EXPENSIVE

[user1465146157]

I know there's nothing to be done about this - i just wanted to see other people's thoughts on the expense of nursery.

Why is it so expensive?!

The cost is nearing the cost of my mortgage per month which is crazy. I knew it would be a lot but now I am actually going to use one its sinking in....

Wondered if anyone else thinks it's ridiculous?

Its expensive because its not subsidised through taxes.

Our nursery bill is more than the mortgage. I try not to think about it really.

It's expensive because you are paying for those people who are caring for your beloved child to earn a living (sometimes not even that much) wage.

Paid more for childcare than my household bills - incl rent - per month until very recently. And I got my 15 hours free 😱 I guess they have to cover their costs too. Altho when I broke down what I was paying by the hour it was more digestible...just the end bill every month killed me

Are you using your full allowance of childcare vouchers etc.? If both parents do it can save about £1200 in a year. DDs nursery was eye wateringly expensive until she turned two, then the free hours kick in at three... it’s the first bit that’s crazy money - but then I don’t have a problem paying for high quality childcare, particularly for under-twos. It should be expensive.

How much do you think it should cost? How much would you expect to be paid to look after other people’s children?

I pay a lot. Im proud to. The nursery nurses at my dds nursery all earn the living wage. Thats very important to me. I earn less than average salary, but to me there isnt a more important thing to spend on xxx

Nursery staff get paid peanuts so it's not that. I think it's just insurance and the fact that after your vouchers have been used up you have to pay the tax and ni of the staff as well as your wages out of your net income. The other issue is that often you are paying for say 8 to 6 30 care when you only need 9 to 5

I pay more than my mortgage. Dd goes 4 days. It is what it is! Calculate what you pay and divide it by the amount of hours your child is there your lucky if it's min wage
The nursery do a brilliant job those ladies work so hard and are so dedicated. It allows me to go back to my career and not worry through the day. That's worth the cost imo!

It cost more than our mortgage with two Dc doing just 3 days a week. It is very expensive but it is only for a few short years

Costs the same as some private schools 😊

I'm a nursery manager and here is where your money goes
Rent
Building insurance
Utilities
Building maintenance and repairs, including servicing of fire equipment and pat testing
Resources including furniture and replacing worn and broken toys
Art supplies, paper, paint etc
Public liability insurance
Ofsted registration
Local authority charges
Telephone, internet,
Subscriptions to professional bodies
Text service
Email hosting
Website design and maintenance
Office supplies paper ink etc
Catering supp!ies including food and crockery
Cleaning materials
Waste removal
Appliances eg washing machine, dishwasher including maintenance
Extra curricular activities and trips out

And that's before you pay any staff, including support staff to collect and process fees and provide training, uniforms, pensions, recruitment,
Its not a sector that you can cut corners in, its a very heavily regulated industry and it does cost money to be legally compliant

insancerre ....
I would add that funding being less than the normal rate charged to others also means that the hourly rate has to subsidise the funded hours. If we were paid a direct subsidy s costs were lower for all hourly charges would be lower for all.

People also seem to forget that if you live somewhere that has really high housing costs you will also be in an area with really high business premises costs and business tax.

Have you looked into the cost of using a good childminder instead? This saved me some cash and it was lovely to have the stability and family style relationship too

Ours is really expensive and a lot more than our mortgage but I think it’s worth it. It works out at about £7.50 per hour. At ours the staff get the living wage and they are brilliant! It includes all meals and snacks (all prepared on site), nappies, wipes, cream, suncream. They seem to refurbish and keep equipment up to date - it looks like real fun in the new garden area plus some fab new things inside! And they are constantly using up materials - the amount of gluing, creating, painting, cooking etc that goes on. I imagine the site and business rates can’t be cheap either.

I'm a senior early years practitioner and don't get much over minimum wage. Our daily rate is £40, which has to cover rent, utilities, insurance, meals and snacks, resources and equipment (not just craft materials and toys but things like soap, paper towels, cleaning products, printer ink, batteries, stationery), admin time, staff wages and training (practitioners, the cook and the cleaner). Imagine you've got 4 children paying £4 per hour - for those children you have to pay a staff member at least £7.50 per hour plus employer tax contributions etc plus provide all of the above. In my setting there are 12 3-4 year olds and 13 2 year olds - that is 6 practitioners, a manager, a cook and a cleaner to pay for - there's not that much left over.

Thanks everyone - genuinely made me feel better reading your responses.

All makes sense and yes of course would never put a cost on my child's welfare. I think gripes come from Bank holidays being charged, and at mine even training days off are costed back to the parent which I thought seemed unfair.

But yes understood there are a lot of overheads to pay for.

It's the way it is I suppose!

It is expensive, I pay £1400 per month for my DS to go full time. However we don't pay for bank holidays and if the nursery is closed. the fees are calculated based on only 50 weeks to take the closures into account. I would be annoyed if I was paying for days that the nursery wasn't open and available to me.

It is expensive (and for some also unaffordable) but it is also good value for money. I am so grateful to the nursery that have cared for my two DC and wish the staff got paid a wage that reflected the enormous responsibility they have and the great work that they do.

I should add, I am more than happy to pay for the days my son cannot attend because of holidays, sickness etc, and would never expect fees to be reduced if he didn't go, we are paying for the available place. But if they close and make me pay it would get to me

motheroftwo - I also agree that the staff should be paid more for what they do. If only there was a way to increase wages without increasing fees as I think a lot of parents are already crippled and many nurseries wouldn't survive if they increase fees further. I do wonder if the government could do more in terms of tax-free childcare limits etc

So are you saying the staff should not be paid bank holidays? are you saying the staff don't need to have training or that they should do training in their evenings and weekends unpaid? (which is what a child-minder has to do).

Of course staff need paid for training, holidays and bank holidays. However I think that is part of the overheads that the nursery need to incur, and the chargeable days/weeks need to be set in such a way that the nursery is able to cover this. At our nursery (and most of others in the area), we only pay the standard rates for the time the nursery is actually open and we have enrolled the child for, which I think is correct. The 10 days the nursery is closed is effectively spread across the year and discounted from the monthly fees, so we pay for 50 weeks.

The nurseries that don't charge for bank holidays will have a higher day rate than those that do
Your monthly rate will be about the same

The nurseries that don't charge for bank holidays will have a higher day rate than those that do
Your monthly rate will be about the same
i dont 100% agree with this statement as when we looked round nurseries, there were a few open all bank holidays and don't close at all except on xmas day. they charged for 52 weeks obviously. the nurseries that closed only stated they were charging for 50 weeks and the prices were slightly lower as a result (given the same hourly daily rates etc between nurseries that were open bank hols and those that weren't).

I think gripes come from Bank holidays being charged, and at mine even training days off are costed back to the parent

If it were true to some extent, then isn't it better for nurseries to state they don't charge for bank holidays so parents don't feel they are being charged for a service they cannot use, as in the case of OP for example