The REAL cost of nursery after Sep 2025

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I’m very newly pregnant, and trying to work out the likely real cost of nursery for when maternity leave has ended (around May 2026) so that I can plan ahead a bit more.

I’m in a market town in the south east, not particularly close to London if that’s relevant.

I know that after September this year, there will be 30 hours funded per week. But I also know this needs to be subsidised, and can’t seem to find specific info online about what the shortfall is likely to be.

I don’t have any friends, family or colleagues who I would be able to ask about this, so I’m very grateful for any answers 😃

We've registered for a nursery from September 2025, they gave us an indication of what the costs would be inclusive of the funded hours but they were very clear they couldn't be certain. It's 30 hours funded a week for term time weeks only, so about 22.5 hours a week for the full calendar year. can't remember exactly but I think 3 x 10 hour days would be £1,000/month without funded hours, and £450/month with the funded hours.

Thank you @Peonies12 this is exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t realise it was term time only (or rather I had forgotten!). Those figures look slightly less than I’d guessed which is a pleasant surprise. It’s interesting that the nurseries themselves aren’t necessarily sure yet, but I suppose it’s a while off still.

Thanks once again for replying, it’s much appreciated.

It is likely that you will get the equivalent of 3 full days (8-6) for 38 weeks of the year. You will likely need to pay a 'sur charge' and also for meals.

My nursery put their fees up by £9.50 this year for both full and half day so my 15 hours funding equates to 38 days a year. Better than nothing...

Ours charge £12 per day for snacks and other bits to claw back some of the costs (gov only gives £4 something an hour in funding!) and term time stretched. I pay £1136 for 5 days a week after funding.

As a guide we are currently getting the 15 hours funding and for two days pw, 8am - 530pm, we are paying £43pw.

@MalbecandToast £4 isn’t a lot is it. Thanks for an idea about the “top up” fee

You’re going to struggle to find this info online as each setting will charge differently and fund their funded hours in different ways. It also depends what the rate your local authority is paying. Some nurseries will pro rata the hours for you over the year, some will stick to term time. As a rough indication though, with the 15 funded hours and 3 days our nursery bill is about £600 a month. The 30 funded hours will probably make it about £500 a month. It would be more in school holidays though (about £250 a week for 3 days).

As comparison, my daughter did 30 hours term time, we paid the consumables charge and lunches etc of around £300 after tax free childcare, and the full rate (I think around £9.50 an hour) for any holidays or non funded days that she attended.
Small market town, Hampshire (around an hour to Waterloo on the train)

Agree with others - it just isn’t known yet. In the past, there has been an element of cross subsidy from children too young for funded hours paying full price every hour - that will be disappearing. And nurseries don’t know what the reimbursement rates will be 12-24 months from now (they go up a bit but not much each year)

Most importantly- nurseries disguise the charge in different ways as they are not supposed to charge a top up, so they charge lunches or consumables or only allow certain sessions in a day to be free hour sessions etc. So it’s opaque!

@SheilaFentiman Thank you, this makes me feel better for not being able to work it out. I didn’t know the top up is technically not supposed to happen, that’s intriguing.

Every nursery will charge differently so it is impossible to say. As a childminder I would give you 24 hours a week year round without any additional charges for under 3s. Additional hours at £6.
Most nurseries near me have top up fees plus additional hours are more like £9.

Thank you for all these great replies.

Unfortunately, settings won’t know their rates and f pay for the funding until closer to the time. The amount government pays does change over time. Sometimes not for the better either as some local authorities have lowered payment in the past.

settings are just getting their heads around the 9 month 15 hour roll out. Some local authorities give settings information extremely last minute leaving settings scrabbling about trying to get funding organised. At the moment, no one is really sure how it’s going to work nor if there will even be enough spaces for the 30 hours.

Unfortunately, settings have to introduce some costs to cover the shortfall, particularly when you get to the 3/4 year old age group. Many settings have already closed due to this and the future isn’t looking too rosy for many others. They have to be imaginative to how they make up the shortfall because of rules imposed on them. It would have been far, far easier for government to give a voucher totalling to a certain amount for childcare with the understanding that anything over that amount must be paid for.