Price increase due to upcoming funded hours

[Pinkted23]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone can advise. My nursery has sent me my September invoice and increased my bill by £123 a month.

My DS is term time only so his fees are usually spread out over the year, the nursery manager has said that because he gets his 15 free hours in April they have spread the cost over 7 months instead of 12.

Can they do this?

My maths skills are not up to this and it is blowing my mind. They charge £5.50 per hour plus £6.50 per day for food.

I also wanted to ask if it’s ok for them to charge an extra £1 per government funded hour to cover a ‘care package’?

Thank you!

The nurseries charge the additional amounts as the government element is a contribution and does not cover the costs of providing the nursery place. The alternative is the nursery makes a loss and closes - this is happening all over the country.

So will your bills drop to £60 a month plus lunches come April for the funded hours? It does make sense that they’d want your account up to date for the change in fees. You were accruing debt and then paying it off in the summer. A bit like having a fixed Dd for electricity they are changing you to pay what you use. Expensive now but no bills in summer.

It’s totally normal to be charged a supplement on top of the government funding.
It’s such a small amount that nurseries can’t survive with just that funding, so they need to charge extra to cover the costs of buying equipment, craft supplies, ingredients for cookery etc
None of that fun stuff could be done if they were only getting the government hourly rates

I'm confused about the fact you spread your payments over 12 months if he only attends term time - not sure how this works for the Nurseries chasing fees when families leave, but yes, it makes sense that they want your account cleared before the EEE place kicks in.

As others have said, Nurseries try all sorts of creative ways to make sure the books balance as the Gvmnt funding doesn't cover costs.

If the books don't balance, the Nursery closes.
Many, many, many Nurseries have already closed. More will follow.

Thank you for all the responses.

@Badbudgeter my bills will never drop to nothing, we have been paying a fixed amount every month including august when we hasn’t been there, makes it cheaper during the months he is there but august has been tough.

It seems to be the only nursery in the area that charges an extra £1 per government funded hours and I had seen on the internet that they can’t charge an hourly rate like that, but instead can ask for a fixed fee to cover the extras.
I guess I must be wrong.

I think I’ve just found it as a bit of a shock to be told on the 19th of the month that the new bill needs to be paid before the 31st.

I have looked in to moving him to another nursery that has not extra costs, provides nappies and wipes and has longer hours, it would work out only slightly more money a month when he gets his 15 free hours but considerably more when he gets his 30 free hours. So I’m unsure… I don’t want to cut off my nose to spite my face.

The nursery he’s currently with has a high turnover of staff and since he’s been there this past year they have had FOUR different managers… so I’m worried it’s a bit of a sinking ship.

Thanks!

The extra charge should be voluntary and they should provide a breakdown of what it covers.

It’s crafty of them to charge you like that.

my nursery does how many hours for the week- funded hours= weekly amount x51/12 to get the monthly amount.

Thank you @Danikm151 I did wonder if it was compulsory or not. I’m not against paying it, but when I’ve sat down and calculated the cost of our current setting for 9 hours a day not including nappies and wipes against a newer and more equipped setting that provides nappies and wipes for 10.5 hours a day… it’s coming out as a very similar price if not cheaper when he receives his 30 hours. Maybe it’s time to look at moving him.

4 managers would worry me! Each time a new manager starts, they need to be registered with Ofsted. This generally sparks an inspection if there is so much change.