Do you pay your nursery's essentials and extras fee?

[Brightyellowflowers]

My DCs go to a private nursery and receive the 30 hours funding. We've just had notification that the fee they charge for extras is now "non-mandatory" (as per new government guidance). They charge £1.80 per funded hour, which doesn't sound much, but for two kids it's an extra £171 a month each... which is 4k a year!

I appreciate that government funding doesn't always cover their costs, but I can't afford to pay 4k if I don't have to. What is everyone doing? Do you pay this charge? I feel like the nursery is guilt tripping parents into paying it and just wanted to check what the norm is.

Gosh you sound very naive. Think about it logically, the nursery is running a business and they don’t get paid enough for the funded hours they are offering. If lots of parents choose to pay the “voluntary” contribution they will stop offering funded places and only accept fully paying children.

Our nursery also sent us all a message advising that the government had expressed that the extra charge is not allowed. They then very clearly explained why they charge the consumable charge and what it would mean if they are unable to remain financially viable. They would have to choose between stopping funding or closing. Did you know that something like 36% of nursery’s closed in the past 12 months.

so feel free not to pay but what will you do if the nursery closes or opts to stop funding? Who will look after your children then?

If you don’t pay they may not provide care though. They may shut.
Or say due to enough parents not paying, we now will only be providing the bare minimum. Which would be awful for the kids.

Or say sorry no 30 hours funding anymore only 15, etc

@fashionqueen0123 then OP has a decision to make as to whether her children stay there.

We really need to stop being intimidated by men in politics who don’t give a shit about women.

What the government pays does not cover the cost of the actual running of the nursery.

If everyone refused to pay then the nurseries that accept government funding (not all do) would have to either close down or stop accepting children that use the funded hours.

Agreed @Sat100 The additional funded hours sound great in theory but government’s plan relies on the private sector to come up with the places and make up for the government’s lack of proper funding! I mean, the government couldn’t even get its own policy/paperwork on this right! Parents need to revolt en masse. The government would soon act. They’d have to. They’d have no female workforce otherwise!

Or the government would be forced to pay more - now there’s a novel idea that might just actually work!

so legally are they allowed to do that then?

And I guess that means that legally OP doesn’t have to pay it?

however it would have consequences. But from a legal standpoint?

Wait until your child is at school, and the school asks for a 'voluntary' contribution to their school trip. It is technically voluntary, except the cost of the trip can only be divided by the number of children (so no cross subsidy), and therefore if not enough (i.e. not all) parents volunteer to contribute then the trip can't go ahead.

My point is, they say things are voluntary/ not compulsory, but if you choose not to pay then the thing you are not paying for will disappear.

Nurseries don't have to offer funded places. I think lots of them will stop doing so.

Because if nurseries close then women will be forced to not work. Our nursery is the only one for miles and only has 50 children in it, despite there being thousands of preschool age children in the area. That in itself is an indicator of the number of (usually) mothers who have had the choice of working taken away from them.

An alternative for your nursery is to not over places through funded hours.

I’m not sure what that will achieve for her though.

I didn’t mind paying for the school trips though

i I totally believe the low income families should and be able to use the free places and for us to fund that. I’m fully aware that me paying would mean another family could take the voluntary places etc

Legally you don’t have to pay it. Ask for a breakdown. Our nursery took the absolute piss and when we asked for a breakdown they were rude and aggressive so we left. Made a complaint to our local authority and all top up fees were refunded by the nursery. Absolute chancers.

It's a hideous situation with the bottom line that the government (past and present) are not funding early years childcare sufficiently.
The funding received from the government does not cover the outgoings and costs and nurseries are forced to either increase their daily rates or charge for extras.
It doesn't look like you have to pay anything voluntary at this stage but I expect the reality is that they will put up their daily fee soon anyway.
I cannot afford nursery for my second child. Even with the so called 'free' hours discounts kicking in from 1 year old the invoices would be more than when my first went through it 3 years ago- and more than my monthly take home wage.
And there we have it- a decline in the birth rate- which might not seem a bad thing to environmental enthusiasts but will cause problems later on if the capitalist model of society does not change. Although if you ask the right wing tories we should have been saving for maternity leave and nurseries this since we were 16. Forget saving to buy a house and being able to afford a mortgage.
Must stop writing now before I get really really annoyed....

Is the extra fee for things like nappies? Guessing that they will eventually tell you to supply your own etc

I pay it. I think of it as discounted, so instead of £78 (plus £3 for food which is optional as can take a packed lunch) for a day it’s £23 (again plus the £3). Out nursery does the hours over the full 8.30-5.30 and spread over the year which means you get 2.5 days at the £23 (the .5 of a day is £18 I think) and then 2.5 days at full price. It’s not free but it’s a damn sight cheaper than 5x full price.

Other private nurseries offer the hours 9-3 so the daily “top up fee” if the nursery day is 8.30-5.30 is higher (e.g £45) but you get 5 days out of it so you pay 5x£45 and it works out broadly similar.

Our nursery offers so many extras, if I didn’t want to pay that I’d put them in pre school tbh where they don’t tend to charge any additional fees. I understand the fees are optional but they pay for all the extras you get in a private nursery (I had my eldest in a pre school and the difference in what facilities / people coming in to do fun maths / science / the zoo was huge). If you don’t pay it, how do you propose they fund all this stuff? It’s absolutely fine not wanting to pay it, but I’d feel a bit cheeky and would just move them to a setting without the fee.

If people don't pay, they will just increase the price of non funded hours.

I opted out of paying the extras. I paid for a full year prior to getting any free hours and my child was out of nappies so didn't really require any 'extras' . Ours was a very big chain nursery. Probably the same one as yours. I just emailed them to say please remove this from my bill and it was with no issues.

Would you prefer it if the nursery closed down OP?

I'll be paying it.

Because my daughter is happy at the nursery and she eats well there and enjoys what she does.

Because if all parents don't pay it, there will have to be cuts because where will the nursery get the money for these things?

Because if there are cuts, my child is the one who suffers and/or loses out on something she loves.

If it’s anything like ours; they’ll hike the day rate if people opt out. At the end of the day, they are for-profit businesses… if there’s less or no profit, they’ll close. That doesn’t help you decide whether to pay or not, but it’s the longer term impact.

I don't disagree, but the school can only charge the cost of your child's place. They are not allowed to charge a bit more to cover those who can't (or choose not to) pay. So if everyone doesn't pay up then the trip doesn't go ahead - or it comes out of elsewhere in the schools budget.

Anyway - I'm derailing the thread now. I just meant that things can be labelled as optional, but there are still consequences if you choose to opt out of paying.

Big national chain here as well. Two children. I'll be paying it.
It's more hassle providing own nappies, suncream, wipes, toilet paper. I like the fact they are able to have paint, crayons, paper, resources without any worry.

I provided lunch at a childminder for a short period of time, I loathed making packed lunches 😂.

You could attempt to find a setting that does just funded hours? They don't usually charge a top up fee.