To challenge the 22% price hike our nursery is trying thru?

[Blankiefan]

Email today re: impact of National Living Wage and other above inflationary cost increases forcing a fee increase. I'd accept a reasonable increase but 22% feels excessive.

In an unrelated admin blunder a couple of months ago, the nursery sent an email to all parents without bcc-info the addresses so we all have all of the email addresses. AIBU to consider contacting all parents to organise a rebellion? I've no idea what this would look like

Maybe really it's more of a wwyd... I'd really rather not move dd.

*This just illustrates that this country needs proper subsidised childcare

Not the half arsed smoke and mirrors attempts provided by the last 3 governments. Childcare vouchers, free hours are just gimmicks. Illusions that government is helping with childcare when in reality they are doing the bare minimum.*

YES.

*The free entitlement did work... the funding has been eroded until it is no longer viable for providers.

I don't believe the current Government ever intended to fund the free 30 hours properly. They had no plans to do so. It was a last minute election promise designed to trump the other main parties.

The current Government would like to do away with it altogether, but it's also a popular initiative. They don't want to take the risk of angering parents and education experts by abolishing it themselves.

So they made a hugely generous promise of 30 free hours, knowing that they wouldn't have to foot the bill: providers would either work with it (more fool them, but they certainly weren't going to argue them out of it!) or they would back out of the scheme.

The free entitlement scheme would then collapse as more and more providers would stop offering it and the Government could then scrap an expensive Labour initiative and blame the providers: "We did try, but they wouldn't play ball!"*

EXACTLY.

It's a slow motion car-crash. I think we could do with a MN campaign which would doubtless see parents and nursery providers on the same side saying, broadly, 'This illusion of subsidy isn't working; we need childcare to be properly subsidised.'

I think a lot of the general public who aren't actually in the thick of trying to wrestle with these sums that don't add up genuinely don't realise that these '30 hours of free childcare' aren't that AT ALL.

In an unrelated admin blunder a couple of months ago, the nursery sent an email to all parents without bcc-info the addresses so we all have all of the email addresses. AIBU to consider contacting all parents to organise a rebellion?

Two wrongs don't make a right - this could land you in trouble.

I'm sorry to hijack the thread but I'm absolutely shite at maths, could someone please tell me what the % is if something is £14 but goes up to £20 so increased by £6.

TIA

Munchmunch I think that's a 43% increase

Thank you BarbarianMum

Barefoot It would be better if the government said "here is the subsidy we are giving to private providers, at least this much should be taken off the hourly bill" rather than banning top ups and meaning some providers can't offer it at all, especially smaller ones.

couldn't agree more!! I would far rather know I would be getting x amount off every month, than try to contort my head around "these hours free" and "these charges for "food" and "wraparound care" etc" which are clearly just a way to get around the tiny subsidy (tiny compared to the actual operating costs of a London nursery - and other places will have high costs too, London is just where I am).

There has also been a shift in terms from '15 hours of early years education' to '30 hours of childcare'.

While the best childcare matches quality education, there can be a difference between the two. At an absolute minimum, childcare might be defined as keeping a child safe and meeting really basic needs. Education probably needs higher staff ratios than basic childcare might.

I think that's where the wriggle room will come from for the government.

Good point pico

The rates paid to nurseries are here - both nurseries near me charge less than £5 an hour for full time places.

Barefoot - yes, they did say the next increase will be April 2017, I'll be keeping the email to make sure!!

Incidentally, my OH is half Danish and currently making me v frustrated when he tells me that in Denmark not only do women get a year maternity leave on full pay, but their nursery is subsidised by the government so they pay about £90 a month if on a low salary, and around £145 a month if on a high salary. Sorry to pee you all off on that one.

Carol, that's quite low. Nurseries near me (south east) are £5-£6 per hour.

That's interesting Carol so in England it will be £4.88 per hour....(looking elsewhere it seems like it is currently £3.95 per hour)
In our LA in Scotland the funding is £4 an hour - it went up to that 18 months ago when the 600hrs came in - before that it was £3.25 per hour.

The current reimbursement is at less than four pounds per hour, isn't it?

X post

I think it is £3.95 in England barefoot

xpost as well...

I don't think that there is a uniform rate paid by local authorities across England.

No it isn't a uniform rate!

Of these 3 areas I know:

Surrey paid the lowest, then Hampshire, then Wiltshire paid the highest. Ironic when Surrey has a much much higher cost of living!

Just done a back-of-an-envelope calc (I work in Payroll) and based on a 25yr old (as NLW will be applied to 25+ only) working 37hrs a week, the annual increase to an employer per employee is approx £91.23 a month on top of current NI and gross pay, or £1094.76 per year (an extra £80.17 in salary, and £11.06 extra in employers NI)

Multiply that by the number of over 25s you've got working for you and there's your issue.

However, the Govt are increasing the Employment Allowance (reduces an employers NI bill) to £3000 per annum. It won't cover all the extra but it's better than nowt I suppose.

working 37hrs a week - Who works for 37 and a half hours a week in a nursery? Try 42 and a half, sometimes more.

Local Authorities all pay different amounts Caroldecker
Save the Children Article here.

Where I work, PVIs currently get around £3.29 per hour per child. There's been an Early Years review which has said it's going to go up, but it was only by about 50p (don't have the documents to hand at home).

shedone £91 a month is 53 pence an hour, divide by,say 4 children, is 13 p an hour. Based on £5 an hour cost, is 2.5%

backforgood The govt is funding at 4.88 an hour. How local authorities pay this out is up to them and you should blame/praise as appropriate.

That's not correct, carol - the proposal from Osborne is £4.88 for the 30 hours from April 2017. That's not the current government rate AFAIK.

Presumably it's higher because even the government have noticed that if there are fewer hours left in the week to charge standard rates, nurseries will go under.