Government's 'free' childcare has caused my childcare to increase by £378 a month!!

[Holdmyrice]

I've been waiting on it as I knew it was coming but we got the letter today highlighting the changes the nursery are going to need to make in order to make the government funding work and keep them afloat!
They used to offer An hourly rate and we used and paid for the hours that best suited us, 8-4. They will no longer offer this and will from April only allow the full day of 8-6 so 2 extra hours we don't need we need to pay for. On top of this, they're now charging a 'quality' fee of £1 for 'free' hours. We provide lunch and nappies and wipes so although I know it's common for nursery to charge for these things once the 'free' hours kick in, ours never have and my 3 year olds 'free' hours were actually free. Not anymore!
And to top it off, they're also raising their basic charge 9.8% in line with NMW increase!

So in total and including taking tax free childcare into account, for my 1 year old and 3 year old I will be paying a grand total of £378 a month more than I am now!!!

It's an amazing nursery and to be clear, I am not angry with them! This is the wretched government who have promised something they never had any intention to deliver! The amount they are paying nurseries for these 'free' hours was never going to be sustainable and frankly, I should probably just feel lucky that my nursery haven't just decided to close their doors!
Thank you very much Tories you absolute twats!

From what I’m hearing locally, nurseries local to me might not actually not be offering the additional 15 hours from age 2 anyway.

They already have long waiting lists and parents who can pay the fees so aren’t going to bother.

I suppose this might actually be a good thing for me as it won’t drive my fees higher to subsidise it (I’m not eligible for them), but it does seem to somewhat defeat the point of the scheme…

No, we agreed the hours when they started at the nursery and we consistently pay those hours. I didn't chop and change each week on a whim and I certainly didn't force the nursery to conduct their charges in this way. For whatever reason, at some point in time, they built a business model that included charging for the hour rather than with a day rate and I was not in any way privy to that decision. The fact that they have changed this now, 3 years after I started sending my child and however many years after they built this business model, they have changed it as a direct result of the government underfunding what they promised.

Our nursery bill is also increasing by 10% in April…

I hear you.
We got the funded hours when DD turned 3 in Jan, having paid over £35k in childcare before this for two days a week, her nursery have just quadrupled our bill now from April as they cannot afford to run on current prices with the new "free childcare". I was fuming, we are effectively paying more to allow other peoples getting funded childcare at an earlier age when we didn't.

Yikes. I think we might have to stick at one. I’m just burying my head in the sand over childcare fees to be honest.

Got what you mean now changed to fixed blocks of hours and anything ether side is extra

Exactly @ruby1957.

And it has been assisting hasnt it? But oh no it wasn't enough it had to be even more and so they responded. But no it's not good enough just want free free free

I’m one of the lucky ones whose nursery ‘free hours’ are completely free to me. I pay for lunches on top (optional £55pm) and that is all. Plus they offer me a 5% discount for working in the NHS . They are so wonderful.

I do wonder how they are surviving with all these changes. My suspicion is that they only have a small number of places for funded children and the rest of the spaces are taken by parents who pay in full. From speaking to a few other mums I know they aren’t eligible for the funding.

Yes, good point; they responded with a well-thought-out plan that took into account the inevitable increased demand, waiting lists, child ratios, and the current Early Years staffing crisis due to low pay. Oh, wait...

This is the equivalent of announcing free NHS dental care for all while failing to mention there are only about 7 NHS dentists left.

My nursery have put my daughters hourly rate up by 25%.
£6 to £7.50 per hour. We will struggle to pay this.

Before anyone jumps on to attack my post by saying they already pay more than this, I fully appreciate that and know different areas charge different rates. It isn't about who's paying more. It's about the 25% increase thanks to the government's shortcomings.

It’s so expensive, my daughter is 3 and is supposed to be entitled to early education hours (10hrs a week) and we don’t even get that! Every nursery in our area literally is full and can’t fit anymore children in, waiting lists are extremely long.. she attends playgroup 2 days a week but it makes it very hard with work etc as I now have to rely on family/juggling childcare with my husband (really not easy we both work long hours in retail).

it pisses me off that she is supposed to be entitled to her early education hours and any other hours were supposed to “help help” with but I’ve tried asking her nursery/playgroup and understandably they are completely overstretched and there’s no room left!

it’s an absolute nightmare, the nursery she goes to is fantastic tbh! But the lack of space in the nurseries in my area is terrible.. I live in north wales.. prices have also gone up for her nursery so roll on September when she actually starts the nursery In school!

Labour supported this too and I guess we will all be paying more tax when they get in so it's lose lose whoever is in after the election.

Yay I can't wait to pay more tax! Here just take it all and give it other people for their choices

Yes but was it quite such a massive chunk of your salary? Currently paying £1100 per month for one 2 year old who is in for 4 days a week…

Well children do cost money it's not exactly a surprise.

And the nursery staff deserve ro be paid properly. They you have all the utilities having gone up, every industry has had to increase prices.

Lots of nurseries round by us used to let us book shorter sessions, but most have all moved to full day/half day so we just send the kids for the longer sessions as we're paying for them. But once we get the funded hours then our bill will drop anyway

SNP have increased taxes in Scotland so you’ll be welcome to join us…

Also the opportunity for companies linked to the Prime Minister's family to make money from the scheme.
Its not really about childcare at all is it?

If my kid gets free uni that would be good!

I've secured and paid £250 deposit for a part time place 2 x full days a week. Baby will be 1 and won't start until July. Should have been £98/day had an email last week to say the date rate has now increased to £105/day plus a supplementary fee of £68/ month.

It's ridiculous. I'd happily just pay a straight fee for the days/hours used and not have the funded hours. We probably won't even qualify for them when baby is old enough. Due to when baby is in care.

I’m not saying it is a surprise but it is now an extremely significant proportion of a wage packet which means that a lot of people (women) are better off not working. I’ve estimated it costs us around 60k per child for part time childcare to get them to school age (1-4years old) and that’s with some funding from 3. Childcare wasn’t this expensive in the past.

The point is the funding is meant to support parents getting (back) to work because the economy needs as many people working as possible to support it.

I don’t think we can rely on that being the reality in 16 years time when my youngest will be uni age!

Same story as with the preschoolers.
Universities have to take fee paying international students over Scottish kids to stay financially viable.

Same - still waiting on quote for what our bill will be when we get our 30hours in April (the standard over 3 one as wasn’t in time for the new one) - but our daily rate has jumped to £72.50 before the discount but you have to pay 3.50 for meals once you are eligible for free hours. The rate in the over 3s room was £54 a day when we joined just two years ago - so everytime we have moved to a ‘cheaper’ higher ratio room we’ve paid more instead. And I know this is a lot less than it will be in the SE