Fee increase

[carrottbaton]

Hi all, some advice/perspective gratefully received.

DD's (private) nursery have emailed today saying they're raising fees by 5.5% immediately to cover 'rising staff costs'. This seems a lot to me! We paid the fees throughout lockdown even when it wasn't open and it just seems so much considering what we're all going through.

Considering taking her out as there's other things I'm not happy with but she loves it and I feel torn.

That is a big increase, especially when a lot of industries will see no increase. Can you find alternative childcare?

Oh that's shit of them.
How much are you paying at the minute?

Big increase! Ours went up by 2.5% earlier in the year. Only thing I’d say about pulling her out if your intention is to move her to a lower cost nursery is that ALL of our local nurseries increased their prices within a couple of weeks of ours (funny that 🙄) so you might have the same issue further down the line.

Urgh I'm not going to pull her out, the other options are shite tbh. We pay £48 a day atm.

I don't think they can do it immediately, usually requires some kind of notice period, check your contract BUT I'm really not surprised they need to raise their prices. Most are struggling to stay afloat and not all families would have paid thru closures etc. It's a tough time in an already underfunded sector.

It may be because of the changes to funding from the local authorities. We were recently given guidance with the funding scales for the next year from the government, and while initially it looks like a tiny increase it allows local authorities to take a larger cut. This means that funded places are causing more of a loss than last year, combined with the continued financial difficulties of covid and may early years settings are on the brink of ruin.

Thanks still a bit but it helps to have a more context.

The problem for a lot of settings is that the biggest cost is wages. You can't cut staff because of ratios but minimum wage goes up significantly again in April. Wages in the sector have been historically very low so a rise at the bottom means you have to raise all staff to keep any differential for qualification/experience/responsibility.

Childcare is extortionate. I pay £1460 pm full time. I'm considering alternative childcare arrangements myself. But the problem is the staff are great I just wish the government would provide more subsidies.

I would check your contract and most state they have to give 4 weeks notice of any fees increase etc. I am a childminder and I will be putting my fees up in April this will mean Iam then £46 a day, I have not increased fees in last 3 years. . I would check what your local average is before handing in notice as you may find you will be paying the same if not more somewhere else.

We haven’t had a fees increase in the last two years and have been given 6 months notice that they are increasing by 5% from April. I don’t think this is unreasonable as they haven’t risen for the last two years.