To think someone MUST be profiting from private nurseries?

[SprinkleofSpringShowers]

Nursey saying that the free hours cripple them. My bill has gone down by £200 from £940 to £720 for the 15 free hours. My child is booked for 3 days/30 hours (not that he’s ever there 30 hours) I don’t really understand how they are struggling so much when any shortfall in the funding is just made up by parents.

The branch we use charges £73 a day now. They’ve open two new sites in the last year. Can’t be doing that badly can they?

Also think it’s really poor taste when they seem to pedal this image they’re struggling and the staff are likely paid NMW and the directors turn up in 2 year old Porsches.

If the issue is “they” are complaining and you wish they wouldn’t.

1. Next time they complain, make an excuse and leave the conversation.
2. put your kids elsewhere

30 hrs / 15 hrs free childcare is so hypocritical.
Private nurseries have a free structure that they worked out saying this is how much you need to pay for your child for us to be worth it looking after them.
And then the government comes in and says "this is how much are we going to pay for those hours". It doesn't make sense! They are in their right to charge how much they want for the unfunded hours, but then are they supposed to give the funded hours cheaper?
Our nursery is pretending we need to pay extra for food. But what they charge is so obviously more than what they spend on food, I know this is their way of making up for the lost income. And it makes sense - then I sent my child to that nursery I expected this is how much I'm going to pay. It is still more fair to say I need to pay for the difference the government pays and what the fee would be than having the parents of the non-funded children cover the difference.
If the government says they can cover the price of the nursery place for the price they pay for the funded hours, they need to open more state nurseries. No wonder those nurseries are usually attached to schools where they just re-use existing parts of a building, so they don't need to pay so much for the building.

I am. He has 3.5 months and he’ll move to the school preschool. I cannot wait to save £721 pcm AND only have one drop in the morning as my eldest also goes to that school 👏🏻

@edme agree. The “funded hours” feel like a kick in the teeth. I remember being so excited for my eldest’s 30 free hours to kick in. It saved me something like £250 pcm. I have had 5 years of nursery fees, had two in for 18m or so. Can’t wait for this phase to be over!

In one of them, they were already a wealthy family thanks to huge inheritance and had masses of start up capital and nothing to lose. But private nurseries do tend to build up profit very quickly in general.

Also, not all private nurseries are the same. My dc went to two different private nurseries. Both family run businesses, in small rural communities, not big national chains. No one was driving a porsche. There were no top up fees. With funded hours, I paid £100 a month for 5 7-hour days - because I needed to pay for an extra hour each day to allow me to do the school run for my older one. £100 a month for near full-time nursery, 30 hours completely funded, I paid £5 per hour, 5 hours per week for the extra. Yes, people were paid their salaries, but the business itself was not making huge profits.

The property owners/landlords are usually the winners and profiting the most.

Very few nurseries own their buildings.
Rent will be higher than employee costs in most parts of London.

The difference with care homes is some people really do need this care I don't think they are comparable .Some people families can choose for them to go and not do go the care any more . What is it twenty two thousand they can go down to . Or you have someone with nothing and no one and the council has to pay for their fees cos there is no alternative .I don't think childcare is the same when you have elderly people hurting themselves on a daily basis ,and no one even knows .We can't allow people to just disappear, yes childcare is different because they have someone to care for them .

About 20 years ago, 2 nurse friends said opening a nursery would be a money printing machine, they asked me if i would be interested in joining them as a qualified teacher....they didnt go ahead, i do hear that now many struggle to make decent profits.

Possibly not in the same sector, but I manage the finances of our church preschool. For the last 3 years it hasn’t even broken even and has been subsidised by the church. PP are correct in saying that the amount the Govt gives per child doesn’t cover the cost of having them in preschool, so in order to survive we have made the difficult decision to increase fees from September. No profits here!

Nurseries are like care homes - they charge a lot, pay their staff little, but plead poverty.

Well obviously privately owned nurseries make money. If they didn't why would anyone open one??? They HAVE to make a profit or they will close. It is hugely stressful to own and manage a nursery - if you didn't make money, you would not do it. It is a fair living, not a fortune.

If people are making huge profits more will open and parents will be able to just put their children in one without needing to go on a waiting list. Certainly no nurseries will have to shut because they can't get staff.

Ask Mrs Sunak if she's struggling....

I love our nursery. It costs a lot , but they are brilliant with our grandson and he has come on so much since being there. They seem to genuinely care and it's small numbers and very personal touch.
I console myself with it's only for a few years, and they are such important years.
I don't mind if they make a profit. They deliver a good service.

I know you wont have had time to read all my posts but I specifically set aside preschools attached to schools like yours.

We’re not attached to a school, but I get your point.

Companies house says my local nursery group (4 nurseries) made £500,000 ~ profit in 2022. Not bad! One Director. Assume that is who it goes to. 🤷‍♀️
Blooming amazing nursery though so I don't begrudge them!!

https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2024/mar/12/private-nursery-chains-profits-england
Surprise surprise! This is vaguely linked to the sector I used to work in and the combo of venture capitalists and provision of childcare is astonishingly not a good one.

I can definitely see how in some cases they do struggle.

i used to pay over £400 for 2 days at nursery (not sure what the minimum amount of days is for us), since we got the 15 free hours, I now only pay about £120 a month for the same two days. We get the 30 free hours in January and have decided to put him in for an extra half day which means we only have to pay for food cutting the bill down to closer to £100 a month

But they have just put up the prices (im sure it’s about £5 per day or something similar) so I recon that helps with the costs otherwise no one would want to work in a nursery and they’d all be out of business 😂

My friend has been looking to use the 15 free hours where we live and she’s been told at a few places she only has to send DC there for 1 day a week so they’d struggle to make money from her too 😂

The funding only covers like, £4 an hour, staff are paid almost triple that. The amount the government gives doesn’t even come close to covering the staffing costs or the costs of running the nursery

Yup. One of the reasons I love living abroad. Subsidized nurseries. Costs around $8 CAD per day.

Why don't you remove your child OP and take them elsewhere? These are businesses which exist to your advantage I guess.
You make money at work, so should they. Alternatively open a nursery and show them how it's done properly without making a significant profit or driving a nice car.

@SprinkleofSpringShowers
you are making a lot of assumptions here. My partner and I own a nursery and I still work full time while they look after the nursery. We pay our staff above minimum wage, I’m sure you’ll agree that management will be on quite a bit more than minimum wage, then deputies, then room leaders, then the level 3 etc.
All of our staff are long term so we don’t just hire ‘young’ girls to pay minimum wage and make money.
we pay rent, services, bills, food, extra curricular activities, all milks and nappies, staff training, mortgages. The list goes on.
We take a lot of pride in what we offer parents and their children while they those parents have to work and leave their children in our care. Our staff are amazing and work really hard and I know we not only pay them well but also reward them throughout the year.

Your post is very condescending and insulting. Just becasue you see the owners drive a Porsche. It is hard, very hard to set up and run a nursery. To be on top of every aspect, making sure staff are well trained, happy and committed. Making sure parents are getting what they pay for. Making sure we are ofsted compliant. We didn’t just open a nursery, sit back and count the money.
Do we drive a nice car? Yes we do. It’s no Porsche but we work hard to run our business and I work hard in my full time job so I buy what I want with my hard earned cash.

BS are they not profiting…I’ve seen the huge farmhouse the owner of my daughters old nursery lives in and the Porsche she drives.

She’s a business owner though so it is what is is, what does annoy me is the girls there working so hard for minimum wage