Can nurseries no longer charge registration fees or deposits?

[MidnightPatrol]

Following another thread yesterday where this point was highlighted within the new government guidance.

As of April 2025, any ‘pupil’ of a nursery using free hours cannot be charged a registration fee or a deposit - as this constitutes limiting access through additional fees.

The very vast majority of nurseries are currently charging these fees - and from September, 95%+ of pupils will have some form of free hours.

Is your nursery still charging these fees and deposits? Have you heard that they will stop? The last stat I can find on these fees / deposits is that some 70% of private nurseries charge them, more like 90% in London.

They are used largely to guarantee pupils will take up places, as far as I can tell - and ensure those on the waiting list are genuinely wanting a place there / keep the numbers on the waiting list sensible.

What has your experience of this been? I have just paid a registration fee and £2,000 deposit for a place in 2026 and am now wondering if they’re even allowed to be doing this now?

Dear goddess, if I was running a nursery, I would shut it down and do something else. The government is forcing a lot of commercial risk on nurseries, unless they are going to compensate for families who put their name down at a few places and just don’t turn up on day 1

Yes they are making it very hard for nurseries to exist, and just means that families who don’t get the free hours are facing an increase in fees to cover those who get the free hours.

@SheilaFentiman I agree, this (among other rules being implemented) seems to make it incredibly difficult for nurseries to actually operate as businesses.

What happens if a parent just doesn’t turn up on the first day - the nursery loses income and they have to absorb that, while waiting for a new pupil to start?

I appreciate the desire to allow eg those on low incomes better access to the nurseries - but this will cover all pupils bar the <5% who pay full fees (and 100% of them over 3).

Agree. And perhaps there could be a scheme where you give one nursery your “ID number” and can’t access funding for any other nursery unless you cancel that with a month’s notice, if not, they get the first term of funding anyway (or something).

But government seem to be expecting commercial businesses to act non-commercially without underwriting that in any way.

I wonder how that would work for allocating nursery places (and so going back to work).

I have my nursery place allocated for X month in 2026. If we don’t use it, I lose my deposit. Annoying yes - but the guaranteed space means I can organise my return to work smoothly.

If I can’t reserve a space in the future like this because it creates risk for the nursery (they can just offer places a month ahead when others hand their notice in)… how can you plan a return to work? I can’t see the nurseries just doing it on trust alone - that puts risk on them they can avoid by just taking pupils at short notice instead.

I agree the changes seem to ignore that these are commercial enterprises run for profit and relied upon by parents to work - not ad hoc playgroups in church halls run as community projects.

I really don’t understand how they expect nurseries to be commercial viable with all these restrictions. Are they trying to force them out of business? Why?

The number of families not getting any free hours will be quite small from September though - less than 5% - not enough to be able to recoup all the lost costs from families able to claim the free hours.

I might be wrong but I think it is for children who are only using the free hours, not those who are also doing additional hours.
My dd would have had no admin/joining fee if she had taken a packed lunch (only used the 15hr for her) but ds is doing additional hours and as the nursery has a 3 day minimum per week term time there was no fee waiver as all 2 year old were doing extra hours.

That is very curious.

So people claiming 15 universal hours but don’t need to work, or who have family childcare to help out above the 30 hours are excluded from any extra costs…

… but parents who need to fund their childcare above the free hours can be charged any fees the nursery likes?

This seems bizarre and also - possibly just creates the situation whereby nurseries won’t accept fully funded children in favour of paying children?

How does it work for waiting lists and deposits then - ‘oh yes it’s £150 to be on the waiting list, unless you attend for just 30 hours a week then it’s free’.

I can’t see how these two systems can operate alongside each other while being remotely fair to paying parents (or for the nursery tbh).

I think its clear the government either wants the scheme to fail as it was a Conservative plan, or they want to just have State not for profit nurseries.

The only people really benefiting at the moment are those who only need two days a week.

I haven’t looked at the detail of the nursery funding but I would think a deposit would still meet the rules as it is technically a prepayment of fees. But registration fees for which you don’t receive a service potentially not.

@AnneElliott

“A1.41 Local authorities must take all steps available to ensure that the free entitlements are available free of charge and therefore that providers do not charge parents for the following in connection with the entitlement hours:

• Top-up fees (any difference between a provider’s normal charge to parents and the funding they receive from the local authority to deliver free places)
• the supply of or use of any materials, including, but not limited to, craft materials, crayons, paper, books, instruments, toys, or other equipment or learning resources that are necessary for the effective delivery of childcare
• business running costs, including, but not limited to, rent, staff wages, cleaning materials, insurance, or utility bills such as energy, gas or water
• () Registration fees as a condition of taking up a child’s free entitlement place ()
• () Non-refundable deposits as a condition of taking up a child’s entitlement place ()
• general charges, including but not limited to, non-itemised enrichment charges, sustainability charges, business continuity charges, additional charges, enhanced ratios, hourly rates, or any other supplementary charges on top of the free hours
• any additional fees that are not specifically identified and itemised as being for chargeable extras as described in A1.33.”

This suggests then they can charge a deposit… so long as it is refundable (even if, as in the case of my recent deposit, not until 2030 when they leave the nursery).

Although - this does technically seem at odds with ‘there should be no costs to accessing a free place’ as it requires an upfront payment even to claim free hours.

They do seem to be making it astonishingly complicated for both parents and nurseries to understand.

I don’t think it’s even that good if you only want two days a week with private nurseries, as they don’t want children who only bring in revenue from the free hours.

Locally to us many nurseries are either asking you do 4 days (15 hours) or 5 days (30 hours) - or have stopped offering the funded hours altogether.

Presumably pulling out of the scheme is the response to new regulations saying they can’t ask parents to commit to X extra hours a week to claim the free hours.

What a mess!

Settings are not allowed to insist on additional hours anymore if you only want the funded hours they have to offer them.