Compulsory Top-Up Fees at Nurseries are not legal!

[Undercovermumma]

Hi mums,

My daughter's nursery charges compulsory top-up fees for food, activities, consumables and so on, in a single lump sum, so I do not know where my money is really going. What is worse, though, is that these fees should, by law, be voluntary, with nurseries providing alternatives if we are unwilling to pay! I know nurseries are severely underfunded, but the Government should be making up the deficit, not us!

Have any of you experienced a similar problem? I am looking to get information on a range of nurseries and what add-ons they are charging, so i can take this up higher. If you want to be involved, and take the 3-5yr old Universal or Extended Funding, please give me the name of the Nursery/Group, location, and what add-ons you are being charged (price and information). I would be so grateful.

Thank you all!

Consumables includes paint, glue, paper, cleaning stuff, wipes, tissues, messy play items, sand, the list is very long.

I’m a childminder and the funding rate paid to me is £2.50 less than my usual hourly rate (and I’m one of the cheaper minders in the area). I’m limited on how many children I can care for. If parents don’t pay a voluntary contribution to essentially top up the fees then I would either have to close or not offer finding, the latter would push me out of the profession as who wants to pay when there are magical ‘free’ hours out there.

Nurseries, preschools and childminders are closing their doors in droves. We are being made to fund the children we care for. What’s annoying is, we pay taxes which means we are already subsiding childcare through paying them. It’s a never ending battle. To even offer funding there is extra work on top of what we already do. We are made to feel like criminals even for having the audacity of asking parents to pay towards the shortfall. There will always be people who say ‘why should I pay when it should be free’ or ‘It’s not my problem the funding doesn’t cover the true costs’, fair enough but why should a setting pay for your child?

My child is funded 30 hrs a week but only attends 2 days of the week. When she was funded 15 hrs I had to pay an additional amount for extended hrs. This was £186. There were no additional charges on the invoice. The nurserys price list, list nappies, wipes and meals as included in the prices (she was fully potty trained ) so no nappies required. I love the nursery because they take the kids to exercise for an hour a day. However since she started getting 30 hours and still doing two days, there is now an additional charge for food and gym activities of £170.

If you're not using 30 hours the nursery should only be claiming what you use.....I presume you go all year so stretched that's about 22 hours. Is that £170 a month? Ask for a breakdown

Think yourself lucky you get the 30 hours.....I had to pay in full for both of my children's child care! No funding, tax credits weren't around then either!

And often they didn't start school full time until after turning 5, nursery was 4.

It is not illegal to charge for food, nappies, extra activities etc. It is however ilegal to make parents pay for extras as a condition of the place. They have to allow parents to provide their own packed lunch, snacks etc if they prefer and to opt out of extra activities.

However since she started getting 30 hours and still doing two days, there is now an additional charge for food and gym activities of £170.
That is because the amount the government gives to nurseries doesn't cover extras. So if you want them you have to pay extra for them. If you don't want them you have to be allowed to take your own food and opt out of gym. But you can't take the food and have the gym activities if you don't pay for them.

Lots of people have mentioned the costs involved in running a nursery like utilities etc but there are so many other hidden ones: mandatory training - pay for your staff member to attend, pay them their hours and pay someone to replace them in setting because you have to stick to ratios. Then there's the time taken supporting children with SEND. Nurseries often do a lot of the legwork for EHCPs but rarely get the funding through before the child leaves for school. Our LA said that we should staff settings to be able to support any children wants to attend, even if they need 1:1 and it isn't funded. Then there's the time spent on other issues. If you have children with social services involvement or safeguarding issues there is meeting after meeting to attend and paperwork to complete, not to mention trying to support the families.
Then you've got Ofsted breathing down your neck and you have to try and interpret DfE guidance that's really written for schools - write a curriculum, follow the 3Is....
And none of this is funded beyond the measly hourly rate from the government!