Nursery fees

[Smurf2019]

Good afternoon lovely people,

Looking for a bit of advice please

Our little boy has attended nursery for the past 2 and half years, However in recent months we have been having a few problems, our little man started to get the entitlement to the 30 hours free childcare in September and since then we have been charged a "premium" package fee for his attendance and being charged £1.80 per hour that he attends for 22 hours as his hours are split over 51 weeks of the year.

This premium package fee according the nursery is to cover all snacks, lunches and extra curricular activities.

My question is I believe this charge is meant to be voluntary and if we would like to supply our little one with lunch etc then we should be entitled to do that? However nursery state that no food or drink shall be brought in from home.

We already pay the nursery for the 8 hours he doesn't get funding which comes in at £224.70 per month.

this premium package for the food and drink etc comes in at £171.60 per month.

This makes our total invoice for the month with the 30 hours free childcare at £396.30.

Is this reasonable ? - I don't mind paying for food for him to attend as it does make our lives easier but paying nearly £40 a week for just snacks and lunches seems a stupidly high amount.

(I know nurseries are struggling but so are we and finding this amount every month is just really hard).

We pay about £16 top up for a "funded" day. I have every sympathy with nurseries and the lack of funding and try and direct any frustrations at the system rather than specific nursery.

I don't think less than £2 an hour is expensive. It covers lunch, snacks, materials and lunch time care. Where else will you get cheaper?

There are no ‘free’ hours-they are ‘partially funded’ hours. £1.80 an hour for childcare is pretty good going really.

Three nurseries around me have or will be closing by the summer as the rents have gone up so much the setting is unviable. You can choose not to pay but you will almost certainly lose your place or the nursery will close. What will you do then?

Write to your MP if you want properly funded childcare.

Nurseries are not allowed to top up the funded hours. They can charge for feed and consumables. The local authority are the ones to call if you have issues with the funded hours.
That said, if you’re a working parent surely it’s much less faff to pay the charge for meals? It’s better for the children if everyone is eating the same meals

The extra charge may cover staffing over lunch etc that may not be included in your nurseries entitlement offer - ie funded hours can only be taken between 9 & 12 & 1 - 4 so staffing for the lunch hour is charged for etc.

They are also allowed to charge for consumables - paper, glue, pens etc. They can do this however they want so long as its clear to parents what it includes.

It's better to refer tjr here as subsided hours not free as they're not.

I also know a few nurseries that do charge an hourly top up so its not that unusual.

I don't think that's unreasonable. I pay £2 for breakfast, £3.50 for lunch and £1 an hour for each funded hour. (I also pay for the breakfast and lunch hour as they are not funded hours). So I end up paying roughly the same as you do monthly (I use the full 30 hours a week). Given how much nursery is actually given for the funded hours I'm surprised it's not more!

FWIW despite top ups etc our nursery bill is still at least 2/3 cheaper with the funded hours. You get them the term after your child turns three though; so if your dc turns three ok 1st October you won't get your hours until the following Jan.

They can no longer charge for consumables that would need to be provided in order to meet the EYFS so no paper or craft items.

It's a top up to the hourly rate they need to operate as a business. They can't call it a top up so call it something else.
I imagine if you decline to pay they will serve notice, they can't look after your child at a deficit.
If you want a truly free setting you'd need to hunt to find one, but it'll likely be 2.5 hour sessions per day, which are next to useless for working parents.
We need to stop seeing ourselves as entitled to "30 free hours" because we aren't, it government spin.

Luckily the information I've seen online regarding the new childcare budget seems to be clearer to parents that there can and will be additional charges on top of the funded hours. Some parents have unrealistic expectations about what can be provided on the amount the government pays.

Thank you @Scottishskifun

We pay £5 a day for meals on the subsidised days

I know it’s hard when nursery fees take up a large chunk of your income but you have to think about your end goal here. The nursery won’t be raking it in- as others have said, the funding they get from the government doesn’t come close to covering their costs.

Perhaps legally you could refuse to pay all of this charge (I don’t know the ins and outs of what nurseries are allowed to charge on top of the funded hours) but you’re then risking losing your nursery place or the nursery closing if enough people refuse to pay the charge and the nursery becomes financially unviable.

They won’t want you to bring your own food in because it’s a pain for them when they have children with allergies. Also, as others have said, that charge won’t just be for food, it will be to cover things like staffing and heating. Maybe they’re not “supposed” to use that charge to fund anything other than food and activities but realistically what are they supposed to do?

That’s cheaper than ours! We pay £18.50 per day for food and consumables. The food at ours is excellent so I think it is fair.

Our bill for 4 full days per week with the funding stretched over the year is £645.67 (before tax free childcare).

We could use a preschool that is term time school hours only for £0 but we need private nursery hours.

£18.50 is more than a third of our standard day rate on non-funded days! The price discrepancies really are outrageous

£1.80 per hour sounds about right for the difference between what the govt are willing to pay and what it actually costs. The nursery have to use weird labels for this due to govt policy but ultimately if parents don’t pay it, private nurseries will close.
not that long ago, when my 9yr old was in nursery, we were all paying £60+ per day for childcare.

Ours is £60 per day (was £55 until April), the food and consumables was £14 per day then.

I think you are getting a great deal. My little one goes for 2 days a week only, 15 free hours, and it costs more than 400 quid a month- and I'm in the North!

I used to pay £20/day top up when my son was at nursery and he had a 9am-4pm slot. So your fee doesn't seem to bad.

How much of a reduction are you getting compared to previous funded - you should be saving ~£1k/month?

We didn't pay any top up on ours at all. 30 hrs during term time, £4.50 outside of those hours, or portion thereof. No meals, nappies or whatever (unless an emergency).

Yes I have no problem paying for food for the little one, however I think considering that the charge is meant to be for food & consumables £13+ per day is expensive for food.

I feel for you, I really do. I feel for the nurseries too as it’s really hard to make ends meet on funded rates from government. However there are rules the nurseries have to follow and it doesn’t sound like the nursery is following the statutory guidance. Speak to your local authority, they will be able to advise.

It is really hard and appreciate all the comments on this thread.

I just want to make a point that I am not trying to get out of making payment for this nor do I want the nursery to close.

There is a lot of conflicting information online to what they can and cant charge for and understand that a portion of the fees is a "top up" for other things like staffing, heating etc.

I just wanted to gather some information as to what others were being charged per month for childcare with the 30 hours "subsidised" childcare.

I think people get confused etc because it seems to differ place to place.

mot makes me realise I am quite lucky -
where I am in Scotland our local authority provides free lunches for ages 3 and up.
I’ve already seen the fee stricture for when LO turns 3. Will be attending 4 days a week year round.
with funded hours we will recover 2.5 days free a week, and pay for 1.5.
our nursery did increase fees recently though but are very transparent about this and ways they are trying to keep costs down.
I guess all nurseries will find different ways to do that so maybe it all evens out somehow.

We get 30 free hours and still pay £450 a month. The reality is that whatever they are or aren't supposed to do, most nurseries do it in order to survive, so you can look elsewhere but I think you'll find its all broadly the same.