Is this normal for funded childcare?

[LuckyMoonstone]

My son will get 30 hours free childcare in January, which I am spreading over the full year so will be 23 hours per week. He will do 2.5 days a week which is 25 hours. Nursery have sent me a mock invoice and it’s still going to cost me £200 per month for those two additional hours each week, surely that’s not right? Or am I missing something?
I feel bad questioning this with the nursery manager, accusing her of making a mistake, and if it is worked out right then I don’t want to sound ungrateful.

@fitforflight no I checked all that with them, DS is covered with the hours we have chosen

It probably is included in the rate you pay privately but it isn't included in the funded hours so nurseries are allowed to charge for food, drinks or anything extra like nappies, wipes, special activities etc .

@Alwaysanotherwine I imagine that years ago, the amount nurseries received from the government would fully cover the costs for each child. But with life being so much more expensive now, it just doesn’t cover it all any more.

It's completely fine to ask for a breakdown. Chances are it is correct, but it isn't accusing them of anything if you ask to see a breakdown.

@Notmetoo of course, that does make sense. I guess I was being a bit naive to think they could absorb all of the costs, but I didn’t know how the government funding worked until I did a bit of reading online.

I believe our nursery offer the funded hours between the hours of 8-3 so anything beyond that is charged as extra. So if dc goes a full day 8-6 they charge an hourly rate beyond 3 of £9 or something. They also charge for lunch, tea and other bits so it does add up. I look forward to when dc is school age!

Be prepared for costs to go up again in April. The massive increase in minimum wage again means that the funding covers even less, and the extension of funding to eligible 2 year olds will mean fewer children paying the higher rates that nurseries currently use to subsidise the funded hours. Nurseries I know of are predicting around a 30% shortfall.

No, ever since funded hours were introduced it has never fully covered costs or been as high as the rate the nursery would charge and has never covered food etc.
The gap is wider now but it had always been there which is why so many providers closed.

It's not rude to ask for a breakdown, it's a business!

That makes it £25 per hour for your additional hours, quite expensive but not completely ridiculous if it also includes food.

My son will get 30 hours free childcare

Sadly though the government like people to call them ‘free’ hours, they aren’t. They are partially funded hours.

It’s getting to the point round here where people are just lucky to have a nursery place at all-so many have closed as they can’t make ends meet with rising minimum wages and increased energy prices and rent.

There are so many people who think they will get free full time childcare for their preschooler next year, and all is likely to happen is that they won’t be able to find a place at all-let alone at a discount.

In no way are nurseries pulling a fast one, the funding rate doesn’t cover the actual hourly rate to provide care. In my local authority the funding pays £1.65 less than the usual hourly rate. That’s a huge amount to lose every single day considering they want to extend these supposedly free hours to all children. Settings need to make up this shortfall or they have to close, they simply cannot survive!

Mmm the problem is the govt wants to describe it as ‘30 free hours’

really it’s a subsidy of a set amount per child and how far that goes depends on the area (rent being a massive cost) and how swish the nursery is in terms of add ons and staffing.

I pay around £30 a day with 30 funded hour's stretched over the year. We do three full days.

could you ask her for a breakdown of the costs? I don't think that's unreasonable.

What is your £30 per day covering? As in do you use in excess of 30 hours a week or is that just "food, nappies etc

I get 7.45 funded hours a day 3 days a week - my hours are stretched all year so get less than 30 a week and pay £30.10 for meals and unfunded hours a day they are open 8am till 6pm.

Childcare providers get paid about £5 an hour for funded 3/4 year olds. How much would you usually pay per hour for childcare at your nursery?

I doubt it very much!
Considering our local authority pay nearly £2 per hour less than childminders charge- bearing in mind that nurseries charge more than childminders- then nurseries would lose thousands of pounds per month if parents didn't pay a top up.
God knows what will happen when all the new funding comes in next year!!
Parents these days should be extremely grateful that they get 30 funded hours- when my kids were small we got nothing except child benefit....no tax credits, childcare vouchers, funded hours, tax free childcare....nothing.

If it helps - I did ask for a breakdown from mine and they actually realised they made a mistake

I don't think it hurts to ask

Funded childcare only pays just over £5 per hour for 39 weeks of the year.

At our nursery we get 15 hours as we don’t qualify for the 30 hours. It meant our average daily rate reduced from £67 to £43.

We are also not eligible for tax free childcare so the result is only really a modest albeit welcome saving of £24 per day.