30 free hours.

[Emmav2020]

So my daughter goes to a private day nursery 2 days a week equalling 21 hours. Currently we get 15 hours free. From jan she will be entitled to 30 hours free. So to me she has a few hours 'left over' but I'm still going to have a bill at the end of each month. Does anyone know why this will be? TIA

The funding given to nurseries by the government doesn't cover the cost of providing the childcare (wages, insurance, running costs, consumables etc).

So most settings charge a top up fee per hour or per day for any days covered by funding. That will be what your bill is. For our nursery, it's around £20 a day (as opposed to full price of £75).

Also it’s 30 hours for 38 weeks of the year, which averages to 22 a week over a 52 week year. So your daughter actually only just about squeaks under the amount of funded hours she’s entitled to. If you added any extra hours or days then you would be paying full price for them.