To think increasing after school club fees by 45% is too much

[WTF2do]

Just had notice from our after school club provider that they are increasing their fees by 45%.

are most after school clubs increasing their prices and if so how much increase is reasonable?

It depends. They have to cover all their costs, including staff and energy.

Considering how much electricity and gas costs have increased, it's not surprising.
Minimum wage goes up next month too.

It sounds unreasonable, how low were their prices before?

Too much?

But everything is now at the 'too much' stage unfortunately

How much are the fees?

Blame this government. They don't care about education or health. Their track record over 12 years tells you all you need to know.
Self serving, worthless bunch of arseholes.

Depends what the driver is. I've seen clubs take huge fee leaps when new management came in and realised it had been running at a loss, or rent was reviewed or similar

But otherwise it's a very large increase. And I run an after school club, so I know the costs all too well

What does the government have to do with after school clubs? Aren't they privately run?

It probably depends on how cheap it was initially.
£5 up to £7.50 (I know, but it's about right) for a snack and care til 6pm, I think you need to accept it.
But if it's already £20 a session, it's possibly time to look elsewhere

yanbu that seems steep. Really tough on parents as it’s a captive market, not like you can shop around.

Have they given you reasonable notice? Was their last fee increase relatively low?

Where we are there are 2 smaller infant schools (one with a wraparound provision and one without) - the one with is run by teaching assistants at the school but since COVID and wfh their numbers have gone down a lot and they already don't operate on a Friday! But as it's in-house it runs as the school just pays the teaching assistants overtime and they do it on a rota.

The 2 infants feed into one junior school and my dd will go there in September (we use a childminder) and they asked all prospective parents to fill in a survey as to whether they'd use the before/after club, it's an external company and so they need to make it viable and I understand numbers are lower than they'd like. It's a lot of money tho £10 before school and £12 after school.

I think the thing is now people wfh more people can do school runs and if you can get a childminder it's sometimes a cheaper option.

I think they may put the prices up here if less people use them as they have to make them viable
But the danger is people just look for alternatives like sharing the care with other parents or childminders or grandparents, people compressing hours so their needs for childcare are less.

But yes I agree that's a huge hike but my guess is they are trying to make it viable. I'd email the school and tell them your going to struggle with that and ask others to do the same

It depends how much the fees are, I think. An increase from £2 to £2.90 per session (for eg) - probably understandable.

It’s increased from £9 to £13 for the standard pick up time, then from £11 to £16 for a late pick up of up to 30 minutes later.

I have 3 children who use the club on a weekly basis. They’re signed up to go every week regardless of whether my shifts mean that I actually need it as I think having a set routine benefits the children. But now I’m going to have to book them in only on the days/weeks needed which means that they’ll probably go every other week.

How much do other after school clubs charge?

That is a big increase but it did sound a good price originally

Ours has increased from £11 to £11.50 for the 5pm collection and from £16 to £17 for 6pm collection

(Obviously I’ve googled the charges from the next two closest schools who appear to charge £7.50 and £8.50. That’s very low in comparison so I’m wondering if other provisions have increased their prices but not update their online literature yet)

£11 for 2hours (south west)

I think you were getting an exceptional deal before. With three children and the increase though, you’d be better paying a child minder or a student for three hours after school or whatever. It’s the same everywhere, nurseries, after school clubs, they need to pay staff at least the new minimum wage, plus pay increased utility bills. There is no choice but to charge more.

My 8 year old’s daughter’s wraparound are increasing on 1st April:
Before school (drop off from 7.30am and includes toast/cereal)- up from £6 to £7
After school (until they close at 6pm, no option for cheaper to collect earlier, includes a snack such as a wrap, cheese and crackers, muffin etc)- up from £12 to £13.

That’s a lot with three children. I guess you’re already using tax free childcare? Our school keep it quiet as it’s more hassle for them, but 20% is a free day a week.

From memory (DS stopped going to After school club in 2020) ours was £13.50 for 3.15- 6pm including a small meal.
I only ever booked for days I was working as couldn't afford extra days.

That's a huge increase but if it's an external provider they have higher & higher costs to cover.
Our ASC has been £10 for 3:15-6 since dd1 was in Reception & she's now in Yr7 so expect an increase at some point soon

Wow you were on a good rate before the rise - ours just went up to £16 from £15.

I knew my DC’s after-school club was very reasonable but WOW I had no idea. They charge £4.50 until 4.30pm, £8 until 5.30pm and £9 until 6pm. All include a light meal - wrap/sandwich, cheese and crackers, fruit etc. No signs of any price increases so far, but it seems overdue!

How long since the last big increase?
A lot of businesses that increase their prices by a ‘horrific’ amount have been holding back on increasing for some time, but now the strain is too much.