30 ‘free’ hours free childcare - voluntary payments??

[Ubbee]

We’re finally at the point where we get the 30 ‘free’ hours each week (during term time) and just had the revised fee through and our childcare is asking for a ‘voluntary payment’ of £30 on each of the three ‘free’ days (to cover resources, outings and activities etc). The normal day rate is £70.
So it’s not really free at all, it’s more like half price. For 38/52 weeks of the year. So it works out more like 12 hours per week actually free.

Is this normal? Are other people charged in the same way?

Thanks in advance.

Voluntary is voluntary - can you not just decline to pay it?

Yes of course, blame the government. They are the ones who think paying settings £40odd a day is enough to take care of your child. I'll let you into a secret... it's not.

They need the £30 to actually afford to offer the care.

What the government offers per hour is woefully inadequate even for those that run as a not-profit pre-school or charity.

In our area I believe they just charge for meals.

I believe the LEA sets the rates in each county/area and guess what some are far less than others. Then factor in that not all settings have the same rent to pay or that wages tend to be (slightly) higher in the south-east.

Utter shit show.

I'm in Scotland and when my daughter got her 30 free hours I didn't pay a penny for the full 2 years she was there.
Her nursery was a council nursery so I'm not sure if this is why?
It also wasn't just term time, I spread her hours over the year so she was there 8/5:30pm 2 days and 8-12 on a third day.
It must depend on the country and county you live in

Yep Council nurseries are free in England too, just very very few and far between.

My DD does 3'days per week at a charity run nursery e.g. 22 hours free and we pay a fee for the other 8 hours per week as your child can't attend unless you pay if the parents are working.

OP you are aware that nurseries are having an issue recruiting and retaining staff? As staff can often get more money working in a supermarket. They also have funding issues. So lots of nurseries are shutting down.

The funding they receive won't cover their costs.

Technically the funding is for care only. Other things like food, nappies, trips out, hand towels, soap, toilet paper, cleaning materials, antiseptic wipes, first aid equipment like plasters, art and craft materials like paint, paper, glue, glitter, pens, chalks etc etc are all extras.

You could provide all of that yourself each day but it's probably an awful lot easier to pay the voluntary payment and hope that's enough to keep the nursery financially viable and running.

The funding is not for care at all

It is for early education. You should not be paying for any resources linked to delivery of the EYFS educational programmes..

Ours isn’t voluntary!

Our 30hrs funded equates to a 1/3 discount once food and consumables are added. It’s nothing like free.

I know how much pressure the childcare sector is under, it’s absolutely the government to blame for completely mislabelling the policy! ‘10 free hours a week’ doesn’t have quite the same impact I suppose…

I’m not sure why it’s labelled as ‘voluntary’ it seems really odd, I definitely don’t think it is. I was also surprised that nearly 50% of the cost was on non staff related items, I though staffing costs would be the vast majority of the fee (note this is a home based setting). We know we are so lucky to have found reliable, excellent childcare but I can’t help feeling a bit conned by the government! We literally waited for this support to have no. 2 and it hardly makes a dent in the monthly fees…

When I looked for DD (she used to go 2 days) it worked out I'd be paying not much less but I'd get an extra day (as they had a minimum of 3 days policy to use the 30 hours). I ended up moving her to a school nursery which she attended 8.30-3 all week and I only had to pay £15 a week for her lunches and lunchtime supervision. I was lucky though as I had parents to help me out in school holidays.

The nurseries my kids went to limited the hours free per session. So in a 6 hour session it was 3 or 4 hours free and full price for the rest. Add in needing to pay over the school holidays too and I was feeling pretty shafted.

Why don't you try a school based preschool? DS goes Mon-Fri 8:45-3:45 and we only pay £2/day for the 30 minute lunch session

Legally I think it has to be voluntary. There has to be the option for you to, for example, not pay for food and send in a packed lunch.

But I do appreciate, as other posters have said, that the finding they get is not enough.

The campaign makes out its “free hours” but they’re not. As you know they’re just discounted hours. They should be clearer on that.

the nurseries are only given c£4.70 an hour. You shouldn’t want your child looked after for that price - if you can afford the extra, please pay it.

It isn’t at ours if you need the whole day and they don’t do term time only.

We could just send her for the free hours but they are at random times of day morning and afternoon and exclude mealtimes so absolutely no way to have a job around them as you’d have to pick them up for 2 hours in the middle of the day. We use 4 full days a week all year so would always have extra to pay but the extras on top make the 30hrs pretty pointless.

I don’t think it’s £4.70 everywhere though is it? Our nursery only charges the equivalent of £5.20 fully inclusive and I’m sure they get far less than £4.70 as they charge £12.50 a day for consumables and food for the funded hours (plus extra hours used).

Ours is voluntary however I've paid the amount straightaway. Their normal hrs rates are £7.25 and the gov gives them around £4.70(or somewhere about??) so I really wanted to support all their hard work. Our voluntary fee is £1 per session (9 sessions a week, Fri is half a day only)

This is the charging structure we pay (it’s £13 not £12.50, forgot it went up recently).

So you pay for additional hours used plus £13, so it’s about £35 instead of £55 per day. Obviously it does help but it is nowhere near fully funded. There really should be properly funded help to make work more viable for more women. My income does pay me to work (I’m the main earner and our household income above average) but it’s a rural area and for many on min wage jobs it’s just nonsense.

We love the nursery and I’m not cross with them at all, they have to make a profit, but the system makes me angry as it’s just so poorly considered.

Yes I said c£4.70 - some places will be less, and sometimes more. But I think average is that. It’s shocking. I wish this was made clearer, and I wish it was clearer and stated “partially funded” rather than free. Its also for childCARE, not consumables. So that is also why parents are charged an excess because they still need to feed the child. Even so, I wouldn’t want my child looked after, fed, educated, played with, had his emotional needs met for only £4.70 an hour so when the time comes next year I will happily pay any excess. I think if it was made clearer from
the beginning, there wouldn’t be so much upset and confusion once the time comes. Parents budget for not having to pay for care once they reach 3 and suddenly get a shock when they do

In some areas like mine if you choose a school there aren't enough places. So the school allocates sessions to you. This means you have to find wrap around care which may be a childminder who is happy to collect from the school who you have to pay full price for.

It would be a lot more honest if you just got credits to spend. But its marketed as "free".

I didn't pay anything for DD1 but you provided all food, nappies etc. DD2 there was a snack fund plus extra or trips. But both school nurseries.