To ask about how much you pay with the 30 'free' hours?

[lexyjay]

Sorry it's another nursery fee one!
My DS just turned 3 so will be entitled to the 30 hours from 16th April. He will be attending 21 hours a week but the charge for this is £251 a month! I was expecting a £10 a day supplement for food but this is more because we are part way through the year so we don't get the full 1140 hours but only 820? Does everyone else's nursery calculate this way? Are you paying a similar amount? (Am in birmingham btw, full day is £50)

The hours are only for 38 weeks a year, so you pay for the rest, plus food, plus pretty much anything else the nursery want to charge you for. Have you asked for a breakdown of costs? But yes that sounds about right.

Yep, similar here. DS is at nursery 2.5 days a week. The 30 hours is term time only, and our nursery spreads it out over the year, which takes it down to 25.5 hours a week. You have to split it over a minimum of 3 days, so a full day has a top up of about £22, but a half day is £7.50.

It's annoying, it's hardly saved me any money at all, it's a nightmare to administer, but luckily DS starts school soon, so I'm just going to grit my teeth until July.

Sorry, our nursery insists you take it over 3 days, other ones will have a different set up

We just pay £2.40 a day for lunch and snack.

So about £32 a month.

Our DS is in nursery full time and it was £800 per month. That's dropped to £433 but with the tax free account we now only pay £350.

Ours, like others, spreads it out over the years.

My DD goes 3 days a week year round and I pay £241, was £611 before so I’m happy!

We use child minder for 20hrs a week so the 30 hrs we have spread out across the year.
We provide lunch, drink and nappies etc do it costs us nothing

We stretch it to be 22 hours a week all year, and pay for 3 hours a week on top (she attends for 25 hours/5 sessions a week) and we pay £67 a month all in. If she went for 4 sessions a week, we'd pay nothing.

We're really lucky, there's no additional charges at all.

We pay nothing. DD attends 8-6 3 days a week, term time only (DH and I are both teachers so this is perfect). All food, local day trips to free attractions and nappies for those still using them are included.

Outstanding nursery in the North West. Normal fee £60 a day.

Childcare providers can only claim a maximum of 10 hours per day which is why they often say it must be taken over at least 3 days.

Instead of charging for food / activities / outings etc I have increased my prices across the board so everyone pays a little more. This is because I'm paid 50p per hour less than my hourly rate. Of I charge for activities then parents can say no and this negatively effects all the children, not just the funded ones.

The fact is this is a poorly finder initiative and other families and providers are having to subsidize it unfortunately. A far better idea would be for parents to submit their childcare invoices and the government pay them a proportion of their childcare costs directly.

The way funding works at my sons nursery is that it’s 30 hours over 38 weeks and sessions have to be 9-12 and 12-3. Because I need full days over 52 weeks I end up paying £422 per month for a 3 day week.

We pay £350 for 3 days a week.

DD goes 8-6 Monday and Tuesday all year round and we top up £120 a month incl a £1.20 an hour consumable fee.

All year round, they get 22 hours per week funded so obviously anything more than that has to be paid for. We also pay for meals on top. It was decided by the parents to work it this way rather than the pre school offering the hours between set times like a lot of others.

Take a look at ‘champagnes nurseries on a lemonade budget.

I work in a school so our pre school operates within school hours and term time. Outstanding rated school.

15 hours free - We offer 5 mornings a week or 5 afternoons. No mixing and matching. No lunch but includes snacks.

Full school hours 5 days a week are £60 a week incl lunch.

30 hours funding is as above, full school hours 5 days a week incl lunch. No extra charges.

Thank you for all your replies. Crazy how different all the amounts are for the same scheme!

My DS is in nursery 9-3.30 Mon-Friday term time only and the top up is around £80 per month including school dinners - but this is only paid in term time, not all year round.