Nursery fees ffs

[Summer61]

How the bloody hell does anyone afford to put their child in nursery full time?
Our nursery fees have gone up today by £120 a month. We are paying just under £1000 a month for 2 and 3/4 days!!!!!
I appreciate that nursery staff are not highly paid and are underfunded so have little choice but to increase fees but I am so furious that government do not seem to be recognising that this is surely unsustainable? How has childcare become so unaffordable?!?😫

Because they use all the components that are really expensive! Food, energy, rents, rates and the latest one is minimum wage will be (rightly so) rising by quite a bit.

All at the same time our funsing rate in my Borough has stayed the same as last year.

It's not tenable.

It’s crazily expensive but I can’t think of an alternative other than massive public spending to subsidise…and there is little money and other priorities.

How much do you pay a day? I think it is hard but that's why people should look ahead a bit more when planning a family. It's bloody hard work I have twins and was working for next to nothing for a year or two until we changed to a local childminder for school reasons which ended up cheaper. Not sure what the answer is though.

So you’ll pay three days, which works out to about a tenner an hour for an eight hour day, it’s not much really is it.

Is that with the tax free childcare?

Better budgeting on behalf of the government, they are happy to give us an energy grant but won't fund proper childcare for working parents 🤔

Make a packed lunch normal to reduce cost to parents.

A reduction in the obsession with it being early years education, new flash I just want someone to supervise him playing with other kids 8 hours a day he isn't going to be getting 8 hours of education at home.

All schools to have a school nursery (cheaper to run as teachers have higher ratios).

Student loan style system where the cost of child care for the first child can be spread over a number of years deducted at source (50:50 split between parents pay)

I was, until recently, paying more than £3k a month for my boys (funding has kicked in for the eldest now, so we save a few hundred a month). It is crazy... it is awful... but we did know this when we chose to have kids.

Student loan style system where the cost of child care for the first child can be spread over a number of years deducted at source (50:50 split between parents pay)

Now that would be amazing! I would love that.

I want it to be an early years education. Maybe they could let services run a cheaper option that doesn't have to meet the educational requirements though. Good shout.

Ours has gone up 6% but their energy bill has gone up threefold. The staff won’t see a penny extra.

To be fair @chikp that isn't with tax free childcare so that's a small saving I haven't taken into account.
I know its not much per hour hence my frustration is not with the nursery. I don't know what the solution is but surely this current childcare model is unsustainable?
Fair play to you @getoutof, twins would have broken us! It's £82 a day and £74 for the shorter day.

Jeremy Hunt wants to understand why we have so many "unproductive" people of working age... well, he could start by looking at the cost of childcare. It's just not viable for most people which is why so many women work part time or stop working entirely.

I was paying £1500 a month 13 years ago. It's always been expensive.

Saves me loads I only need 3 days though

'All schools to have a school nursery (cheaper to run as teachers have higher ratios).'

Ratios are done by the children's ages not the qualification of the staff

It would be more beneficial for working parents if they have 10 hours funded each 3 years instead of 30 hours funded hours when the child turns three.

I have so much sympathy. I remember the day we paid our last childcare payment. My H and I opened a bottle of fizz. It's such a large cost, but then I want my child looked after well by people k trust!

We pay roughly £750 for 3 days a week for a childminder, in north Surrey - could a childminder be an option? Though there is greater risk if they need to close. It’s so much money still though.

@Grumpybutfunny

Student loan style system where the cost of child care for the first child can be spread over a number of years deducted at source (50:50 split between parents pay)

This is a terrible suggestion. Almost people don’t pay student loans back for a start, what would be the benefit of another system where the money isn’t paid back? My husbands monthly pay is also 3x mine, why should it be split 50/50?

There’s plenty of evidence that actually just funding childcare for people outright makes back way more money in taxes than it costs. Just look at what’s happening in Canada. We’d see the same here, all the mums priced out of working currently but wanting to work would start paying taxes, would fund the childcare and help fill the massive employment gaps we have at the moment.

How are all schools to magic up space for a nursery if they don't already have one? We don't even have a school hall, let alone space for a nursery!

Pregnant then screwed website and Instagram are campaigning for more affordable childcare and explain why the 'you should have thought of that before you had kids' argument isn't helpful. So many women are kept out of work because they can't afford childcare. It would hugely benefit the economy to fund it in some way which is why so many countries do so. Lots of evidence to support this.
No, £10 an hour isn't lot for someone to care for your child, but when you only earn £11 an hour it just isn't a viable option for many.

We simply saved masses knowing how much it would cost, but turned out with DD1 my job had dissolved - my original post was given to someone else and the post I was supposed to transfer to (nearer home) was not given to me. This was before all the laws about job in maternity leave being protected, and yes my company was run by men.
SO my savings paid for me to be at home instead of paying for nursery. In those days of course there was no government help for nursery fees so no idea how people who haven't planned and saved for a family can afford it.

Yes, our nursery has just gone up £200 per month (before tax free childcare) and they've scrapped the sibling discount. DC2 does get 30 free hours so that helps, but it's still £700 per month full time using tax free childcare.

Unfortunately wrap around care locally is also really expensive and childminders are like rocking horse poo, so it won't get much cheaper when she goes in to reception.

Yep ours has gone up by £13.50 a day and DD only does 3 school day hours a week, roughly an extra £170 a month.

Yep we pay £95 a day and that doesn’t include lunch!

What you're saying isn't technically true. Qualified teachers can have more children than non teachers so there's some truth in the fact that nursery schools can work out cheaper. Think it's 1:13 when you're qualified teacher and 1:8 when you're not