Nursery sundries fee

[lizzlebizzle33]

Hi, so my son goes to nursery for 4 sessions a week (20 hours) and we pay £32 a month for his meals.

Last week I received a confusing letter which stated that the fees would be going up and a chart so you could see how many hours your child goes for and what the price increase will be.

It appeared it was going to go from £32 to £76 which I thought can't be right as that's more than double.

I have just dropped DS off and had a word with the nursery manager and it is right!! From £32 to £76 Just like that.

AIBU to be fuming? For myself and all other parents. I will really struggle to afford this but what other choice do I have but to pay it?

You could change nurseries, but if you find that other nurseries are charging similar you'll just have to accept this is the market rate (and you were getting a very good deal before).

How much do you pay for the nursery place? I assume nothing as its funded.

The nursery should have sent a clear letter of explanation but £76 a month for approx 80 hours childcare is still very, very reasonable.

I've not come across nurseries having meals as separate charge - all the nurseries we looked at (and our DD is at her second nursery as we moved house when she was 18 months old) just have a set cost for the day to include meals. I suppose it depends on the attendance cost too? We pay £54 per full day in the South East which includes all meals and nappies. Our previous nursery in London was the same but we provided the nappies and that was £57 per day. Some in the area are £70 per day (one of the bigger chain nurseries!)

My sons nursery is 8-6pm at a rate of £45 a day. That includes all his meals. That sounds way too excessive.

I have just got funded hours for DS, when I enrolled him in nursery I specifically asked if when he got the 30 hrs there would be charges for meals (I asked because at the nursery he was at prev, there was and I just wanted to know so id know roughly how much I would be paying!) they said no, no extra charges, free days are completely free.

Turns out they charge £5 per day for my 3 funded days per week (term time) for meals, and I now have to pay a higher day rate for my 2 payable days a week, because I don't get the full time discount. Even though he is still attending full time.

I know nurseries are under funded, and i'll obviously pay it, but I wish I had had a heads up that my bill would be £70 more than I thought it would be! we don't get tax credits or UC so there's no money to be made up by anyone but us.

I feel like I cant say anything about it either because the response i'll get is "your bill is much less that it was FT" which is true, but still....

its hard OP when you budget for one thing and then they change the goalposts just like that.

I think the main issue is people see it as free hours, rather than as a contribution towards nursery funding. If you view it the other way around ie as a discount, it's much much better for parents than it was before the funding was introduced (not the providers). As PPs have said 80 hours childcare plus all associated meals for £76 a month is an bargain. Try to explain the issue to someone who lives in a country where private nursery is the only option.

*what other choice do I have but to pay it?
A good few, I hope:

Challenge it. Ask what has happened to make food cost increase by over 100%.

Team up with other parents to protest the unreasonable fee hike. The more parents you recruit, the better you will get heard.

Research other nurseries, state that you will be changing & recommending the same change to all other parents unless reasonable action is taken to reduce the cost hike.

Continue with the nursery, but refuse all food costs, & supply all DS's meals & snacks yoursel*

The nursery isn’t a charity, they are a business just because we care for children doesn’t mean we should get paid a pittance.

Unfortunately nurseries have become a political football.

You have a choice, you can go somewhere. Lots of nurseries that are offering the 30 hours are going out of business or withdrawing from the scheme. If my parents complained too much, I’m sure we would withdraw from it too.

@mordecaithomas. OP is being charged £76 a month, not a day!

Can you send him with a packed lunch? Give him breakfast before he goes?

OP, it sounds like the charge is in line with market rate and to be honest I can’t see how £4 a day is unreasonable for all that food. You’d pay more in a cafe.

It seems that the nursery’s error here was not explaining in their notification of the price rise that they understood it was a big jump but unfortunately had no option because of [insert reasons]. It’s a real shame that a scheme designed to benefit families (free hours) was so badly thought-through that it has put nurseries out of business.

I am pretty sure that they cant legally force you to pay for meals, I am sure there has to be an alternative where you pay nothing for the funded hours. So for instance you pay £5 for lunch, or take in a packed lunch and pay nothing.

But then I have not seen a single child at DS's nursery take a packed lunch and I don't think they'd even allow it for allergy reasons!

I don't get the full time discount. Even though he is still attending full time.

You sound a bit angry about this @Bonjourfreddie. Try to think of it this way- the nursery can charge more to a private-paying parent than they get per day from the government. Therefore they have more money coming in and more scope to give a discount. That’s just good business sense.

I am angry about it in that it would have been nice to have been told about it rather than just receiving an invoice...

I understand why they are doing it... I just think they should have actually informed people that they would no longer get the discount..

plus I am still paying privately 2 days a week term time, and 5 days a week in holidays..

When my two went onto funded hours the nursery was apologetic but said they simply couldn't afford to feed them within the funding they get. I was able to provide all of their food for the day if I wanted to - but they wouldn't heat my own food or I could pay £8 a day per child for them to provide it. I definitely think you've had a bargain for a bit - but totally understand its a big jump all at once!

We have to pay £2 for the lunchtime session as it isn't covered in the 30 hours, plus 2x50p for morning and afternoon snacks. Our daughter takes a packed lunch but if she had a meal at lunch it's £2.50. So it'd cost us £5 for just lunch and 2 snacks, we pay £3 and only get 2 snacks (which she doesn't even eat). They are providing 3 meals and 2 snacks for £4, that's good value in my opinion!

So your DS was attending full time without free hours before @bonjourfreddie?

You’re still getting the same nursery for much, much cheaper than you did before he became eligible for the hours then. Quibbling over losing the discount when you are no longer paying for 5 days seems a bit mean.

I am sure there has to be an alternative where you pay nothing for the funded hours.

That would mean the government paying sufficient funding for the funded hours.

argumentative

yes he attended full time, and so we got a discount for him attending full time.

he will still be attending full time, but 30 our of those 50 hours term time will be funded.

I am getting the same nursery cheaper, yes, and I have explained that I get it but I would have just liked a heads up, and an honest answer when I asked if they charged for meals.

I don't see why its "mean" you wouldn't pay over the odds for anything else, its not like the nursery themselves are giving me 30 free hours out of the kindness of their hearts!

nobaggypants well yes that's absolutely what should happen, but not what I meant!

@WhyBirdStop It's the government that sell it as free childcare!

www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

It doesn't say free meals/nappies etc though does it. It is 30 hours free during term time. The OP is being provided with that. Or we could all just pay the full amount for private nurseries.

whybirdstop

as I said though I don't think they can legally charge for meals without offering an alternative ie bring a pack lunch

I completely understand why they do charge for things like that, and they have to cover their costs somehow of course ( and yes absolutely the funding from the government should be doing that!)

I agree that the wrong information about the meal charges was unacceptable BonjourFreddie. Sadly salaries are so low in nurseries that the people who do the admin/customer communications are not always the brightest and best, I suspect it was a misunderstanding/lack of staff training rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead. That said, it seems like a fairly standard question to ask and you’d think they’d all know the policy.

As for the funded hours i.e. the nursery being paid less by the government for 3 days than you used to pay them, they are doing that out of the goodness of their hearts to some extent- they don’t have to participate in the free hours scheme. If they have an available market if parents who will pay 100% privately then they are choosing not to give themselves full access to that market.

Unfortunately it's what nurseries are doing to try and claw back some extra money.... I wouldn't quite believe all nurseries are out of pocket though exactly. More dependent on area but our local nurseries charge £35-40 a day (including meals) and government funding is £4.15 an hour in our area (£5 for 2 yr olds) so therefore £40 odd for a ten hour day. Then they are allowed to add money for food etc when it's funded hours so actually probably making money. Some of the problem is though that they have to be flexible with the hours I think and can't charge extra... so where people are doing 6 hours a day, for eg, before they would likely be charged the full £40 day rate whereas now the nursery can only claim the 6 hours funding so maybe £24.
I'm pretty sure though that they have to allow you to bring packed lunch rather than pay for meals if you want to (definitely for 2 year olds as they are classed as less privileged kids but not 100% for 3/4 yr olds as they are working parents) could this be an option to cut costs.
I do agree that doubling the cost is a bit steep even if it does bring them inline with everyone else. I hope they have given plenty of notice!

well, yes they don't have to offer it but if they didn't I wouldn't have sent him there so its a little irrelevant!