Nursery fee should be the same for May and April 2025?

[2025M]

Nursery days: Monday and Friday (only days that could be offered a year before joining )

Funding eligible for: 15 hours per week, equating to 11.17 hours as stretched across the year.

Advised on signing that bank holidays would be credited back if nursery day fell on them.

Normal monthly invoice: £475.40
April invoice (1 Friday BH, 1 Monday BH): £356.40 as credited £119.00
May invoice (2 x Monday BH): £415.50 as credited £60.00

Queried why May was more than April, yet had 2 bank holidays like April did.

Nursery replied:

• Entitled to 11.17 hours per week.
• The invoicing app that is used puts 10 hours on a Monday and the other 1.17 on the Friday.
• Friday April BH: Credited a small amount of consumables (1.17 funding) plus the full fee for the other just over 8 hours.
• Monday April BH– 10 hours of funding used, Monday has been credited consumables.
• May BH no. 1 - 10 hours used, so consumables have been credited.
• May BH no. 2 - 10 hours used, so consumables have been credited.

So the fact that the invoicing application is set up as above means that even though a bank holiday could be a Friday or a Monday, for May I pay more than April, for a reason I am not entirely clear of, unless anyone else can understand why?

I have asked 10 people in real life and not one of us understands. 1 of those mums has the same days as me at another nursery and her invoice was the same for April and May.

I am grateful for the funding, however as I have read on here constantly all of us are paying more than expected and it has gone up etc. So everytime any invoice comes in I check.

This makes sense as you’ve described above. I’m not sure I understand your question?

I think the answer is more simple than they have given you. Looks like they assume the £475 is 8 days. You only used 6 days in April, so £475/8 6=£356.25. For May you used 7 days due to timings of Monday and Friday in the month £475/87=£415.63.

So it's pretty much saying that the funding is applied more to Mondays than it is Fridays. As you 'pay' yourself for Fridays you got a bigger credit in April.
I would ask them to swap this around so you 'pay' for Mondays instead, as there are more bank holiday Mondays than Fridays in a year. Not sure why they wouldn't spread the funding evenly over the days by default

Have you got your contract our nursery only allows funded hrs to be used for set sessions e.g 9-12 and 12-3 and we pay for hrs either side otherwise they wouldn't make money. So when it comes to BH we don't pay the additional hrs or top up fee

I guess they (your nursery) have been quite savvy doing it this way as most BH fall on a Monday

Sorry, I didn't know how to get a question on the forum, so I labelled it as basically "am I being unreasonable to assume a bank holiday invoice should be the same each month"

This is interesting as a question a fellow mum asked me is "do you get a say in what day it's applied to"

I will dig it out. I have been very stupid here, when I went in at 3 months post birth I wasn't thinking straight as I was knee deep in colic. I took "bank holidays you don't pay for" as quite a literal statement.

Then again, I have been surprised in general at how little the widely sold "childcare is basically free 3 hours from Sept" gets you also (not the nursery's fault that one and also grateful to get anything). I've met mum's who have had to change their plans entirely as oddly fees aren't really "out in the open" in order to plan ahead.

No, as they need to allocate all the days out equally. They have to submit the forms for funding.

You are lucky I have to pay for bank Holidays!

If you round up the numbers it's much easier to see what's going on. You usually pay about £60 for 8 days each month, roughly £480 (8x60). April you went in for 6 days £360 (6x60), May you went in for 7 days £420 (7x60). That has clearly been applied fairly.

The numbers don't quite round like that as you save £4.60/£4.50 each month. I've no clear idea why you managed the full reduction in April, but you actually benefitted. So you're pitching a battle with nursery that they may have undercharged you by £1.15 one month and £0.44 the next month.

Whether or not the full 30 hrs is spread through the year is a different point affecting your daily rate , that would be based on full year reduction so it doesn't matter when it's applied. I must say, it isn't a battle that I would bother with.

Thanks, I am not battling them, if that comes across this way on here it's not meant to. Nurseries are private profit making businesses after all.

All I am doing is trying to understand why a 2 x bank holiday invoice for May and a 2 x bank holiday invoice for April is a different total.

As I say I asked 10 "in real life" mums and none of us were the wiser.

Hence, I thought where else to ask for an unbias clear explanation, mum's helping out fellow mum's , and this was the only place I could think for help.

Agree with others, May has one more day in nursery than April that’s where the difference is.

Fab. Do you understand the pricing now?

But there is 1 more session in May (9) than April (8), so why would you expect to pay the same?

The way the software is set up is similar to our previous nursery, it works out over the year.

Yes, I know I am "luckier" than some.

I was given those 2 days in the absence of any others being available. I was also only given 2 days a week, so have taken a large paycut and set myself back career wise by 5 years as I had to Change jobs, I was refused lower hours by my previous job and rang 30 childminders and providers 1 year before needing the place and still no one had availability. So I am lucky that I don't pay for bank holidays, but due to the state of the childcare provision in the UK, I like many returning mum's have made other compromises (as I am sure you have to).

Yes, i finally get it and will tell others who are also confused. Mumsnet came to the rescue!

Depends how the month pans out I pay more in May than April because there were more week days this month invoices can be confusing I tend to count days on the calendar and calculate them by daily cost to work out what I’ll owe I believe funded hours are assigned to certain days/hours?

I didn't know this. Thanks for your explanation. If you have lived experience that it works out then that's good to hear. I am very simple and genuinely just thought in naivety a 2 x bank hol month was the same as the nedt 2 x bank hol month.

I have been corrected.

Thanks, I will screenshot the answers and also I probably should save terms and conditions somewhere as to be honest that's a good idea generally to have those easy to hand.

I will check periodically today, but I think that there's unlikely anyone else to respond otherwise.

Maybe this thread if it does nothing else, may help future mum's work out budgets and expectations around funding too. 😊

To be fair to you, it's very common in business for people to forget that working days makes a difference, you'd be amazed how often clients have checked in about why a bill is higher when it's for 21 days than for 19 days if the invoice doesn't highlight clearly.
And then there are rhe French teams, who think August is €0 for the budget because everyone is on holiday, totally forgetting the company has to pay annual leave.