To be delighted with thirty free hours child care!!!

[Lookingforabetteryear]

I have a three year old , I'm a single mum and work full time . On average I pay £700 pm for nursery fees . From sept I'll be paying £285!!! Bloody wonderful move in childcare policy. Am I missing something with this ?! Seems too good to be true.

From what I've read childcare providers can't afford to provide the 30 free hours as they are vastly undefended. So they may refuse / go out of business.

They're not providing it for free, they claim every penny back !

It is great if it works for you and in your area. But in many areas the rate that the childcare providers get paid is less than the market rate and so they cannot afford to provide it. Not many providers in my area are offering it and we already have a massive childcare shortage here anyway.

It's causing a massive issue at the nursery where I work. The Government aren't paying the nursery the same going rate as thr parents would pay from what I understand. So more staff needed to cover the extra 30hrs everyone is entitled to but not got nearly enough money to pay staff and overheads etc!

Oh I see ! Goodness that isn't good! Seems loads of nurseries around here are doing it

It is too good to be true. It's vastly underfunded by the government, with the effect that the settings themselves have to subsidise your "free" childcare. They lose out hugely.

For example: usual hourly rate that you pay might be £6; amount funded by the council might be £3.88. So the nursery loses £2.12 per hour per child for these so-called "funded" places.

Yes the overheads thing is true as I'm paying an additional fee outside of the 30 hours for that

Have they confirmed in writing that's what you'll be paying or is that what you've worked it out as?

Our on-site nursery (which has been running for over a quarter of a century) is closing at the end of August because they can't afford to implement the 30 free hours.

So why are nurseries offering it if it's so underfunded ?

They worked it out for me in their office

I'm delighted too, I had a thread a while back when my nursery was undecided as to.whether they'd offer this and now they have agreed to. I don't know the saving yet the fees haven't been announced. I understand the nursery is short changed and I would have been satisfied if they just knocked the government rate off my bill. Anything to help with the cost.

I can't wait. I will actually be able to work during normal hours rather than having to burn the candle at both ends. It's not 'free' though - you're still paying for lunches/lunch care etc but my bill should hopefully halve. Which is fabulous.

I'm a childminder and I can't afford to offer it. There are always losers somewhere along the line.

Yes ok paying lunches etc. I do worry that it will mean lower wages for staff therefore high turnaround / not a good ratio

My DDs current pre school will be doing 30 hours but we are moving to a different area. The new pre school I have got her a place at from September will only do 15 hours as they want to be able to offer places to all children in the village and couldn't if it was 30. So DD will be going to 2 settings in September (found a lovely day nursery) and doing 23 hours in total.

YANBU. About time.

Bonus of the nursery is that we don't even pay for the breakfast or lunch she will get. I assumed we would pay that extra but they said it's included.

I've got into 6k worth of debt paying for childcare since dd was 8 months to ensure I could stay in my profession/ because I was a single mum and now I see a light at end of tunnel!

My understanding is that local authorities set their own hourly rate, yours may have been more generous than others. I have been working with a school nursery on costings - with a school the overheads are covered (large school) so the nursery can be more viable, income only needs to cover marginal staff cost. That said, the hourly rate for beyond the LA funded 9am - 3am is charged to parents at a higher rate, so many might find that the increase in cost at beginning and start of the day subsidises the 6hrs/day. Also it's only 38 weeks per year / holiday time provision can really add to costs over the year.

It's actually going to cost me more than 3k (multiple birth) because my nursery have decided that in order to offer it to some they are going to offer less to others. I work part time so I'm not even entitled to the 15 hours I've had this year.

So no! I don't think it's wonderful at all.

myfamilyhomeblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/preschool-childcare-do-we-really-want-it/

It is great for those that can benefit, lots to consider and there needs to be more choice and equality

I too would be happy to just have the government rate knocked off the bill. Subsidised childcare rather than free childcare. That would do!

This would be great if we were entitled to it I'm in full time university so don't get it! I will have to continue paying over £400 a week as my lectures vary I can't predict always predict when I'll be in Uni so have to pay for every session and I've now been told that even over the summer holiday I will have to pay or lose my child's place. This is the nursery run by the university. I'd be interested how much it costs per child to attend nursery?

You don't get any funding as a university student for childcare ?! That's crazy