How much does your nursery charge for funded hours 'top up'

[ceeb21]

Just that really, interested to see how much others are charged for the top up charge when claiming 30hrs free!

£18.20

£30 a day for ours

£7 a day but this is for food, and if you send in your own food you don't have to pay anything extra.

I'm aware the funding is way too low, but I'm surprised so many places get away with explicitly charging a top up that isn't allowed. I suppose local authorities have neither the time nor resources to check and enforce the rules (and I guess they also have no desire to see local nurseries close if they can't afford to stay open).

At DD nursery I used to just pay for any additional hours above the funding plus £1 a week for snacks.

Wow, can't believe some of these charges! Some of them are more than I was paying for a non funded full day place in a tots (age 1-2) room in 2021 which was £47!
I use exactly 30 hours at a local private nursery term time only and pay nothing extra at all. There was an 'optional' top up which was £5 a day and they made it clear that you could opt out, which I did.

Does that include food, though? And is that just 9-3?

That can't be for a 30 hours funded place though surely?

@Lilacsbloominspring is that for me? If so then it's my 30 hours used over 4 days. All food included but that might be because they don't allow packed lunches.

£51 a day.

The nursery only offers full day care and the cost is pretty much the same at all of the full nurseries round here.

Ignoring the eye watering cost and looking at the principle, I have no issue with paying something extra, call it a top up or additional charge or whatever. The government funds five hours per day. DC is there for 9.5 plus has meals, snacks, nappies, suncream and so on. Of course there's going to be an additional charge.

If parents only need/want 30 hours there are other term time only nurseries where it's possible to go and not pay any additional fees.

£26 a day for a funded hour day.

Where do you live?

The only way for us to get 30 free hours with no top ups in London is to use a nursery attached to a primary school. However they decide what sessions your child can attend during term time.

My childminder will actually pick up a child she has minded for at least a year from local nurseries.

Anyway with nursery we have 22 hours stretched over the year. The nursery we use is charity run and our bill is £300 a month for 3 days. What you pay depends on earnings so some parents pay nothing, while others pay a bit more. They don't take children under 2. We also pay childminder for other days. It's worth it because the childminder is flexible, can do slightly longer hours, does different things and the children vary more in age.

£1.50 an hour for consumables plus lunch which is about £3.

They were one of the last nurseries I the area to hold out on top up fees and were clear that it was this or closure.

@Reugny Cheshire

Same for us - the only place around here you can get genuinely free is a preschool that is open 9-1 Monday, not at all Tuesday, 9-2 Wed and Thurs and 9-11 Friday, term-time only - ie, this is actually only an option if you don't need childcare, just preschool education (which is great if you're in that position; I'm not). Private nurseries all charge around the same level of fees. At the nursery we use it's about £28 a day top-up so it knocks a lot off the bill (a non-funded day is £73) but it certainly isn't free.

We’re in Derbyshire and the only places that are ‘free’ are the ones as described above by @TrippinEdBalls .

My DS won’t access the 30 hours until January but is interesting to see what it will ‘really’ come to.

Nurseries will lose their funding if the council find out they are charging "top-ups". It's against their contract.

Free, funded hours means just that - free. They can charge for snack or lunch unless you are in Scotland as our children are entitled to free school meals but that is as much as they can charge without being fined and having their contract with the council terminated.

It clearly isn't in England as the private and charity run nurseries around me are still open.

Also they don't call it "top-up" - we are paying for meals and other hours that aren't free.

Pretty sure they all do it legitimately and can show the breakdowns of what they're charging for.

It's just known colloquially as the 'top up' amongst parents. You can argue the toss over whether it is or isn't, but it's part of the bill! You

£50 a day… only get 15 hours because I’m a student so don’t ‘work’ 🤨

2 days a week costs just over £400 a month 😱

preschool for a 4 year old… counting down until school starts!

£3 for breakfast which she doesn't have
£4 lunch
£2 charge for funded hours (no idea what this is as we don't use all our funded hours)
£12 enrichment
£3 snack which she doesn't have

So £24 a day. Full price is £55 a day for my younger child as full days are discounted.

It's a shame we can't provide food ourselves as I do begrudge having to pay for meals that she doesn't have. Both my kids love nursery but we can only afford 2 days a week.

I'll probably have to use them for wrap around care when my kids are at school too but they do only seem to sit in the entrance porch and watch tablets.

Local authorities should:
A1.25 Ensure that providers are aware that they can charge for meals and snacks as part of a free entitlement place and that they can also charge for consumables such as nappies or sun cream, and for services such as trips and specialist tuition. Parents can therefore be expected to pay for these, although these charges must be voluntary for the parent. Where parents are unable or unwilling to pay for meals and consumables, providers who choose to offer the free entitlements are responsible for setting their own policy on how to respond, with options including allowing parents to supply their own meals or nappies, or waiving or reducing the cost of meals and snacks. Local authorities should ensure that providers are mindful of the impact of additional charges on the most disadvantaged parents.

A1.30 Work with providers and parents to ensure that all parents, including disadvantaged families, have fair access to a free place, which must be delivered completely free of charge.

Parental acceptance of these charging “workarounds” by providers is only serving to hide the real impact of the govt’s underfunding. It’s really difficult for parents. If lots of them collectively challenged these extras via their LAs, then long term there might be more pressure brought on Govt to adequately fund the scheme. But it risks providers pulling out of the scheme or closing altogether in the meantime. I’m sure the govt is totally aware it’s got parents in an impossible bind and is choosing to do nothing about it.

It is a condition of funding that you do not force any charge and that funded hours are not conditional on taking extra hours. They can however make it difficult by setting funding sessions like 9 to 12 then 12.30 to 3.30 so you either pay half an hour or take your child out for half an hour.
Our school takes funding the sessions run 9 to 3 school opens at 8.30 so if you don't want to wait at the gate after dropping older children you have to pay £70....state academy school....the school gates are locked at 8.45 and a staff member returns at 9 to unlock it.

Ours has just gone up to £12.25 to cover food and other consumables etc. All clearly set out.