Nursery fees increase

[Elsa2000]

My nursery have written to me to say that they are increasing their fees by an extra £5 per day due to “cost of energy”.

When we add it up, because of the number of kids we have there and days it’s going to cost us over £150 extra a month!

Surely this is very unreasonable? We are struggling as it is.

my cost of energy has gone up too but my salary remains still. I’m pissed off too because this extra cash won’t be going to the staff… it’s going to energy companies.

should I just suck it up or can I say anything. I only have a few months left til we leave for school.

I get that they are a business but I really do feel that the government should step in. As a country our childcare costs are disgusting… one of the worst in the world I agree but the primary voters ie. Older generation will never support it because they think they managed, not realising two parents have to work these days.

I assume that they are also taking into account the October price rise in energy.

Worth remembering that whilst individuals are getting cost of living grants to help with energy price rises, organisations, eg. schools, nurseries aren't.

So you aren't angry at an insurance company increasing their premiums, you aren't annoyed at the bank your mortgage is with increasing the interest rate and therefore the monthly cost of your mortgage, but you are annoyed at what is probably a small marginal profit business, who employ mainly low income women for ncreasing their prices?

And as for the Government stepping in, they have already in many ways tried to decrease the increase in costs for those who need it. The Government isn't an independent funded little money tree, any help they provide someone else has to pay for in increased costs somewhere else or cuts to funding somewhere else.

I could see it won’t just be energy but probably staffing as well. Ours put fees up quite a bit at the beginning of the year and said quite frankly they needed to pay more to recruit and retain good staff. I think you just have to be thankful you’ve got a few months left and then no-more nursery. I’m fully expecting a lot of providers will have to increase again this winter to survive but it will make it untenable for many families. Our base rate is now £80 a day. When I started my eldest in nursery it was under £60. I don’t think it will be long before the government need to increase subsidises as it will start to drive people (well women) out of the workplace.

Would you rather less staff? If your child eats at nursery, food costs will be increasing too. That’s life, unfortunately.

I work at a school nursery.

I placed an order this week for tissues, toilet paper, rubber gloves, paper towels. All the stuff you can't go without and the stuff we get through mountains of, because small children learning independent self care skills aren't great at rationing their toilet paper use.

I place an order every half term. And every half term the costs have risen 7-10% from the half term before. Then we have the costs of gas, electricity, water, internet, phone, cleaning. Plus the engineers who check and maintain the fire alarm systems. All those costs have risen.

It's terrifying how costs are rising. We can't charge our families (at all) because we are a school nursery and don't get any additional funds and it's not going to get any easier.

Staff are leaving because they can work in supermarkets and earn more without the stress. Childcare is in crisis, and mostly women and their careers will suffer. I wish I had answers.

I hear you, OP, it's a struggle all round at the moment.

I'm not sure what the government can do that won't include raising taxes or cutting funding, but I am no economist by a long shot. Will be listening to what the opposition has to say...

I wish I had answers remove the tories!!!

Yeah I am angry at all the costs going up to be fair.

They specifically said it was cost of energy NOT staff pay increase.

As another poster said… it will eventually drive women out of work. I’m struggling and I have a decent income. Imagine if it was less… it would be pointless me going to work. It would tip over so that staying at home means you are better off.

it’s a bit of a tricky situation. I would love to work in a school… but how can I? I literally can’t afford it. It doesn’t pay enough. This is part of the reason that restaurants and schools etc are finding it hard to recruit.

normal people don’t get paid enough and costs going up… it’s a very bad combo if you have kids as our biggest cost… even more so than my mortgage, is childcare.

Well. I wish. But I have just one single vote.

As I’ve said on other threads, it’s not the cost of childcare that’s disgusting.

May I ask - If you break down the hourly rate for childcare - would you be happy to earn that? And yes, nurseries have many children but many overheads.

It’s quite damaging to say it’s the cost of childcare, it isn’t.

You’re right in that it’s the government not investing or subsidising childcare.

Their current take is to increase ratios, making childcare’s earn less for doing more, making them the scapegoat for ‘cheaper childcare costs’.

The government must step in to help.

It really sucks, OP. The only thing I can suggest is to ask for a payrise, find a better paid job and/or cheaper nursery.

It’s a catch 22 though, the people caring for your children at nursery deserve to be able to afford to live too.

The business needs to earn a profit for that purpose.

Its not the nurseries fault that they have to increase their fees.

Many couples work to pay childcare because it will benefit them eventually and their careers but when they’re very young you just have to pay,

Yes it's ridiculous, but we are all in the same boat with paying more for things we have no choice but to pay for. I envy their business, it's essential, and they can pass their rising costs onto the users. My business can't pass rising costs on, people aren't spending as it is. It is literally crippling me and very soon I will have no savings left to rely on and that's it. My ten year old business will be gone. I can't even give stock away for free to other retailers right now (I kid you not).

I 100% agree with you. But it's catch 22 I'm afraid because of the government steps in, they will just take the money elsewhere ie increasing taxes. Even the government's money has to come from somewhere.
Completely agree on childcare costs though, the UK is a joke!

As someone who had worked in childcare (nursery setting) for over 15 years I just feel the need to point out that you are paying to for people to take care of the most precious thing in your world. The pay Nursery Nurses get is shockingly low for the essential job they do.

The average is £23,000 in London and £19,000 outside of London.
•to ensure the safety and wellbeing of your child/ren
•to be soley responsible fo three under 2 or four 2yo or eight 3+
•to adhere to strict guildlines on education and care by OFSTED
•to be a point of contact and sometimes even a listening ear to parents
•to work with outside agencies such as SS, schools, SEN
•to protect vulnerable children from parents/family members with police/SS intervention in place. (I have been physically assaulted three times by family members with no permissions turning up to the nursery)
•constant training and courses due to endless policy updates
•A huge amount of paperwork for key workers per child with usually no allocated time to do it
•Being spoken down to or vervally abused by some parents (luckily this was rare for me)

It is a hard job for a pittance. People need to realise if we didn't do it (and I don't feel I'm exaggerating here) the country would just stop.

it’s starting to make more sense for me to stay at home or just get a shop job around school hours. I’d probably be better off

No you wouldn't. Certainly not in the long term. And childcare costs are a shared cost, not just yours/the lower earner's.

As for the OP, it's only for a few weeks and I guess they want to spread the cost over the summer when they don't need the heating on.

@MulberryBush700 May I ask what you pay per hour for childcare? Please do answer.

We pay a bit above average for this reason. By the time a childminder has taken out food costs, wear and tear etc it’s really not much they earn.

Many of those complaining would not work for the lowly amount childcare works out to be per hour but expect to pay a pittance.

There doesn’t seem to be any common sense when considering these things at all.

@Tillsforthrills - We pay £65.50 per day for a full day session which is 11 hours

Roughly £5.90 an hour.

Would you be happy earning under £6 to care for a young child for 11 hours?!

If you think those costs are a ‘joke’ what would you think is acceptable to pay for such hard work per hour?

@Tillsforthrills Before you jump down my throat, you completely misunderstood me.

I agree nursery staff is massively underpaid for the work they do. And ours do an outstanding job and certainly deserve twice the pay!

I meant the early education childcare system and the amount you have to pay is outrageous in the UK. As well as maternity leave and pay.

The UK is a joke, since many European countries have far more generous maternity packages (government funded, not employer), as well as heavily subsidised early childcare with working parents having to pay the absolute minimum. You absolutely do not see the struggle that is going on in the UK as childcare are is not privatised. Unless you want to go private by choice.

My point to the OP was, that if the UK government were to step in (in its current form) and cover more of our childcare cost, they would sure as hell get their money back elsewhere. Because it's not an easy fix as the entire system is fundamentally wrong and it would need a complete revamp, starting with and including maternity pay & leave.

So whilst I agree that nursery staff are generally underpaid, getting more handout from the government is not the solution. Not a long term one anyway.

Might be better to get a Nanny. That's what we are trying to do but finding it hard getting the right candidates.

All we need is a nursery staff that wants the same salary or a little more to handle 2 kids.

Everything has gone up 3 4 times, we are in Recession by the way, just bear in mind that it hasn't been announced officially yet as they need around 3 months worth of data. At the end of this month, so July, we should know if things are getting worse. Your salary is also going to be worth less and less since inflation is at WW2 equivalent and keeps rising.

In my opinion things are only going to go down from now on until at least next year, just brace for it and try to ride the storm.

P.S. Rise in utilities bills is a huge scam, keep an eye for profit report from energy companies, you will be shocked.

Also you could thank the UK government for decommissioning our Gas storage facilities, even though consultants warned them that if the prices go up the people would suffer... but who cares about the people when they could save some money closing down the biggest gas storage facilities in Europe eh?