Advice re: Nursery costs

[Pugarella]

Hi all,
Im in need of some advice on Nursery fees. Our little currently gets the 15 hrs childcare funding (we will only be able to claim 22hrs in December 2025 as the nursery wont allow you to claim the 30hrs if your little attends under 40hrs a week!). He attends nursery 3 days a week, 10 hrs a day.
Our Nursery bill each month is still £912. I see people on here talking about their costs being around the £300-400 a month mark for the same hours! And Im just wondering why the hell ours is still so extortionate.
Also, Im currently trying to get the Nursery to confirm a breakdown for what the 'voluntary contribution' of £8 per half day is! £16 a day which equates to £192 a month! Im assuming this is consumables (food, sun cream, extra curricular etc). Which seems outrageous. Our little doesn't use the nursery nappies or wipes as they bring him out in a rash and they have never gone on a trip in the 2 years he has been there. They also advertise gifted accessories like bags and water bottles, which we have never had. Am I being unreasonable thinking £912 a month is too much still? I know the government scheme doesn't cover a lot of the costings, but we are paying barely anything less than we did when the funding wasn't a thing. Also, it really enrages me when the nursery advertise they have just added a coffee machine to the reception for parents to use or a composting area for parents to take compost for their gardens.. like ok but Id rather not fund these things and the money we are paying be put towards the kids or not be added to my bill! Help!

It’ll be spread over the year and the funding is just meant for term time, nurseries do stretch this out to cover full time places.

However, yes, it does seem high. For context, my three year old also does 3x10 hour days, ours comes in at £463 monthly. South London.

To be honest I’d pay a bit more for better equipment, trips out for the older ones, things like that, but it is what it is at the moment. The teachers are good and caring and the food is made on site. But I certainly wouldn’t be paying upwards of £900 to access coffee and compost. Who has time for that at drop off?!

Anyway, ask them for a breakdown of cost.

Hi FanofLeaves, yes you're right, it is spread across the year for our nursery. But it still seems so high to me! We are in Surrey, so not too far from yourself.
Im definitely going to chase them for a full breakdown and ask if we can just pay consumables fee towards the things he actually uses (basically food and sun cream since we provide nappies and wipes and he has never gone on a trip or had any 'merchandise'. They did 'nature school' for an hour a week (on site of the nursery) but that lasted all of 2-3 months before it was cancelled.
I think a lot of the parents were probably as enraged as me when they got the email saying come visit our new coffee bar and composting area 🙄. I can honestly say Ive never seen anyone use either of them! It probably wasnt the right choice for them to post that advertisement since the fees had just gone up in April again! Haha.

Well with lots of different children on different schedules and fee structures, it is possible there’s been a mistake, so I’d clarify ASAP.

Oh, and there’ll have dressed the coffee machine up as being for the parents, but I bet you anything that it’s for the staff. Fair enough, but they’re being cheeky to say it’s a perk for the parents.

There is a change coming up in the next few months where nursery have to be more transparent on what the consumable charge covers and its meant to become more voluntary. Will be interesting to see what they do!

Rather than be enraged and demanding this,that and the other find somewhere else that's cheaper if you are so angry. If milk in lidl is to expensive do you demand that they breakdown the cost of it for you or do you buy your milk from somewhere else?
The £16 per day will be covering food drinks and snacks, access to forest school, cooking ingredients, extra resources for celebrations such as Easter, mothers day, cjristmas, Chinese new year etc.

I have a right to know what I am paying for dont you think? Not quite as simple as milk in Aldi or Lidl.
Thank you for the (un)helpful advice..

Do they give you an invoice with the breakdown?
i used stretched funding so 22 hours a week. The invoice would be the cost for 50 hours minus the cost for 22 hours a week. I would pay £500 a month.

Or do they do the hourly rate for the days rather than the cheaper rate for more hours?

The most likely outcome is they close. They can't survive on the amount they get for "funded" hours.

@ArtTheClownIsNotAMime yes I know, however this is becoming set, and if you bring your own nappies and wipes, suncream, then you shouldn't be charged it.

How much does it work out per hour?

But in reality it isn't for nappies, wipes etc. It's because the funding rate they receive from the Local authority is less than the rate they need to charge. The 'consumables' fee is the nursery's way of staying afloat and sustainable. They aren't allowed to charge a top up so they wrap it up in a sustainable charge. There will no no childcare without this.

Governments played a blinder pitting parents against ‘extortionate’ nurseries.

@Pugarella if your funding is stretched as you have said so, then 22 hours each week is the maximum claimable. That isn't the nursery capping it, it's the 38 weeks of 30 hours spread equally over 51 weeks to give your full allocation of 22 hours.

Are you paying the consumables fee for the whole day? You only get 11 hours of funding a week if your nursery stretches the 15 hours to year round, and you’ll be paying full nursery fees on the rest of the hours. You shouldn’t be paying the consumables fee on the normal nursery fees hours of consumables are included in those hours fees (they usually are). I’d question that.

Ours is £990 per month for four days, with 15 free hours. Nursery days are up to 10.5h, though we don’t use the full day. We provide our own nappies, and there is no coffee machine! 😂 Based in the Midlands.

We are not far from you. Just a bit further round the M25. Our 2 year old does 3 x 10.5 hour days, gets 15 hours funded (11 per week pro rata) but will get the additional hours from September. Our bill is about £150 a month more than yours right now. And I feel your pain, chatting to a friend recently near Derby whose little one does 3 shorter days and the pay under £400. Makes no sense to me how they can be sooooo different when on paper they are very similar, just a couple of hundred miles apart.

Well yes, that was my point. People whinging about top up costs should be careful what they wish for.

Sorry to jump on @Mummyboy1 but our nursery has said they’re awaiting guidance from the government and will email about fees in August once this is known - I’m guessing this is to do with this (even though our fees include everything). Just wondering if you have any more info about this or know where to look?

@AutumnLeaves91 currently no, however i work in a nursery and my oldest and soon my youngest will be joining.
It will be interesting to see how they do it, as at our nursery you're not allowed to take your own food in, so I'll have to pay for that. Will see!

My son was at nursery 2016-2020 he did 2 days a week. We paid until he was 2, which was £37 per day food/activities included but we provided nappies/wipes, total monthly cost £296. When he was 2 he got the 15 hour two year funding which they split over 1.5 days and we paid for half a day £22 so £88 per month but paid more in the holidays. When he was three he got the 30 hours which we stretched over the holidays so he did 2 full days and we never paid a penny extra.

i genuinely don’t u understand how in the last few years nursery fees are suddenly ££££ even with the funding

Nurserys are not allowed to charge for funded hours , voluntary contributions should give the option for you to supple your own extra items and not pay.

Because staffing costs have sky rocketed with increases to the national minimum wage and the increase in national insurance contributions. They are also facing higher business rates and the same massive increases in gas and electricity and general inflation the rest of us have. This has all happened while the rate they receive for the funded hours has barely increased

Nurseries have high staff turnover, particularly in expensive areas where it is hard to live off the wages. Something like a coffee machine - or a free cake on your birthday, or a staff day out etc - can help retain employees (who feel more valued) for considerably less cost than a pay rise all round. Plus if a worker isn’t spending £4 a day on a takeaway coffee from taxed income, then their money goes a little further.

(Obviously the key point is that the level paid for funded hours makes it very hard for nurseries to function, but the above is specifically about the coffee machine)

South east and ours is just over £1k a month for four days with the 30 hours stretched over the year so not to dissimilar.

Do you like the nursery? Is your DC happy and well
looked after? Would this change if it was a little bit cheaper?

Tax free childcare takes another 20% off/£500 a quarter if you are not using that

We are at £985 a month for three days with 15 hours stretched over the year. This is in the over threes room. And apparently it’s going up in September.
It’s expensive for sure, but DS is happy and well looked after and they have very low staff turnover.

What jumps out at me is the not being allowed to use 30 hrs free. That does not sound right to me.
DGD is 4 and we are home counties.
She goes 3 full days a week.
Her week looks like
3 full days ( 30 hrs)
22 hrs funded ( streched)
8 hrs charged £65
Consumables £33
Monthly charge varies but June was £390 ish.

I think you need to challenge the 30 hrs. They are either providing it or not. Are there spaces elsewhere?