Top up fees for funded childcare - is this high?

[Blownaway23456]

I'm looking at preschools for my daughter, and have found one I like but they charge a daily top up fees of thirty pounds, on top of the government funded childcare for 3 year olds. That's for a school day session. Is this standard? It seems high to me. Any insight gratefully received.

How many hours? What does it incude? Where in the country?

How long is a piece of string really!

It's for a school day sesion, 9-3. But the government funding fully covers the hours, so the extras they say it covers are lunch and a weekly external class I think. This is in the south west.

I, perhaps naively thought the free funding would actually cover free childcare. Understand paying extra for meals but am surprised by this extra fee.

£30 a day? Yes that high for 9-3!!

That does sound high for school hours to be honest. We pay £45 a day top up but that’s a private nursery that provides breakfast, lunch, tea, 2 snacks, language lessons, suncream and is 8am-6pm.

Yes I agree ìt is high

Yes my local one is £15 and that's 8-6

Very high.

We just pay for food (and provide nappies/wipes/suncream etc ourselves), and that's a private nursery 8-6. And the food is optional, we could send in our own and pay nothing on the day she gets funded. I'm aware this is not common, but £30 seems ridiculous - and technically against the rules, top up fees have to be optional eg for food where you have the option to send in your own. Although I know a lot of nurseries break this rule because financially they can't make it work otherwise.

Ours is £35 at a private nursery and that’s 7.30-6.

Is it a private daycare, or a school based Nursery?

For comparison, my local school based nursery asks for £5 per day for 'resources'.

Ours is £21 per pay at a private nursery and that's 8am-6pm

9 to 3pm term time completely free at our nursery ….take a packed lunch…but nursery provide milk….£2 voluntary donation each week for fruit snacks each day..some pay…some don’t

Thanks all. It's a private nursery. Gutted as this was our second favourite - just been told we don't have a place at the one we had chosen, after waiting months and being told we should get a place. Need to keep looking I guess.

Is this term time only or full year? The government funding only covers 38 weeks a year.

What is the non funded hourly fees in my area funding is paid at around £5 an hour and nursery and is £9 so they need to make up £4 an hour to cover costs. Childminders are cheaper some charging nothing but food others £1

Our nursery charges a £28 per day top up fee for the funded days (and £84 for the non funded days).

Thats for 8am-6pm, 3 meals, 2 snacks

This is also private nursery in south west.

That’s really high. My child’s private nursery charges £6 on top of the funded hours. A non funded day is £61 for 7:30-18:00. Im in the north so likely to be cheaper but £31 on top of a fully funded day seems like a lot.

Where in the south west?

Unfortunately all parents have been misled for years into thinking it is free childcare when in fact the government should be calling it funded childcare. The rates that are paid by the government for 3 and 4 year olds is significantly lower than what it actually costs per hour for childcare settings. So lots of nurseries and childminders are charging extras so they are not working at a loss. Your nursery charge does sound high but nurseries also have a lot of overheads that the government funding does not cover. The alternative is that settings cannot afford to run and will close meaning there are even less settings. There is already a massive shortage of childcare settings in many areas.

Wow, we pay £3 per day for lunch and the nursery ask for £1 voluntary contribution and donations of fruit & tissues. We are quite central London

The government scheme isn’t free childcare but subsidised. Childcare providers charge extras as the government contribution doesn’t cover the costs to provide a place.

I’m quite surprised that a private nursery offers a 9-3 day (rather than 8-5 or 8-6)

A lot of private nurseries only offer funded hours 9-3 then charge a premium for hours outside of that as another way of recouping the loss of funded hours.

Does the nursery offer any private hours (e.g. for under 2s or under 3s currently)? You are effectively paying £5 per hour top up - I think govt funding is often about £5 per hour (varies by location), so if their usual private charge is £9-£10 per hour including food and this external class, I can see why they need this kind of top up.

Yes, I agree - but then those nurseries would usually request a full day booking i.e. 8-6 rather than allowing a 9-3 booking.