Nursery top up fee increase

[Vanillablueberry]

Hello. My nursery have just announced the fee increases from April. Our nursery hours are all covered by the funding but we pay an extra fee for meals/snacks. This is increasing by 40%. Is anyone else's nursery increasing costs this much? What do other people currently pay for food at nursery? I wouldn't mind but it's mostly cereal for breakfast, veggie pasta or rice, crackers, sandwiches and fruit. Am I being unreasonable?

I charge
Lunch £2
Evening meal £2
Snacks £1 for two (am and pm)

=£5 daily.

I will probably increase in September.

What are you currently paying and what is the new total? Costs seem to vary so much. You might have initially been paying less and the nursery have now found that they can’t operate on low funding rates.

What your currently paying?

I pay approx £90 a month for food etc - 3 days a week

@Sunshineclouds11 @mrsnjw currently paying £5 a day which we are quite happy with but it's now going up to £7 a day. I expected an increase same as everything but it's such a big jump. My toddler definitely doesn't eat £7 worth of food a day!

But you're not being charged 'at cost' prices. Just like when you go to a restaurant, you pay more than how much the food costs from the cash and carry. You're paying kitchen staff, crockery provided, wash up facilities, electricity, gas, water etc etc. They are offering a service and you accepting that service.

As pp it's not the cover of food, also things like resources for the kids etc

We pay £2.50 an hour top up. So it's £25 a day.
I don't know anywhere else this expensive. I really don't know how they justify it! Food is terrible and doesn't even cover consumables like wipes and nappies.

There's always loads of defending nurseries on here but that is extortionate. I would count yourself lucky that the funding covers your LOs hours though. Last year my "top up" due to insufficient government funding was £45 per day of funded time. I guess they have to get costs back somehow but they do receive an awful lot of money!

£26 a day 'top up' where we are.

Can't wait until summer to come around so I can be done with nursery fees!

@Cantgetausername87Omg £45 a day!! WTH

I pay £400 a month in additional fees after the free hours. 🙄 she’s only in two days a week!!

Loads of people will cry that nurseries and childminders are on the poverty line and make no money but they absolutely do make money and it’s disgraceful that they can get away with charging these top ups

my kids pre school has just upped its intake to 40 with 3 “teachers” - do the maths - have a look at what your local LA pays as funded hours - in my area it’s £5.50 or thereabouts - that’s the best part of £200 per hour in funding and then the “top up” charged on top 🤔

I make money, of course I do! I have a family to support and a home to heat. I wouldn't work for free would I?

Nor do I wish to pay out of my pocket to feed your children. Hence the legitimate charge I am allowed to make for providing food. Don't like it? Go elsewhere. Or send a packed lunch. I have no wish to strong arm parents in to paying fees they don't want to pay.

£7 for 3 meals plus snacks, served, supervised and cleared up after seems a steal to me. Can't think of any other business that would offer it that cheaply.

@Nickyknackered the government guidelines state that nurseries can only charge parents extra for consumables like food, suncream and nappies and that it cannot be mandatory. Nurseries cannot charge extra for business costs on top of the funded hours. I'm just referring to the cost of the actual meals. Maybe mine is actually cheap compared to others reading some of these posts! But I'm still annoyed by the big increase. It just seems like every bill in April is going up by 5-10% or more but my wage is not going up at all! All these extra 2 or 3 pounds here and there all add up over the month.

Oh and this isn't a small independent nursery, we've recently been taken over by a corporate national chain so I'm sure they are making a profit somewhere.

Wow. As a childminder I charge more than that for food. You’re paying for the hours I spend batch cooking healthy meals for your children at the weekend. The funding does not cover what nurseries need to pay staff, business rates etc. If you don’t want to pay go elsewhere. So many childminders and nurseries closing - it’s really not something people go into to make loads of money. My nursery bill for my 2 children was close to two grand a month 8 yrs ago for two kids. Didn’t think twice about it, it was just part of having children. I’m so happy that the parents that come to me don’t all have these extortionate fees (high earners still do), but the ones that question my food or outing fees I just tell them to go elsewhere.

If nursery don't recoup the difference between the 'funded hour rate and their actual hourly costs they'll have to stop taking the 'funded' hours. Has always been the case.

My daughters 2 and we pay £21 a day. She goes from 8am-3.30 for 3 days. Im happy to pay this as i know how bad the government pay is for them. A lot of nurseries tried not to charge or charge very little at the beginning, but its not sustainable for them long term. The nurseries aren't taking the piss its the government!

Nurseries were making a loss on the funded hours 15 years ago and they are making a loss still.

The difference is that 15 years ago, it was 15h funded a week for over 3s only so things could be balanced out with the full fees paid by under 3s and the other hours paid by over 3s (as an over 3 in 3 days a week for a 10h day was paying a full fee for the other 15h as well)

Now almost all attendees have at least some free hours, it’s much harder to balance out and keep making money overall, especially with the rises in NI and minimum wage.

I know the rules, I'm a provider. £7 for food is a reasonable cost for providing all meals and snacks for your child. As far as I've read they aren't charging for those other things you've mentioned? Is it compulsory? Why not provide your own if you don't like it? Most parents don't because they don't want the hassle.

@Nickyknackered it’s a bit different charging for meals and snacks to the all in “consumables” which many settings charge and insist on charging even if you send your child with lunches snacks wipes and nappies

I have a unicorn nursery where there are no top up fees, if you just use the 9-3 hours. You send lunch in with them and I think nursery give them basic snacks and provide nappies etc.
Breakfast and afterschool club are payable and food included in that cost.
I drive past several local expensive nurseries to get to this nursery but it’s totally worth it 😅

Where have I said that is ok?

How do you expect childminders to survive when if they work alone they can only have maximum of 3 x under 5's of which only 1 can be under 1 year old. This also has to include their own children. The funding is piss poor for childminders.