AIBU - No benefit from 15 free hours

[ilovepenguins79]

I have just had my invoice from my daughter's nursery for her first month of funded hours. We get 15 hours - 11 as its stretched. Its a private day nursery.

However the invoice is for exactly the same amount of money as the month before due to the extra charges made every month. So the nursery gets the £500 apx that we always paid plus the funding from the government.

AIBU? Surely this is not right that the nursery seems to be making money from the funding as well as charging us? Isn't the point of funding to make it more accessible?

What a bunch of pisstakers

Our childminder charges a "sundries" fee which, by some sort of magic coincidence, amounts exactly to the gap between what the local authority pays her and what she charges for unfunded places.

So we are hundreds of pounds better off each month since DS became eligible for 30 hours, and we know there's no cheeky cross-subsidy going on.

Nurseries are such a rip-off. Vote with your feet.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat yeah she'll be there till school but we will still only pay the 2.50 a week

I know, but they’ll be getting your child’s funding too... Some places do what they can to secure a filled spot. Did you think they were just being nice?

Many settings are struggling at the moment, the sector is in crisis thanks to ‘free’ (note they’re not free! but funded!) hours. They are really damaging and many settings are closing each week. If something doesn’t change there will be such a lack of choice, parents will start complaining about that too...

Are they generally expensive or normal day rate?

I get 30 hours free funding since sept..huge shock i still pay £35.80 wrap around care per day and only sing 14 hours as not using all the hours. Its for core hours only.

Id pay £64 per day without the free hours though.

I was so looking forward to DD getting her 30 funded hours in January, but it sounds from this thread that we still won't be able to afford childcare. We don't have any friends with similar age DC so are going in blind, I knew there would be top up fees but if it's as much as many of you are quoting a day we still won't be able to afford it I feel so bad for DD as she is desperate to have peers to play with.

noclue

it might not be that bad!

for instance if you used just the 30 hours term time at our nursery, you would only pay £15 per week..

We use a childrens centre so if there are any near you they might be worth looking at, also school nurseries generally don't try and charge £££ on top.

I would recommend steering away from fancy expensive nurseries as these seem to be the ones who are charging loads on top.

I can’t believe people pay all those extras!

My DS will get 30 hours from January. He is going to use 26 hours on 3 full days with his childminder where I will just pay £1.50 a day for meals. I currently pay £36.50 a day. I could send a packed lunch if I chose and not paid anything.

He will use his other 4 hours for his weekly preschool session which I currently pay £3.60 an hour for. There will be no other charges here.

So he totally childcare bill has reduced to £4.50 a week for 3 and a half days.

@nocluewhattodoo

I am a childminder and simply deduct the hours from my fee’s . Check with your provider now

It's disgraceful how far some settings will go ! Don't get me wrong I fully understand that the current funding levels do not reflect the true cost of childcare and often the setting has to take the brunt or heavily rely on donations from parents. What this nursery is doing is way beyond trying to bridge the gap and in my eyes it's practically fraud.

My child will get the 30 hours free in January. It's a private nursery and il pay £7 a day - which is to cover the staffing at the cross over for lunch and also pays for breakfast, and a hot lunch. She will go 5 mornings a week and then a whole day one of the days (still only £7 for the whole day and includes tea as well)
You need to change nurseries and report them

www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-national-funding-formula-allocations-and-guidance

according to the above, the funding for 2018-19 per hour for my area is £4.30

so £4.30 x 10 hours, is £43 per day from the government, then an extra £5er per 10 hour funded day from me is £48 per day. I only pay £41 a day for my non funded days in term time, and £40 a day in holidays as I get a discount for a full week.

Seems like my nursery doesn't do too badly out of gov funding at all, which I am glad of as it means it will stay open and they do a lot of good there with it being a childrens centre.

in saying that I think that shows what the government recommends, but its up to the LA what they actually pay. I don't know how I would find out whether they pay the recommended amount or not!

Wow, those extras you have listed should be part of the normal care. I helped run a community preschool and the only extras we charged for were additional hours above the 15. I am astonished they get away with it. I would definitely speak to your local authority, or even Ofsted.

The government funding is definitely way too low but if the preschool/nursery is run properly then it should still be able to manage. We also manage to have additional stuff on certain days over ratio depending on the cohort that day plus the manager is always supernumery but you shouldn't really need staff above ratio as a rule.

Sounds extremely badly managed. I would expect lunch to be in addition plus anything out of the core hours of course. Our funding can only be used 9-3 for either am or pm or the full day.

My dd was in a lovely private forest school nursery until sept. she had her full 30 hours completely free. I could of paid a small top up of about 38 a month and choose to do so. Full fees was about 100 a day!

Being charged the same is a total piss take and surely not legal?

I'm a childcare provider who offers the funded 15/30 hours (grudgingly). We receive £4 per hour- by contrast, to pay privately, a half day (4 hours) costs £20. We get £16 from the government and it is stipulated that this is for the cost of care only. Not food, outings, extras etc. So we have to come up with a pricing structure that means we're not out of pocket. We still lose up to a pound per day per child despite extra charges. Personally I feel this scheme benefits no one- parents are upset when they realise their bills aren't actually going to be much less and providers are not happy to be left out of pocket. My annual turnover has dropped significantly since this scheme came into force.

I've just looked at the link upthread, and it seems to suggest in my area, I should expect 45p an hour more than I actually get... Something is wrong somewhere! Also we were categorically told we could not simply deduct the amount we were getting funded from the usual bill, which to me is logical and I would be happy with. From what I've read here, some providers openly do this.

I've just looked at the link upthread, and it seems to suggest in my area, I should expect 45p an hour more than I actually get... Something is wrong somewhere!

Not necessarily. That's the amount the Council is paid. They are probably deducting a certain amount for Early Years support/training before the funding is passed on to you.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat no that can't be right, the max you'll pay is £53 a year for 6 children. It dramatically reduces when you add 12 children.
The more you add, the cheaper is becomes. I based mine on a reception class of 60 children (2 classes)
Their pricing is clear on the website but I will happily stand corrected. This is just what I can see online. Perhaps they don't include VAT, but even then that seems steep.

Yes it is. I’ve just paid £60 (so must have VAT added on) but only have three eyfs children... as per normal CM ratios.