Nursery fees confusion

[SereneOP]

Hi, I’m sure there’s a lot of these threads around but I need someone to explain it to me like I’m 5 years old

my daughter is due to start nursery at the end of January 2025, and she’ll be 10months so qualifies for 15 hours funded and then in September 2025 hopefully will have 30 hours funded - the fees still come up to close to £1000 a month even with tax free credits and the funded hours (4 days full time)

im hearing from other people that when their child turned 3 their fees dropped to like just under £200 a month. My confusion is that the previously when a child turns 3 they get the 30 hours funded, but I just don’t understand how the fees can be so low, because currently the government have basically just changed the age that children qualify for the same funded hours, so why are my fees not that low?? 😭

am I missing something? Does else something magical happen when a child turns 3? Because the way I see it, until my daughter leaves nursery there’s no money for a second child

appreciate any responses and insights anyone has on this, also if you need further clarification in my question please let me know

thanks!

im hearing from other people that when their child turned 3 their fees dropped to like just under £200 a month

Are these fairly recent?

In any event, the government amount paid per hour is usually less than a private payment. Let’s say £6 per hour gov and £8 per hour private. When funding was only given to children aged 3 and above, a higher proportion of the nursery hours were paid at £8 than they are now, when funding starts at 9 months at the lower rate. So there’s less money overall to balance out. Hence top up charges, consumables charges etc.

If it's all year round, it's likely to be 11 hours funded, as the 15 is just for 38 weeks of the year. So you're paying for almost 3 days a week ... so about £80 a day? You'll have to pay for lunches on the funded days too.

Fees vary hugely between nurseries.
for comparison for four days a week ours dropped from just over £1000 to around £650 a month when the 30 hours came in so still high

Depends if you use a private nursery, childminder or school nursery when age 3. School nurseries tend to be free or very small fees but are term time only and short days. Child minders are usually cheaper than private nurseries. Also nursery fees have gone up massively in the last couple of years with inflation and will go up more with the NI rises and rises in minimum wage so they are much higher than a few years ago.

My second DC started nursery the same year my first DC started school which wasn’t a coincidence.

you could ask your nursery for an estimate on their current fee structure for when the extra hours kick in

someone paying very little with the hours is likely to be using a 9 to 3 term time only provision

My 3 yr old daughters in 4 days a week and our bill is around £650 a month with 30hrs & tax free. She is at a private nursery. Remember 30hrs is term time only so works out 2 days a week- still need to pay a £10 top up per day for that. The cost for a 3 yr old is also a good £15 a day cheaper than a 1 yr old as well.

I guess it depends on what the nursery charge and how many hours your child is spending there. My youngest went to nursery at the primary school where my older child was at school. This was years ago, he is now 10, but I had 15 hours of free care, he did 2 full days and an afternoon session, a full day was 6.5 hours and I only had to pay for the extra 30 mins of lunch cover and the food, so the fees were negligible each term. If your child is at nursery for 10 hours per day then you are inevitably going to be paying more, and I imagine a privately operated nursery costs far more than one in a school.

It really depends. When we get the 30 hours we are about £200 a month year-round for three days a week (except two weeks at Xmas when nursery is closed and two weeks of our choice which we take for holidays). But that definitely seems a lot cheaper than a lot of other people's costs I've seen on here so we are fortunate!

We're 250 for two full days plus early/late tagged in, with the funding Yorkshire. I think it's also a cheap place

TBH is equates more to one free day a week for 38 weeks.

At my nursery you have to take either 3 half days or 1 full day and 1 half a day.

half day is only about £22 cheaper than a full day. You then have to pay for food (about £2.60 a meal) and also a free hours surcharge. Think it’s about £20 a month.

3days a week here for a child entitled to 15 hours, spread over the whole year (not just term time) is around £770.

4 yr old also 3days week, 30 hours, all year is just over £400.

So your fees seem similar - I assume it's a private nursery where food is provided?

Thank you all for replying, it’s making a bit more sense now,

@SheilaFentiman my friend had mentioned it last week (but she also gets nhs discount) and I just saw a post on Instagram where their childcare cost was £240, which is what got me questioning everything, but after a bit of hunting found out their childcare cost goes in part-time which will obviously makes a huge difference

And yeah my daughter will be going to a private nursery where food and nappies are included which is clearly what’s bringing the price up, but with such few nurseries having spaces we’ll just have to manage - it seems like a good nursery so I really shouldn’t complain too much, was just hoping for an extra miracle or something to cut the fees in half 🫠

again thanks everyone!

The 15 hours 'free' is probably stretched to 11 hours per week 'free' but it's only the staffing that's free they'll still charge for food milk nappy etc.
the tax fee childcare isn't taken off the invoice. You need to organize a tax free childcare account separately and use that to pay nursery invoice.

I don't have to pay for breakfast/lunch. Tbf I don't have to pay for anything. Obviously supply the wipes and nappies

Your nursery can show you their fee sheet now so you can calculate what you will be paying when the 30hrs kicks in.

No point comparing to other people, every nursery charges different amounts