a similar thing with their nurseries requiring a top-up fee when on the Wales Childcare Offer? If anyone has had similar experience and would be happy for us to pass them on to Julie Morgan, it would be great to hear from you.

I get what you’re saying here, but if it’s a good nursery and you’re happy with the care they provide, I absolutely could not begrudge them £27.20 a month factoring in tax free childcare to support them through the shortfall that all nurseries are left with after funded hours are applied.

I’m in England not wales but in my experience almost all nurseries do this. Quite simply, if they don’t, they run at a loss. Why would any business choose to stay open running at a loss?

If you don’t like it, you are welcome to switch to an alternative nursery. £10 per day for childcare seems pretty reasonable to me.

My sister has had a successful nursery for 17 years. When the government introduced this it hit all nursery hard as they were loosing money.

my sister is closing her nursery next week. And this policy from the government is one of the main reasons why. As it was costing them money.
if people want nursery’s to stay open they need to understand the damage this is doing to them.

This is very common. The government funding doesn't cover the usual fees the childcare provider would charge so if it's not topped up providers will close. 30hours offers families a massive saving compared to what they would pay before they were able to claim it.

Nurseries are woefully underfunded. They charge the top up to actually cover costs and be able to pay staff. Our nursery was very clear that the top up fees were needed, government funding falls short and that if we weren't happy with that, our nursery wasn't the place for us. I think that is fair and we are more than happy to pay it because they are a fantastic setting that go above and beyond.

I agree with everyone else.
You can't run a Nursery on the funding the Gvmnt give you.
Some are better at being creative with the language than others, but everyone has to find the money from somewhere.

If you want to press this, then the Nursery will just join all the other Nurseries across the country (countries) that have closed.

I wish I had only had to pay £10 a day for my child to be looked after, fed, taught, cared for and provided with wonderful experiences for 30 hours a week whilst I worked.

Is everyone commenting in Wales? I don't think the funding structure is the same as in England. I'm eligible for flying start funding and the nursery is looking forward to be able expand its funded places as it's an important income stream for them. They never charges any top ups, not even for food.

I'm glad you've written to your MS but have you read the guidelines to see if they are breaching the rules?

gov.wales/childcare-offer-wales-guidance-local-authorities