Media reports childcare costs in London

[bubble99]

Average cost in London is £200 per week for a full time place (50 hours per week.) That works out at £4 per hour - including meals. Most people in London pay their cleaner , if they are able to afford one, more than that. Which is worth more!?

Bubble - in a nursery or at a childminders which is what they are talking about here it is usual for more than one child to be looked after at a time. Therefore the £4 per hour is per child. So if a childminder or nursery has a 3 children to 1 carer ratio they make £12 per hour which is a lot more than a cleaner gets!

A nanny in London costs upwards of £350 a week net per week. This equates to a total cost to the employer of around £475 a week which also works out at a lot more than a cleaner would be paid.

Still seems that I'm paying a reasonable rate per hour (£4) for a professional (NNEB) to look after my most precious asset. What do dog-walkers (who take out more than one dog at a time) or kennels charge in London? Not comparing my children to domestic pets - well, sometimes it's an appropriate comparison, particularly the muddy paw prints

Couldn't afford a private nanny though.

£12 per hour less overheads........My DH and I childmind (upto 6 under 5) we are making (before tax) about £1.52 an hour each.

KatieMac - that seems very low? How do your overheads break down. £9ish per hour sounds a lot to me!

It's not the hrs I have 6 children that are the problem....It's the hours I have 1 or 2.

F*ing hell! We paid £95 a week for dd to attend a lovley nursery in my part of Wales. Converted barns, gorgeous staff (most of whom I knew anyway) acres of fields to play in, home grown food and (get this!) a handsome young French chef who was moonlighting from his night job at a posh hotel and STILL we moaned!

Sorry that £12 was for the nursery mentioned in your post.

I charge £3.50 per hour so when I have 6 it's £21.....

Hmmm - yes I can see how that works out. I suppose its the age old story - you need to spread the 'sunk' costs out over as many earning hours as poss

LOL moondog. Worth that for the chef alone. The difference is that the average property price in this area (3 bedroomed terraced) is £420,000. Nursery nurse (NVQ 3 or NNEB) salary is £14 -16,000. Nursery Managers £20 - 28,000. Salaries for nursery staff are a lot higher here (I suspect, don't know what your nursery pays it's staff). Hence nursery fees higher. A career in Childcare is a vocation but rents, bills and mortgages still need to be paid, and in my part of London it's expensive. Parking meter £1 for 20 minutes! The point I'm trying to make is that, although not everyone in London earns a huge salary - and I should know, I'm a nurse, £4 per hour is affordable for most working people here.