AIBU to feel annoyed about ‘free childcare’

[CoolMoose]

My 2yo has just started to receive the ‘free’ 15 hours. AIBU to feel like it’s such a joke?! He attends full time at nursery and our bill has reduced from £1600 a month to just shy of £1400 a month (£240 a month reduction). They only offer the funding stretched (you can’t just access the free childcare) and you have to pay for ‘add on’ costs. It’s £15 a day for food….a 2yo doesn’t eat that much, surely! In addition, you have to pay full fees for bank holiday closures.

I have an older child and this is definitely getting worse and worse for families even with extra government funding. When my older child was little I paid £550-600 a month for full time childcare without funding and about £150-200 a month with funding (10 years ago).

The replies to this thread are so interesting…thanks so much to everyone who has commented and made me feel supported.

I do agree with those who highlight that it’s a societal issue. Families should be supported (in my opinion) for the good of wider society and the wider economy. It’s short sighted of the government to not to support families! I am annoyed that the reduction isn’t very much for ‘15 free hours’ and I’m mostly concerned that it’s inaccessible for many families who don’t have resource and about the persistent strain on parents.

Other developed countries really do fund childcare better.

Obviously, I do pay for my own children in childcare and otherwise. I am fortunate to have a good a job & this isn’t the only set of childcare fees I pay. I pay up to 3000 per month for the 6 children I have.

Childcare is an issue in our society annd economy and I’m glad that most people agree with my feelings of annoyance over the ‘free’ childcare!!!

@CoolMoose the fact you refer to 240 as "not very much" suggests you're a little removed from the reality of the majority. That's a huge saving monthly for many, many people and a big help.

I agree we should support families better, but remember how much some people are struggling before you complain that 240 isn't enough.

Both are true…I have an older child who is 1 of 6 children. I didn’t initially include the number of children I have because I think people tend to view the problem differently based on the number of children in a family.

My 3 year old DS attends one of the fastest growing nurseries in the south. This company have been buying up all the independent nursery and now has 100 which they have bought in a relatively small amount of time- 2 years.

’3 year old essentials’ include food, suncream, Easter and Christmas activities (!) and are charged at £20 a day.

£240 is 12% of my monthly childcare bill.

That’s what they will mean by ‘not very much’.

Not that £240 is peanuts to them personally.

I've also recently had the reduction. It's less than OP has mentioned. But given how much everything else has risen since we had our DD, that 12% reduction feels enormous. And I earn well too. It just feels a little crass to be moaning about saving money, because it doesn't feel like enough. Money in your pocket is money in your pocket. Be grateful.

Or, do something about the fact you think it's not enough instead of complaining on MN that £240 is not a lot.

Difficulty is that school budgets are not keeping pace either so schools are reluctant to take the risk of running at a loss.

As a HT in the past, my school nursery made a loss of £27,000 per year, at the time subsidised by the school budget, because we wanted the children to have an early, quality start to their education. But high ratios and a school teacher mean this is expensive.

Other factors to consider.

• Some schools have made changes to a ‘governor led pre-school’ removing the need for a teacher (cheaper)
• Some schools really do not have appropriate buildings and provision for our youngest children ( even more so when they take from two years old)
• EY is specialised a requires well trained staff
• Days really need to be longer than the traditional school nursery times
• WRAC is more expensive for nursery age pupils, dye to staffing ratios
• Lunchtime can be difficult to cover in a school
• The fear of OFSTED, provision in EY is a separate judgement in the school report.

Maintained nursery schools ( rather than a class within a school) have been under threat for years too. They have to meet the requirements of a school (headteacher, teaching staff) so are very expensive to run. Those in existence are mainly running with massive deficits, though locally they offer outstanding learning (OFSTED). They are fighting to survive.

Off the 3 primary schools within 0.5miles of me only one has a nursery.

You can only have 3 sessions per week and they allocate them for you.

You already subsidise other people in society.

Your taxes don't just pay for you

And when you were a child you were subsidised by others.

That is the social contract we had with one another which the Tories are in the process of dismantling.

Btw it's cheaper for you, in more ways than one, to help subsidised early years education and things like youth centres than prison places.

Borrowed from another site

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain . So would you prefer no one to have children as they can’t afford it? Those children may grow up to be nurses, doctors, work in shops, teachers, etc etc…like, people you need. Or would you prefer people (women) to give up work as they have to look after their kids as can’t afford the childcare. Again, those woman may be doctors, nurses etc. I think a person upthread was a doctors - they give up work, even longer waiting lists. Not to mention the taxes they pay that goes on maintaining the roads you drive on etc. also as OP says we have a social contract. I’ve never had cancer or needed a major operation (touch wood I never will!) - but I’m perfectly happy to ‘subsidise’ others who do need that. I will probably never have to live in a council house, perfectly happy to subsidise others. Same with benefits.

The funding rate may seem 'pretty good', but nurseries have to stick to strict ratios of staff:children. So they need more staff for 2 year olds than for 3 year olds, hence higher funding rates.

They aren't trying to rip people off/plead poverty.

Hello, first time poster, confused by the whole 15hrs funded thing. I've read a lot that the amout provided by the government doesn't cover the costs of providing the childcare, but I'm struggling to work out what the shortfall actually is; hoping someone here who knows more than I can elighten me?

I've been using the spreadsheet and guidance found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2024-to-2025

This suggests to me, that for Gloucestershire (where I am), central gov. provides the LA £7.60/hr for 2 year olds. There is a requirement for at least 95% of this to be passed on to providers, so at least £7.22/hr. This is only a few pence below our nursery's hourly rate, but rather than just asking for this top up they are charging an additional £17.50 a day for 'consumables'.

So, I'm assuming my calculation of the amount the nursery recieves is wrong, but can anyone explain it to me?

Thanks :)

It's not 95% of each hourly rate. They are allowed to keep 5% of the entire budget but how they go on to distribute it to settings is also up to them. For example I receive 12.5% less that the government rate for 2 year olds and they have skimmed less from the SEN and deprivation budget.

What will you be doing with your calculations? Making an offer to the nursery? They have worked out what they will be charging so I'm guessing this is not a negotiable sum you can haggle.

Thanks, that's interesting. I suppose that what I'm trying to determine is whether the nursery are just recouping the shortfall (completely understandable), or using it as an opportunity to make additional profit.
Out of interest, how do you handle situations where the parents say they prefer not to pay for consumables (additional care package) but will send the child with their own food? My reading of the guidelines suggests and additional fees cannot be made mandatory.

I can't comment on that I'm afraid, I am not charging a consumables fee/additional care package. I've made a different policy to ensure I'm not worse off.

Parents should be asking themselves why settings are having to come up with such complex and inventive ways to cover the funding gaps. The government are throwing this phrase 'free hours' about and taking all the credit. It is anything but free I am sad to say.

95% to providers is the total budget to the sum of all providers not 95% of the rate to each and every provider so it's distributed to schools....and includes in my area a sum for school staff pensions, private nurseries and preschools and childminders with settings that have at least one child with a diagnosed SEN getting a higher rate across the whole setting, with a setting having at least one child from an area of deprivation getting a higher rate across the whole setting then the rest is distributed amongst remaining settings using further formula that were not told effectively most childminders get less than most private nurseries as most nurseries will have at least one diagnosed SEN but even then not all childminders are getting the same if they don't have a date agonised SEN child or a child from an area of deprivation.
The different rates are based on nursery staff ratios but childminders have the same ratio across the board so can't make up the loss in the same way.
The business head says don't take 3 and 4 year olds give notice on their birthdays even if you've cared for them for 3 years.....but most childminders won't do this because we care about the children. So what do we do if parents won't or can't pay? Our families suffer.

The funding just about covers staffing. The term consumables covers anything that the children use, not just food.

Paper, paint, glitter, glue, sand, play dough, toilet paper, soap...

The amount of stuff children get through is eye watering. Especially if a nursery is being run properly and disposing of things that can't be cleaned regularly and cleaning and sanitising things that can be cleaned.

They can no longer charge for anything needed to meet the educational needs of the EYFS so paper, glue, paint sand is a no. Cleaning, suncream, wipes etc yes