To think this happens everywhere? Nurseries forcing parents to pay towards Gov free spaces

[HollyBerryz]

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has published this press release today telling Councils to keep an eye on nurseries to make sure they aren't charging parents to access Gov funded free hours https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/may/council-should-have-better-oversight-of-nurseries-providing-free-places-ombudsman-says

Aibu to think nurseries have been forcing mandatory payments on families for years and it happens all over?

Yes. I've looked into 2 nurseries and 3 pre schools, all range from between 100 - 400 pounds a month for TWO days a week. Ridiculous. The 30 hours means nothing.

Yes absolutely, I don't know a nursery that doesn't charge to access these hours

It definitely happens where we are. £15 per day consumables fee when using the free hours. Free hours can only be used school hours so 8am to 3pm. If a full day is needed it is a £25 top up fee. So essentially costs parents £40 per day for a free day. Full price for a day is £65.

So you save £25 per day / £100 per week as its over 4 days for the 30 free hours and pay £160 a week for 4 days or £225 for a 5 day week.

Pushing this onto councils to police, when the real problem is that the funding for “free” places is inadequate for childcare providers to provide a service, is a total cop out. What’s going to happen when councils crack down on providers? Well, they’ll be forced to cut places, or close down if uneconomical.

It's absolutely rife, but it's not everywhere. DD goes to a nursery that doesn't do this. Her 15 hours are actually 100% free. We had to view 3 nurseries to find this one though.

Yes but the funding for free hours doesn't cover the cost of provision. It's not the nurseries you should be cross with.

Same as mine, apart from paying £3.95 for lunch and snacks mine go 15 hours with no other costs.

It's ridiculous to make a fuss about it. The amount the government pays nurseries for the funded hours is a lot less than the cost of providing a good service. The tiny number of nurseries that don't find ways to top up (usually council run places or run within Infant schools as a "pre reception") have much lower quality of facilities etc, and if you don't want to pay a top up you use one of these places. Most people would rather pay a bit to ensure their child has a good experience of nursery. If there is a clamp-down on the top-up charges, each nursery will have to chose one out of (a) drastically reducing the quality/flexibility of the service they offer (b) de-registering from the funded hours system and charging all parents full price or (c) going out of business. Which of these do you hope your child's nursery will do?

The government doesn’t pay enough to cover the hours.

You should be pleased the nurseries are offering them at all - crack down to the point they’re not financially viable, and the nurseries just won’t offer them (or close down).

Where I am several local nurseries only do the 15 hours and not 30.

What the Gov pays the nurseries doesn’t cover consumables - only the core hours. That’s why the nurseries then need to charge for meals, milk, etc. You’re still getting the core hours.

But shouldn't we be making a fuss about it? If it's inadequately funded it needs addressing. The same as the new breakfast clubs when they probably won't work as they should due to the same issues but here we are.

How can some manage it for free but others can't?

How can some manage it for free but others can't?

Rent charges mainly, huge difference in what people pay.

Yes mine did but I assumed they couldn't get by on funded hours alone. We also used a childminder and she charged the difference between the funded hours and her hourly fee, and she was very transparent about it. If I didn't pay I'm sure she'd have dropped us and taken a child that didn't use any funding.

Personally, I don’t think so? Most nurseries stretch the available funding out across the hours your child is in, so you’re getting a good few hundred pounds discount off what it would usually cost you each month. It’s not inadequate, it just is what it is; funding on core hours. It’s a form of free-bee and I’m grateful for it. The way I see it it’s just take it or leave it.

We pay £26 a day for a funded place. Better than £90 for a full day so I’ll take it!

Exactly, its a total nonsense. Crack down to what end? So the nurseries shut. What a good end result that will be.

It was 15 free hours when DC1&2 were at nursery, but the 15 free hours were only available to parents of children booked in full-time, eg 40h+. My DC did 3 days so didn't qualify: the nursery manager told me our 15 hours were on the two days when DC were with my mum 😑

I know of two nurseries in my local area who have closed down because the council cracked down on it. My friend is now struggling to find an alternative nursery place.

It's been inadequately funded ever since it was first introduced in 1998. You've presumably only just noticed now because this is the year that it affects you, but it's not going to magically become adequately funded. It's fine to "make a fuss" by e.g. writing to your MP and demanding that the government increase the rates paid to nurseries to something reasonable, just don't blame the nurseries or try to wriggle out of paying it. Someone has to pay the cost of the service you want, and the government won't.

They way that some nurseries manage it for free is:
minimal spending on furniture, decoration and flooring
minimal spending on resources, toys, consumables like paint, paper etc
minimal flexibility - e.g. if you only open 30 hours per week term-time-only
work right at the boundary of minimum amount of staff to children ratio so that there's no spare pairs of hands when things get chaotic
If operating on Council-owned premises or within a school building, the nursey may have no rent/utilities bills to pay and may be taxed differently which would affect the balance sheet.

If you want to send your child to the lovely nursery with the nice well-maintained garden, and lots of lovely resources and a weekly range of activities which keep your child stimulated and engaged, and which tries to have a better-than-minimum staff-to-child ratio, and which is open for longer than 30 hours per week and in the school holidays too - that all has an intrinsic operating cost which works through as an hourly cost of care which is typically 20%-40% higher than the amount that the nursery receives from the Government. Without top-ups, the nurseries would go bust. It will get worse once 30 hours for all children over 9 months is rolled out.

You are right that it's the same with breakfast clubs. A lot of schools are opting out of offering them because the amount that is offered is woefully inadequate for the costs that would be incurred, and that initiative has been structured so as to make it pretty much impossible for schools to charge any kind of top-up, so they just can't do it.

Isn’t the option - pay something and get sone discount ( “free” space ) or pay the full cost ? Be careful what you wish for

I suspect that nurseries who own a building outright will be in a very different financial situation to those paying rent to a landlord or a mortgage

Look up the Champagne nurseries for Lemonade funding. Been running for years, my daughter is now 10 and was set up when she was at nursery.

I recall my figures I used to pay £70 a for a 10 hour day ish, so £7 an hour. The funding the nursery received was around £4.30 an hour so a massive discrepancy.

There's a petition about increasing nursery funding on the government website - I think I am not allowed to post the link but it's easy to find if you go to the government petition portal and type the word "nurseries" into the search bar. Currently about 4.5k signatures.

No, my children are all adults now and I remember being told I shouldn't have to pay top up fees when they were in nursery. I'm noticing it again now as I've been aware of the Ombudsman case around it.

I haven't blamed the nurseries at any point either so I'm not sure why people are claiming I am!

helpful to know @RareGoalsVergethanks

A nursery near me upped the cost of unfunded hours to subsidise the funded hours. This was partly the reason why instead we went with a childminder who charges eligible parents the difference between the government funding and her actual hourly rate, as we aren’t entitled to the 30 funded hours.

The childminder isn’t meant to do this, but it works better for us as our hours aren’t artificially increased to subsidise the funded hours other parents access. It feels like a fairer and more sustainable approach, but the government wouldn’t like it as it exposes that the “free” hours aren’t no such thing.