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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To Not Want To Pay For Nursery Food If Ill

64 replies

PopACapInMyAssPlease · 03/01/2019 17:23

My DD attends her free 15 hours a week.
Her nursery charges £5 a day for food, which means snacks, a cooked lunch and dinner (wrap or spaghetti on toast).
It was ok at first as I thought it was subsidising her care etc, but I'm more cash-strapped now and so feeling the £40 a month cost.

DD was off ill 3 days last month and I begrudge paying for food she didn't eat. E-mailed the nursery and they say i have to pay as her food was ordered 2 weeks in advance.
I get that the cooked lunch may be ordered that far in advance, but not the tea, which is generally spaghetti on toast or a wrap.

I get paying for a day (if i did) if they are ill, but food?

AIBU as i agreed to it in the first place or what?
I really didn't want to change nursery, but I'm not happy.
Packed lunches aren't an option.

OP posts:
Nicknacky · 03/01/2019 19:31

But you would have spent that money if you child was at nursery so you are no worse off.

It’s annoying for you but it’s fair enough on the nursery especially at this time of year when absence will be higher.

TulipsInbloom1 · 03/01/2019 19:32

Fiver a day is madness. Is there an option to send packed food?

Nicknacky · 03/01/2019 19:33

The op has said in her post that packed lunches aren’t an option.

Alb1 · 03/01/2019 19:36

My sons nursery is £10 a day (although the evening meal is more substantial), I think it's a pretty common practice.

And although it is annoying, I don't think you'd get a different deal by moving nursery, it may be less than £5 a day but you'd still have to pay it if she was off sick, it's just how it works. Also if your child is happy and settled at that nursery it'd be a pretty unfair reason to move her. But like I say I do understand how frustrating it is paying out over the odds for funded nursery hours.

coffeeincosta · 03/01/2019 19:36

the top up isn't for food

Does no-one realise that the govt funding for these hours falls often several pounds an hour short of what the nursery costs to run? It is only by charging what seems a lot for 'food' that they have any hope of breaking even.

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 03/01/2019 19:37

I charge £5 a day for food as a Cm for funded children, as others have said it’s a way of bridging the gap for the crap funding amounts the government pay us. I can’t afford not to.

Looneytune253 · 03/01/2019 19:39

I would question the fact they don’t allow packed lunches. There should be an option to do that!! Nurseries should make sure all children are able to access the hours completely free

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 03/01/2019 19:42

Yes I agree with looneytune too, the charges have to be optional.

Thesmallthings · 03/01/2019 19:45

But they still have to buy the food if she is there to eat or not.

Yes one person may not make a difference but they have to make a fair line

divadee · 03/01/2019 19:45

*Looney in a perfect ideal world yes children should be able to access funded hours for free but with the government funding set up, there would hardly be any nurseries left open as it is severely underfunded. Our local authority pay approx £4.08 per hour for funded children. It costs more than that to actually keep the child there. So most nurseries would close leaving a massive crisis for working families. Kick up with your MP.

I don't think £5 a day for food is that bad. When you have to pay for the food and someone's time to prepare it all etc..... they don't do it for free!

anotherdaygoesby · 03/01/2019 19:50

£5 is not just got food though it needs nursery staff to serve it, supervise children eating plus clear away. Not to mention the cleaning equipment, cleaning of hands and faces etc.

£5 is pretty reasonable and obviously it's not a pay as you go service so you suck it up.

Yura · 03/01/2019 20:11

@Looneytune253 as an example (surrey, so prices are high): council pays £4.20 per hour, going rate is £6.50. The charge for “food” tends to be around £6 per day. If providers can’t charge for “food”, they just don’t offer subsidized places. they can’t afford to loose that much money per hour, they would be operating at a loss (nurseries and childminders don’t make a lot of profit).

BackforGood · 03/01/2019 20:11

Your child is getting 2 meals, plus snacks for that - as has been said several times, it isn't just the ingredients, it is the staff time, plus things like paying for their hygiene certificates, and the cover staff whilst they go on that course and having enough staff that one member of staff can be preparing it, whilst maintaining the ratios in the room, then of course clearing up, washing up etc. Indeed, all the costs you would pay if eating out anywhere - you'd struggle to get 2 meals plus other snacks for a fiver if you were eating out.

lily2403 · 03/01/2019 20:15

I pay £1.50 a day for a hit 2 course lunch, they provide snacks or I can provide own lunch. I don’t get any free hours. I order the lunches 4 weeks in advance so If dc ill I still pay for fees and lunch.

I sympathise when skint but think you have to just suck this one up

coffeeincosta · 03/01/2019 20:16

Yes I agree with looneytune too, the charges have to be optional

enforce that and it'll be the death knell of anywhere offering the 'free' hours.

IAmMumWho · 03/01/2019 20:19

@PopACapInMyAssPlease

Can you not send your child with a packed lunch? I did with mine but still had to pay £1 per child per day. Mine had 15 hrs a week so I sent them 2 full days a one half a day. I have twins and I begrudged paying that.
Then I learned that dinner time kids were unsupervised. Wasn't a happy mummy and they started school last September.

OlennasWimple · 03/01/2019 20:20

£5 a day for two meals and snacks isn't that much more than you would pay to feed her at home, though. Perhaps a quid or so more?

I'd agree is you were saying that she had been off long term with something, so they knew that she wasn't going to be in for a month or so. But not for three odd days

Nomorepies · 03/01/2019 20:21

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on the poster's request.

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 03/01/2019 20:23

enforce that and it'll be the death knell of anywhere offering the 'free' hours.

Erm I’m a provider so you’re biting the head off the wrong person (so is looneytune!) but the rules (of my LA anyway) say that the charges must be optional and let parents provide lunch for example.

Looneytune253 · 03/01/2019 20:24

I actually understand the fees being a child carer myself BUT I also understand that all charges need to be optional especially when parents are struggling to make ends meet.

violetxo · 03/01/2019 20:25

When my daughter was in nursery after a while I had to pay for for her dinners too. It was £15 a month. But I also had the option to put her on pack lunch. So £5 a day does sound a lot, it is annoying when you have to pay for something that your child hasn't done or eaten. My daughter does dancing and if she misses a day I still have to pay for it. Even if she doesn't show up.

Cranky17 · 03/01/2019 20:32

Nurseries are dying, the government has sold parents a lie about free childcare, some areas the funding comes in a low as 3.62 per hour, that has to cover staff rent food equipment, whilst you have ofsted bleating on about quality.
The questions that needs to be asked is why nursery nurse’s some of the lowest paid people are subsidising people that earn £100000.00 per year.

Check out Facebook
Champagnenurserieslemonadefunding.

Original poster
PopACapInMyAssPlease · 03/01/2019 20:34

IAmMumWho no, a packed lunch isn't allowed.

Nomorepies how on earth am i sounding entitled?
I am struggling to make ends meet at the moment and would spend way less than £5 feeding my DD at home.
As i've already said, the hot lunch i understand,) if it's preordered, but I'm a bit miffed that i have to pay full price (as in for the tinned spaghetti).

When you are having to shop at the self-service till because you can empty your penny jar in there, the full £40 makes a difference.

OP posts:
OneStepSideways · 03/01/2019 20:40

I think it would be very petty to ask for a discount on the food when you're getting free childcare! The £5 will mostly cover the hot meal of the day which is usually cooked from fresh ingredients on site, that have been pre-ordered. Plus fruit, yogurts, milk at snack times. The spaghetti hoops/tinned food probably cost about 10p per child.

WakeUpFromYourDreamAndScream · 03/01/2019 20:45

People saying the OP is being petty and should be thankful she's getting childcare blah blah, do you realise that the funded 2 year old places are for people on a VERY low income and the places were set up for underprivileged children to have access to early socialisation and education. £40 to someone on less than £16,000, which is the threshold for this funding, is a hell of a lot. The OP isn't saying she shouldn't pay anything but £5 a day is ridiculous. Yes the government setting this up was to the detriment of the nurseries involved etc etc, this doesn't make the £40 any easier to find for the OP.