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!

Tbf they probably had much lower costs then, as well as much lower standards!

Parents are much more demanding too. There was a thread a few weeks ago where the OP was complaining she didn't get multiple pictures of her DC a day 🙄

Isn't a large part of the increase to do with the rise in NMW? I feel for nursery workers who are being paid the absolute minimum to do the important job of looking after people's kids. I also feel for you, OP... this is a shit outcome and it's ridiculous in this country that childcare is so unaffordable.

Yes, the nursery have always put their fees up in line with NMW increase and I'm fine with that. It's the suddenly having to lay an extra £30 a week for my eldest where I was paying nothing and an extra £32 a day for both of them to have 2 extra hours that they won't be using that is the killer here.

But like I said, I understand why the nursery have done this and I'm not mad at them! This is the direct result of the government promising to fund something but not actually giving anywhere close the the amount of money needed to deliver the service so of course the nursery needs to put up their fees so considerably!
It's just ridiculous to me though! Such an insane increase because the government wanted to make it cheaper! It's the worst Trojan horse I think I've seen the government deliver in my life thus far! The exact opposite of what they promised has happened.

My nursery has just gone up £80 a week due to this government plan. So badly implemented!

You definitely don't have kids

Where are you based?

Who should be responsible for paying for nursery hours? Individual or tax payer? There seems to be the idea, u have a baby u go back to work. That may not be tge choice everyone wants to make. Where is the encouragement and support to stay at home a bit longer if u wish? Child free mumsnetter here so I may not know what I'm talking about in this instance🙄

We just worked ours out last night and thrilled our total fees are dropping by £250 a month and then again in Sept!! So we are definitely seeing a benefit. It's strange how it varies so much then?

There has to be a balance. The cost of childcare is too high which forces so many people (usually women) out of work because they simply do not make enough money to cover the cost of childcare and that has a much wider impact on the rest of society because fewer people in work means less tax generated for the country. This is why countries like Sweden have a much stronger funded childcare system, specifically because they know that paying the appropriate amount of money to support families access childcare means they get more money from those same families going out to work. That's the entire premise behind this government's scheme as well; they're just done such a piss poor, half assed job of doing it that there's no way it'll actually work out that way because childcare isn't anymore accessible and certainly not cheaper than it was before they came up with this grand plan.

Or maybe I accepted they are expensive to have and don't moan about it all the time.

And you're probably the same person who then moans about immigration

Looking after a baby is work in itself and you are raising future taxpayers

Oh get off your moral high horse! This is not about moaning that childcare is expensive or that children are expensive! I know that, I understand that, I, and most people who have children accept that. This is about the government building a policy out of shit and selling it as gold! They should be called out for that! We have a right to criticize those in power for this kind of action! There is a genuine argument that childcare should be supported more by governments as I and others have already highlighted but what this government have done is pretend they're doing that so they receive all the media positivity and credit with their main voting demographic who will see that the government are doing something 'positive' for the younger generations but as they're not actually the ones in receipt of the 'benefit' are unlikely to look at it closely enough to realise how much of a Trojan horse it is! So they gain credit without actual imparting any real benefit to those they claim they're helping! And this we have a right to criticize and condemn! This is not about the cost of childcare! This is about the corrupt nature of our democratic government!

My eldest was born in 1991 and was at full time nursery. Ir was cheaper in comparison than when they introduced the subsidies. It seems as soon as the government " help" the prices rise.

I have long been of the opinion that if this country as a whole, people and elected representatives together, decided to pull it's collective head out of its collective bum and give early years education and childcare the status and funding it needs and deserves, the benefits over time would cascade over so many other areas of society and other government budgets.
Reduction in child poverty, early interventions, no child starting school already behind, women economically active and saving for their retirement and on and in it goes... So many problems society faces could be vastly improved if we got in there early.
It's quite clear that heads are still up bums and it's very disappointing if not surprising.

Bristol

Women are allowed to be frustrated by the lack of support or financial incentive to return to work! Why should we “appreciate” a tokenistic gesture by a failing government? Is this the best we can hope for? It has been pushed out with little thought about the impact on nurseries or fee paying families.

My cousin sends her child to a nursery like that where she can pay for certain hours. It's a disaster and they shut in school holidays like the schools. It's a business and there's reasons why people have to pay for a full or half day.

Did you pay £20k p.a for childcare? Because that’s what my child’s full time nursery place has just gone up to.

This is exactly why a monthly Universal Basic Income won’t work!
Another example of how Government-instigated red tape pushes up costs for those it seeks to “help”…

70’s and 80’s? So well before strict regulations and ofsted alongside their associated costs existed? Not to mention that choices are much more restricted for working parents on who they can leave their child with. Presumably you were earning well enough to not qualify for child or family allowances either then?

Thing is, either then or now, struggles remain. The causes and/or consequences may have different narratives but one isn’t any easier than the other in practice. It’s really unpleasant to minimise someone’s current problems by making daft comparisons to circumstances forty years ago that bear very little resemblance to circumstances now.

I remember how devastated I was when we got that nursery bill when the 30 free hours were first introduced...I had even voted Tory to get it I was so naive, I thought we would literally get 30 free hours, obviously we didn't, and that's when the fee gymnastics started, our nursery were really empathetic and helped us by letting us go term only even though that wasn't really formally an option (as I had an older one in school I always had to find childcare in the school holidays anyway)

I'm sorry you're going through this, I know how upsetting it is, I don't have anything else to say but to empathise and say it's shit, and I'm sorry.

My dc were born in the late 80s. I got 5 months post birth maternity leave and child care was 50% of my salary. DH got 2 weeks paternity leave. I don't think things will ever get better.

I don’t qualify for the extra funded hours due to my salary being over 100k however the nursery I use has now has similar arrangements as outlined on this thread. Only full days are permitted and if you are using 30 funded hours you need to be FT otherwise they won’t accept you.

They also charge £2.50 per hour top up which means that even those who get 30 funded hours are still paying just over £1000 per month. I think many were shocked by this figure and assumed they’d be paying far less.