Nursery charges

[Sarah1standlastbaby]

Hi guys
we currently pay £3.15 per day at nursery for “consumables” which covered nappies, wipes, sun cream originally.
My daughter has recently been potty trained and it’s December so no sun cream!
Does anyone know should these charges now stop or what else they could cover to warrant nearly £50 per month?
Appreciate any advice x

The charges are there, because the amount of money the Nursery receives from the Government for what you will know as "free hours" does not cover the cost of a Nursery place.

£3.50 sounds very low, if I'm honest.

All sorts of things are 'consumables' in a Nursery setting.

Crayons, pencils, paint, glue, pasta, paper, all other craft stuff, soap, paper towels, cleaning products, Christmas decorations, all the 'wear and tear' on toys and materials. etc etc.

I think you’re getting confused what I mean
So £74 per day nursery plus £10 snacks
So already £84 per day
I’m just asking what “consumables” covers. Initially I was told nappies, wipes, cream and sun cream. We don’t need those any more

This.

Aren’t you getting 30 funded hours? Usually consumables is for that. Not for private hours.

She doesn't use toilet paper or soap? And you expect your bill to differ in the months where they apply suncream? Should they measure how many squirts they do for each child and add that to a daily bill?

The £84 per day should already cover consumables imo.

No the £3.15 is additional as that’s not covered in the free hours - same as the food £10 per day x

So if someone looked after your child for the day, they’d charge on top of the £84 a day for toilet roll and soap?….

Consumable charge is there to cover the extras not the basics- so not things to adhere to the EYFS like pens and paper or things you need to run a nursery like toilet paper etc. It is there for the extras like making mothers day cards, baking, music lessons, Christmas party, santa visit, online reporting system, snacks etc

It won't be a consumables charge for your child per se, it will be the cost of all the consumables that the nursery uses in a day. So the cost of ALL the nappies, wipes, creams, bin liners, paper, paint, glue, tape, plasters, fabric, everything they can't reuse, that they use divided by the number of kids that attend.

It's because all the hours that they offer for eligible 2,3 and 4 year olds, which are free to parents, the nursery claims back from the Government, but they can't say to the government "If we add up all the free hours that all our children get, we get A number of hours. We charge B amount per child per hour so you need to pay us C which is AxB." They simply claim for A number of hours. The reality is that what they get per hour is probably way less than what they charge to parents per hour. They aren't allowed to charge a top up fee for the free hours per child to individual parents.

The reality is they

• chose not to give any children whose parents want free hours places which probably means they don't get enough custom and close
• don't top up the funding which probably means they get too little money to run and close.
• charge everyone a "consumables" fee however many consumables the individual child uses, which gives them enough extra money not to close down.

Are you paying 3 quid odd or £84?

Nurseries aren’t allowed to charge for ‘consumables’ anymore without them being an optional/voluntary charge. So you can fight this if you wish.

Well she can, but re-read @stichguru 's post first.

Ours is £5 a day!

From January nurseries have to itemise invoices so you are clear exactly what you are paying for. You can opt out of consumables by providing your own, and they cannot include things like paper, pens and paint, they come from your fees or funding. They can charge for food, and if there is a charge for extras like forest school or music classes you can opt out of these too. The only thing you have to pay for is hours over your funded hours. However, as many have said, funding rates make it so hard for nurseries to stay in business.

any extra activities going on? Teachers coming in? We pay 3.15 an hour extra as we have like drama, French, storytellers, yoga etc

we do loads of outings

we pay for food

consumables is for everything - think about what your child is using all day??

we we’re told we can opt out and just have free hours - but it’s a very diff nursery experience and my child would
then be excluded which I don’t want obviously