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?!?😫

and there is little money and other priorities.

We find money for other things. I think it's dreadful that there isn't more support for families & investment in children.

@Looneytune253

In a nursery, children aged 0-2 the ratio is 1 adult to 3 children, children aged 2-3 the ratio is 1:4 and then 3years plus is 1:8 so it might work out for older children but if they are under 3 then the ratios are alot smaller :)

That's the point of the suggestion that the poster was making. In a nursery class with a qualified teacher, the ratio is 1-13.

I think we may use the same nursery 😂

Our fees went up 6% Jan 22 and are going up 9.5% Jan 23 which will take it to over £70 a day.

We have DT. Without 30hrs free, our bill would be around £1800 a month for 3 days a week. With 30hrs free, it’s £900. You can’t pull them out for school holidays either.

It’s more than I earn but we wanted them to go for social reasons, especially after lockdown. I know nursery expenses will have increased but everyone’s have…something’s got to give!

I think it's done by both - you have to be a certain grade to have the higher ratio in the 3 plus age group

When mine were little there was no funding for nurseries - we paid £80 a week - then the government introduced the 80% ‘help’ and all that did was increase the costs as they knew the government would pay a lot more - they didn’t even cap the cost!
Then they inspected the childminders and sent them on coarse for early years and added a load of paperwork - which increased their costs.

The government have made childcare unaffordable.

Teachers can have a higher ratio of children but the children are older-that wouldn’t help with under 3s.

Most school nursery sessions are either mornings or afternoons though and only really in areas of high socio/economic deprivation. My school, for example has no space to open a nursery-I’m sure we aren’t alone.

It's our biggest outgoing. We have a 1yr old and a 4yr old in 3 days a week as I only work 3 days. DH works FT and earns around £40k and we've calculated his net salary on the day where eldest doesn't get the full funded hours is basically the same cost as them being in nursery. So hes planning to drop to 4 days in the new year as it's absolutely not worth working that extra day and missing out on being with the kids. We pay around £1k a month and our nursery is far from being one of the most expensive locally. One of the biggest things putting us off having any more kids even though we'd probably like to is the cost of childcare.

Most school nursery sessions are either mornings or afternoons though and only really in areas of high socio/economic deprivation. My school, for example has no space to open a nursery-I’m sure we aren’t alone.

Not true for all areas - round here pretty much every school has a nursery. We are in the Midlands. Most school nurseries now offer 30 hours to those who qualify - there's not huge uptake of the 30 hours for working parents though as most have started their kids in nursery way before aged 3 and don't choose to move them.

School nursery is great for the kids imo but it's much less flexible than other settings - 9 til 3, no offer (even if you can pay) in school holidays, INSET days etc. My kids have all done 2.5 days which we've been able to facilitate, but it is start or end of week only, no choice of days.

Back to OP; yes childcare is extremely expensive and only going to get more so with minimum wage, food, energy costs all increasing.

I'm quite shocked by some of the prices here. Are you all in private nurseries/London?

The private nursery near me charges about £45 a day, while the preschool we use

Pressed post too early!

The preschool we use (only 9-3) is £24 a day. I really like and trust the staff, and DD loves them and seems to be learning a lot. Perhaps it's just cheaper because it's run by a charity? We're in the south west.

I do know the preschool is very concerned about the rising costs, but don't want to raise prices if they can avoid it. I honestly don't see how they can survive without doing though.

Agree with this.

We have 3 nurseries in our town...2 are in schools and the other is a stand alone council nursery....its 45£ for a full 0730 to 6pm day ....or you can do 9 to 3.15 for 33£ ....when children are 3 they get 9 to 3.15pm free ( if the entitled to 30 hours) then pay £4 an hour for any wraparound care.... now at school, my eldest GD sometimes goes to holiday club....this is 8 to 5pm for £15 ( subsidised by council) ....for all these parents need to provide lunch

With 30hrs free, it’s £900. You can’t pull them out for school holidays either.

I remember qualifying for the 30 hours & thinking yes finally it will be free but nope just a reduced bill.

I know all that, but you've missed out the bit I was making the point on. The ratio is increased to 1:13 when there's a teacher in the class which is also part of the eyfs ratios. I work in childcare and I'm familiar with this document inside out and upside down. You have to be

Not true. A qualified teacher can have a ratio of 1:13 for age 3. A level 2/3 practitioner can only have 1:5.

8 sorry not 5!

I do think it takes planning ahead. Childcare is expensive which some people take into account when deciding whether to have kids. We earn about £100k between us and have one child in nursery. We'd struggle to pay for another and I think we earn good money and we might not have another partly due to finances.

I’m the chair of our local preschool and we are very worried. We don’t think we will survive the next year once the minimum wage increases.

We are a charity and so do fundraising when we can, but we are in a small village and there is a limit to how many raffle tickets people will buy!

For quick reference, or projected income this year is £70k. Staff wages after the increase to MW will be £68k. Rent is £7k. Insurances and admin costs around £3k. Numbers don’t add up!

Hourly funding figure here is £4.60, it barely touches the sides!

its so high yet the actual childcare providers aren’t making hardly anything. I’m training to be a childminder now and I would estimate that I am going to have to spend about £1k on training, insurance, DBS etc etc before I even have the opportunity to be inspected by ofsted and given a yes or a no. The going rate for a childminder in my area is £6 per hour which is on the higher side but when you factor in insurance, heating, resources, snacks etc it’s so hard to make any money

So the children from richer families are in an educationally stimulating environment with better ratios from the get go, while children from poorer families stare at Peppa Pig from ranks of cots?

I think that's slightly unfair. Do the poor not deserve to have children? Your income is way higher than most so you have the luxury of making decisions like that. If your household income is 35k a year (for example) you might never have children if you plan like you do.

Yes I agree. Kids shouldn't be a luxury if the rich. How dystopian!

It was an answer to the PP who suggested they didn't want early years education just someone to supervise their kids.

I want early years education and am willing to pay for it even though I'm currently only just covering the cost with my wages.

I also agree with the PP who said 10 hours free from the start would be a lot more helpful to working parents than 30 hours free in the last year of nursery