Nursery costs soaring

[tonton]

Just read this article on the Beeb website about how much nursery costs are going up. My childcare costs are quite under control at the moment as dd is at a great (state) school and looked after by an au pair afterwards (very affordable). But with another on the way, I'll soon be having to pay the £900-1000ish a month I for our local (wonderful) day nursery.
soaring nursery costs

I found it quite surprising that childminders now cost on average more than nurseries.

I wonder how much tax credits is fuelling childcare costs? As tax credits enable more parents to afford childcare and therefore work, will the inevitable result of that be to fuel childcare costs? (In much the same way MIRAS simply fuelled housing costs.)

£1000 per month? [shocked]

I was a bit surprised by that too Caligula. I wonder whether CMs on here would agree with that?
Tax credits has definitely made my daughter's nursery affordable for me, so they probably are contributing to higher childcare charges - but if childcarers get paid more, then I think that is a good thing, as it is a notoriously bad paying sector.

In the 4.5 years I have been using my nursery (first for DS, now for DD) the costs per day have risen from £21 to £31. DS's CM charges slightly less than that. Other provisions - holiday/sickenss etc are on a par. Still only another 18 months and then the nursery grant will kick in....and so will end my most expensive 2.5 years of childcare. Because I only work 3 days a week I haven't found any savings from DS going to school compared with when he was at nursery on the nursery grant.

Kittysih - I live in London and although those costs (900-100 quid) sound high, I've got friends in other parts of London whose nursery costs are even higher - £1200ish!

Think I should count myself lucky. Dd's nursery is about £130 a week - but I don't get tax credits and work doesn't do the vouchers so we have to pay for the lot. At least it isn't £1000 a month -

Probably a controversial view but sometimes it alarms me how little people get paid working in nurseries. You can't expect good people to stay in a profession that is so lowly paid and yet so important. Question is where is the money going...profiteers? If it's towards paying staff more and better food/facilities then I'm all for it.

my sil's childminder put her costs up when she started accepting childcare vouchers, so not much of a savings for sil

I agree with robin3, pay peanuts, get monkeys. our fees when our 2 daughters were both at nursery 3 days a week were £900-ish pcm.

But bundle you are in London aren't you? We were paying £750 a month in Yorkshire for two with discount for nursery grant during term time. It's gone up since then though, so would be nearer £800.

I am in the southeast and have yet to meet another childminder who earns £500 per week per child. I think what it should mean is £500 per week for 3 under 5s full time (8 - 6pm) the hourly rate is only around the £3.50 mark then. which is what most of us charge. not all minders can have (or want) 3 under 5s. Some have under 5s of there own and these are taken into account where numbers are concerned. OFSTED only allow 3 under 5s in any one setting. So if a minder is only looking after 1 child from 8 - 6 (i add that many start at 7am and finish much later than 6) she would be earning way below the min wage. The news is only quoting on a couple who i believe are in the minority. Nurserys pay there staff awful wages so the owners are doing very well indeed plus when they go home at night, there home hasn't been used by various other children and very often can take another hour (without pay) to clean it up. Thats on top of getting ready for the next day. If only we did all earn £500 a week. We (most) certainly deserve it. But parents earnings would have to also increase. I must add after all this....that it is the most rewarding and fulfilling job I have ever done.

I am a childminder in devon, and the only way i could earn £500 per week is if i had 4 kids under 8 five days a week all day. I charge £3.50 per hour and as i have 4 children at home still of my own, i can only have 2 under 8. I dont know any families with 4 under 5's ( over 5 would be at school mostly)who would use a childminder full time even if they could find a minder who was allowed that number of under 5's. I would suspect mum would be too knackered to consider going out to work with that many little ones. Where did they get that figure from? Sorry, bit confusing, hope it makes sense.

I pay nearly £900 per month for my twin sons who will be nearly 2 years old. They attend nursery 3 days week. Fortunately, both my and my DHs'employers now participate in the voucher scheme so we are now saving about £160 of that cost.

On one hand I think the nursery fee is high but on the other hand I think why should I expect the nursery nurses to earn a low wage to look after my children? They are the most precious things in my life so I want the best people to look after them. In my opinion,I feel that in this society we think nothing about splashing out on expensive clothes, holidays, cars etc but when it comes to paying people a decent and livable wage to care for our children, we complain!Surely, that is not right?

I pay 1000 and month for my DS2 (18 months), 800 a month for my DS1 (4.5 yrs) and I pay for after-school for my DD. It's insane. I want my children's teachers to be paid more too. Much more. However, I want to government to pick up much more of the costs. I think it's unfair that so many children miss out on really good quality childcare.

I pay about £450 per month for dd to attend nursery full-time. In Scotland, not including midday meal (packed lunch), but including snacks. The babies get nappies/ wipes etc included.

A nursery has opened near here which does have a "chef" to cook meals, and isn't charging much more than that- TBH, I don't know how the new nursery will be able to cover its costs.

Totally agree about the government to do more. The only help we get is child benefit and now, thankfully, the childcare vouchers. My DH and I pay a lot of tax, which we do not begrudge. However, we would like to see more of it help families like us during the pre-school years. The government are concerned about the falling birth rate plus they want more mothers to go back to work. Consequently, they should endeavour to provide more assistance. If they can find billions to fund a war, they can find a few million to help subsidise nursery care. These children are the future tax payers of tomorrow.

That's a lot Fairymum. I assume it's full time.

Actually what annoys me is this tax-free voucher scheme. DH's company won't do it. So we're missing out on the savings we should get for that. If we both had £50 a week tax free that would come close to covering both children. DS is £31.50 a week in term time and DD is round about £90 a week. I think the Govt should make it compulsory to make it available to parents.

Tissy - maybe they don't provide nappies and wipes? That would be a significant saving in the under two's. DD's nursery doesn't provide them but does provide 3 meals a day.

In Epsom (not exactly upscale inner London) I know a childmender who costs about £5/hour for one, and £8 for the second child. Factor in usual travel time to your full time job, and that's about a 10 hour day for 5 days. And that comes to £400 a week -- and that's if you only have 2 kids. God forbid twins should arrive.

When I lived in Epsom I did find that there were cheaper childminders, but there were also more expensive ones.

I now live in Sunbury and have two kids. If I were to send them to local nursery full time, the bill would be roughly £1850 per month. I am most certainly not in an expensive neighborhood of central London. I think this article has actually underquoted my childcare costs. It is cheaper for me to hire a live-in nanny.

I think the outrageous cost of living (especially housing) needs to be addressed in these debates.

what annoys me is there is no tax advantage to me staying at home looking after my child, according to the government I should ideally be back in work

"The government" doesn't generate money of it's own. The money it pays out comes from taxpayers. I worked after my first child was born, and paid high fees for an excellent nursery. After my second child was born, two sets of fees would have wiped out my salary. I would be in the same position whether I worked or didn't. As blondeinlondon says, there is no tax advantage to me in looking after my children, so why should I be subsidised to put my children in a nursery?

The government is not likely to subsidise people staying home because there is nothing in it for them. But, if they subsidise your childcare so that you can go to work and pay them tax, then there is something in it for Gordon Brown's budget (assuming the tax you and your company pay is more than the childcare subsidy).

The fact is it is in the government's interst to keep people at work. They are cutting off their nose to spite their face by encouraging women (or men) to give up their jobs. Mixed signals, if you ask me.

"The government is not likely to subsidise people staying home because there is nothing in it for them."

So true, but so short sighted. IMO raising the next generation is extremely important. Bloody politicians.

Well, if the houseprices went down like Uwila has mentioned, people would have more of a choice.
Personally I don't think it makes economic sense to pay women for not working. I rather they put the money towards childcare and family friendly policies like increased maternity and paternity leave while the children are very little. There are already too many people who don't work in this country. I know this is an unpopular view on MN.