What is it that drives up the cost?

[peepsypops]

I have always wondered this. We all know nurseries are expensive - but what is driving the cost?

Is there anyone here who works in this area that knows?

I'm imagining insurance and heating costs - but I think childcare has been ludicrously expensive prior to energy costs increasing.

I would be genuinely interested to know - I don't get the impression there are huge profits made, so where does it go?

Parents see it as somewhere to leave their children for the day, so they can work.

The government see it as high quality education, with many targets for achievements before formal school.

There needs to be an agreement on what it actually is, or there will always be arguments about costs.

How do they deal with children with SEN like children with autism or global development delay. Are they helped properly, diagnosed younger and with 1:1 in place, or denied places?

We had a child where I work this year who was refused a place at a private school nursery (where his older brother goes) because they said he was too challenging and they didn't have the staff. We took him on whilst waiting for 1:1 funding to be approved but it was very, very challenging. We have another child with significant needs (but less directly demanding) and several with more minor needs, including ESL, out of about 50 children. I just worry, without support, what would happen to those children.

@PrincessOfPreschool - depends. This is a council run one as part of the school. If a child needed 1:1 for something like wheelchair user or physical they would have a 1:1. Things like mild additional needs had no extra daily, but would have extra provisions like physio therapist or speech therapist etc in on weekly basis. Ie Ds has local language as second, so he will get 2 30 mins slots additional with the language teacher from September.

I think if they had lots of additional needs, they wouldn’t go to this general pre school but a specialist version. I know there’s a special needs centre for 3-18 years in next main town as a friends older child attends and that will be high ratios

Most of the children don't require a huge amount of physical help. And it's not like they are very disruptive (some are and then that will affect the class as a whole) but they do just need extra help to access activities, maybe an adult staying with them explaining, or encouraging them, doing things with them. Otherwise they could just stay stuck where they are and not develop, or get distressed. This would be significant amounts of time daily and if you have say 3 of these children (on a good day!), even the best teachers will struggle to teach everyone as well as meet those needs.

@PrincessOfPreschool i think it’s just on a case by case basis. The 20 per class is max for the whole 7am-5pm. lots of children only go a few hours in the morning for example. So there’s isn’t 20 all day. They presumably have more time after lunch to sit and focus on certain children also if they do go longer days as half go home before then. Or they would also offer a shorter earlier session or just afternoon.