Nursery price increases

[Magnificentbeast]

Hi there,
Our nursery increases its charges by between 9-11% on average each April. When you consider that the average wage only rises by a fraction of that annually if you're lucky it seems to be a considerable hike.

I just wondered what the average is for other nurseries. Our nursery might not be exceptional after all. I know there are higher costs to running a nursery but it seems to me to be excessive. We're not in a particularly affluent area.

I don't know the other parents very well. No one hangs around so it's difficult to gauge whether they feel the same way as me. Not that it would make any difference to the way the nursery charges anyway.

We're in our last few months there, thank goodness, but if we were starting out I'm sure I would be priced out of it at least during the first year or two before the 15 hours kicked in. Without childcare vouchers I would have been priced out immediately!

I was really thrown by the 11% increase 6 months after we joined. They increased again by a few more % within 6 months to accommodate government legislation.

I had no idea, perhaps naively, that the increases would be quite that much. I'm not sure I would've joined if I had known. However, by that point DC was settled, the care was good, it was reasonably convenient, there were no decent CMs available etc and we were kind of stuck with it.

I'm sort of ranting a bit but also curious about other peoples' experiences with their nurseries.

8.75% increase this year.

Is that about average for you @welshweasel?

ours was a 7.5% increase last year and 4.7% this year.

My DS’s fees are going up next month, from £1050 pcm (for 4 days a week) to £1120. About 7% increase? There was a similar increase last year.

Thankfully, ds is about to turn 3 and will get his 30 hours free, so our payment will drop substantially, hoorah!

Almost certainly it is tied to rise in national minimum wage and rise in employers pension payments. Most staff in nurseries are on the minimum wage.

For some nurseries there is also an increase in the hourly rate charged for non-funded hours to make up for the pitiful rate paid for funded hours.

It will be the rise in minimum watch, the rise in the auto-enrolement pension costs and the raise in business rates that will be the main factors. Needing to balance out the underfunding from the 15/30 hours may also play a part.

Mine are going up from £936 pcm to £1010. Can’t be arsed with the maths but I definitely haven’t had any kind of pay rise in the past six years so I guess I’ll just be worse off each month.

A couple of years ago they made two increases within a year. The second one stated the reasons as being to do with minimum wage and auto enrol requirements. Fair enough.

However, it makes me wonder what they were paying their staff in the first place and why minimum wage and pension enrolment appears to be an after thought requiring a second increase.

This increase is just an annual increase.

Nurseries are closing left, right and centre, because of increases in wages, pension contributions and reductions in government funding. Some have had massive rent and rates increases that they could not have predicted. They are constantly being asked to give more for less.

3% increase but it during the last months here it's equated to my fees going up by 30%, it has priced me out unfortunately but as she's only got a few months left I've got to manage