How much is your nursery with the new 30 hours funding?

[sunshine2go]

My son is 1 years old and attend a nursery setting 4 days a week. Their daily rate is £92 a day if you have 0 funding.

He is entitled to 30 hours funding which we use over 4 days a week.

Now I understand that the funding is only available over 38 weeks of the year however this new funding only brings nursery down to £50 per a day. So we pay minimum £800 per a month for 4 days a week with 30 hours funding. And the nursery is closed 3 weeks of the year which we don’t pay for.
I am aware of the 20% tax free childcare account too, but it just feels incredibly expensive despite having so much help from the government.

we live in the south of England for context

so how much are you paying per a day in comparison? And does anyone know how much the nursery receives from the government for childcare?

Ours is £800+ a month too (same age and days). It’s better than before (c. £1,100) but still such a lot!!

And they wonder why are population is ageing.
My daughter is now in pre school but after all tax reduction hours etc was said and done it worked out at £60 per day for context I earn £96 a day after all deductions husband did cover a lot but it's still a big percentage no way I could afford another.

It's not overly helpful I suppose, but we use a childminder for 24 hours per week (stretched funded hours) over 3 days and it costs us £0 and it includes brekkie, lunch and snacks.

Surprised us too!

Mine is £2,200 because I’m not eligible to claim any of it.

Three years ago it was £1,850.

The daily rate works out at ~£104. That goes up if you do less than five days however.

We get the 15 hours and had to wait until she was 3.5 - if she’d been born a day earlier we would have had 5 months extra free hours but we had to wait til September. We pay ~£900 a month for 3 days of nursery per week. Was just talking to DH about getting a nanny instead as next year in reception I don’t want her in after school club! After school child care all just expensive and substandard!! At least our nursery is good quality 😄 extortionate still though.

They are discounting by £42 per day or £168 per week.

30 hours stretched over the year is 22 per week.

168 \ 22 = £7.63 hour discount which is probably about right?

Although their normal rate is obviously higher (£9.20 if open 8-6) there’s likely to be a supplement for meals, nappies etc added on as this isn’t covered by the funded hours.

Post the full breakdown if you’d like others to take a look.

And does anyone know how much the nursery receives from the government for childcare?

The funding has no monetary value to parents. You get 30 hours funding and thats it.

If it's spread across the year that means 22 hours a week or roughly half of your child's hours. The £50 a day cover the other half. Sounds right to me.

According to the Govt website, funding given to local authorities to provide childcare is as follows:

Under 2’s £10.85 per hour
2 year olds £7.95 per hour
3 and 4 year olds £5.62 per hour.

However, in my experience the local authority creams an amount off the top so the provider usually ends up with less than this!

My youngest is in nursery for sessions that total 35 hours a week, year round. With the 30 funded hours, our bill is still £736 a month on average, less in December but that’s due to the nursery closing for Christmas.

Both my girls do 4 days a week and get funded hours, 22 a week as it's stretched out. Total cost is around £1800 a month and we're in the Midlands. I think some parents are looking elsewhere as it is high for the area!

The amount differs between different areas. Many are on less than those amounts.

So we aren’t the only ones whose nursery fees are incredibly high despite the much more generous government funding.

i think there is an hourly rate awarded to the nursery setting. I have done some googling and it does seem like there is information on this which nods to the hourly rate being over £10 for under twos.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2025-to-2026/easy-explainer-early-years-funding-rates

It still doesn’t really make sense and feels like the transparency is lacking especially on the invoices. We have an agreement with the nursery setting for 1960 hours per a year and government funding is for 1140 hours. Which is more than half. Yet we pay for more than half the day. But from this thread it seems like it’s about right.

I am aware that childminders makes it free in most cases- which again doesnt make sense apart from the cost per hour would be a little more for nurseries but doesn’t seem to warrant the huge difference in funding/cost per a day but maybe their hours are less also.

thanks for the comments everyone

DN's nursery is £15 a day for a funded day with no lunch or £19 a day with lunch. From Jan you can only use 2 funded days if you also have one non-funded day per week which is £100 a day. If you want 3 funded days you have to have 2 paid days.

After Christmas he's going to a childminder who doesn't charge anything on top of funded hours as long as you send a packed lunch and nappies. She provides snacks and everything else.

@mydoglovescheeseit definitely calls for more transparency doesn’t it. There was a push for this in April but our invoices aren’t any different from before. Still not sure what the nursery recieves for our son!

And if money gets dropped of by local authorities then that is a much bigger issue and those should face consequences..

The problem is that the level of funding doesn’t cover the nursery’s costs, so in order to be financially viable there have to be additional costs levied.

In my area childminders are giving up in droves because they can’t afford to keep going. At my local school there is now only one childminder available.

@LillupsyThe rates I quoted are from the Govt website. There should be no difference between areas, but as I mentioned the LAs don’t pass on the full amounts, probably because of administrative costs!

We pay £538 for 3 days with the 30
hours funding. South London nursery. Big chain.

We've done all we can to maximise the funding. We've stretched the funding over 51 weeks of the year (22hrs/week) and he goes in 7 hours a day Tuesday - Thursday. Meals and sundries (not including nappies) are £7/session so we put £80/month in the tax free childcare account. Some months it's less than £100 and others it's over so it balances itself. Having said that, while on the face of it it's £80 per month, I've reduced my working hours by the equivilent of one day, and my mum has stopped working Fridays so she can care for my son one day a week. So in reality it's £80 plus 8ish days in loss of wages.

Mine does two 11 hour days (only ten hours a day are funded) stretched to 22 hours a week funded, and it’s £210 per month as it’s 11 hour days im forced to pay for the extra hour that I don’t even use. I pay top up fees for nappies, food and outings and extra visiting teachers . They said if I refused to pay top up fees my son would be excluded from the extra classes and I’d have to provide all care items even soap for him. So I’m just paying as it’s easier!

My 1 year old does 2 days a week so 20 hours. Has meals, we just provide nappies and wipes. Nursery don't charge us anything. Her sister (3) also does the same, her bill is £226 per month for the 2 full days. We also use the tax free scheme so that actually makes it £175 out of the bank. Very lucky with our nursery!

There is very much a difference between different areas. I live the wrong side of a border, 5 minutes up the road gets over a pound more per funded hour. LA’s can only cream a percentage off the top, not choose a random amount. The amount you’re looking at is generalised, you can also view the amounts for different areas online which highlight the differences.

edited to add the link so that you can see the varying rates. Each tab will show you the rates according to the ages

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67570e05d89258d2868daec3/Early_Years_Funding_Rates_and_Step-by-Step_Calculations_2025_to_2026_.xlsx

Also south east, we pay similar. I don't complain because it's still cheaper than without the funded hours, and the funding the nurseries get is far too low, it doesn't cover their costs. Nursery staff should get paid a lot more, it is such a responsible job.

We now pay £702 per month for 3 days a week. When my DD started in 2023, it was £1400 per month for the same number of days per week.
Ours charges £35 per day for food, hygiene products and enrichment experiences.

That’s illegal

How many hours a day do you have funded and what are you paying for the additional hours?
Are you charged for food and consumables on top?
Nurseries should be clearly marking which hours are free and which hours you pay for and what amount on your invoice.