I opened a nursery two years ago, in an area that desperately needed one. It was all over the local papers at the time about the local childcare crisis, and families were having to relocate etc. I thought I was doing a nice thing.
Since I've opened, I get weekly - sometimes daily - criticism and occasionally abuse about the "extortionate" fees we charge. I've been called a filthy capitalist, a con-artist and endure many, many comments about "printing money" etc.
I cannot comment IRL, I'm in a closed community that would deliberately misunderstand and I'd get even more flack. So please allow me my vent.
Childcare ratios are as follows:
For every 3 children under 2 years old, we require 1 staff member.
2 - 3 year olds is 4 children to 1 staff.
Over 3s is 8 children to 1 staff.
50% of staff must be qualified at all times - that's a Level 3 childcare diploma or higher, which is typically 2 years of college study. I've done it myself very recently and whilst it isn't "hard", it is extraordinarily detailed, long and - frankly - dull.
I pay our Manager £13.50ph, Deputy £13.00ph and all other staff £12.50ph. Excluding employer's contributions. We pay well for the industry, which is typically minimum wage (£10.42ph) - our salaries are reflective of our less than popular area.
All staff are legally obligated to attend a 2 hour long training session run by the local council 4 times a year, with our SENCO and DSL staff required to attend additional specialised sessions again. It is expected - at a legislative level - that each staff member does an additional 20+ hours of CPD a year.
It is also mandatory to have a monthly staff meeting (so add 1 hour extra per staff member each month), and a monthly supervision meeting per staff member (so 2 hours for Manager + staff member).
We obviously have to pay staff to open the nursery 30 minutes before children arrive, and they stay for roughly 1 hour after children have left to complete paperwork, clean and lay out activities for the following day.
The Manager needs 10+ hours a week on top of the time she spends with children for more paperwork than God himself needs to complete. She only gets away with 10 hours a week because I do the majority of the heavy stuff, for free.
I have calculated, roughly, that for every hour a child is in the nursery - it "costs" us 1.4 hours of labour, when including the above.
A minimum of 2 staff must be on site at all times, meaning that the staffing cost per hour is at a minimum of £35 per childcare hour (taking into consideration the training etc.)
If those 2 staff are taking Under 2s (2 staff = 6 babies) - that brings the cost per baby to £5.83ph
2 - 3 year olds would be £4.38ph
Over 3s would be £2.19ph
This is, of course, assuming that there are the maximum number of children per staff member - which is rarely the case.
This does not include - surplus staff for illness, lunches, outings and annual leave.
Overhead costs such as electricity (for us this is roughly £400 a month in Summer), rent and business rates.
I don't really know what I'm trying to achieve here but honestly, I'm going insane. All I seem to see online is people complaining about the cost of childcare, and I know that it is often directed at the gov, but it's also often directed at Nursery owners and I really don't think people have sat down and looked at the maths.
Setting up this nursery cost £75k, and I was doing it on a tight budget with family doing a lot of the renovation.
I have never drawn a salary, and in fact subsidise it by several thousand a month with a full time job.
(Yes, I'm considering closing it - but I know it will make me even less popular in town).
Rant over. Congrats if you've read all the way though <3