Nursery Fee Increases

[Berlioze]

Out of curiosity, how much have your child's nursery fees gone up by in the last 2 years? I think mine have gone up by a ridiculous amount but need a benchmark, %-wise please as I know starting fees will vary depending on the region.

April 2023 - 8% increase
April 2024 - 12% increase

It's absolutely breaking us

Northern Ireland so no free hours here!

April 2023 went from 69.50 to 73 per day.
April this year going up to 76. Birmingham area

Mine have from this month increased by £10 a day from £97 to £107!

Ours have increased from £69 to £75 per day, DD started in 2022 at £59 and it increased after 3 months to £64 and then again to £69. Madness!

sorry I’m terrible at maths so not sure on percentages

They were £75 when I enrolled her last year and have gone up twice. Now £88 a day

They are offering funded hours at £26 a day

No, I don't think that is correct. I think the rate for 3yo is £5 p/h funded, and £5.50 p/h for 2yo.

@Berlioze it is correct ive got the paperwork. I'm happy to pay £26 a day rather than £88 though so I'll happily take it!

What are you talking about, sorry, you've lost me there?

Sorry have I totally mis read that am I supposed to be paying more? It's deff £26 a day

They are a business like any other. They can set their prices. People will pay it. Some people won't.

@Berlioze sorry I think we're just x posting and confusing each other. So the funded hours we pay £26 to cover food and stuff like that

From April she's going in 3 days

Day 1- funded, £26
Day 2- partly funded- £76.50
Day 3- no funding £88

That's our breakdown

It’s crap that it’s gone up so much but it’s not robbery. It’s incredibly expensive and difficult to run a nursery - as an owner why put yourself through that if you’re not going to earn a decent salary doing it?? If owners can’t make a good living there won’t be any around at all.
It’s such a huge responsible job - looking after the welfare and happiness of so many children but also managing a large number of staff where you need to get the balance right of qualifications/ wage to make the job desirable but not pay too much to raise fees etc. not to mention the pressure of expectation from parents and Ofsted. Would you really do that for under 80k? I wouldn’t.
Dont forget the cost of rent, utilities, insurance, caters/food, staff, resources, CPD for staff etc etc

Over the past three years - under 3s have gone from about £50 a day to £58 a day, expecting another increase when 2 year free hours kick in and national min wage increase. East Midlands

Fine, but we as parents have extreme costs to pay on top of extremely expensive childcare.

It's never been cheap but people were moaning not long ago when it was £40 - £50 a day, struggling to cope then. What are we supposed to do now?

I'm in a well paid job but the costs of everything, primary childcare, are stifling. I can't quit because we won't pay any of our bills. I cannot sustain £21k per year in childcare for one child, are those of you saying to suck it up for bloody real? Do your maths and don't come on here with condescending explanations or "helpful posts" such as some will pay and some will not, please. For most of us, it is not a choice.

£801 in April 2022,£943 now (4 days a week)

In the North and we’ve had 30% increase in two years. Now paying £75 a day. Combined with food and energy prices it’s all mad.

That's just how it is. They are looking after children. There's a shortage of staff. It's either pay up or the nursery will fold. They aren't charities

What can be done about this? Ofsted?

You have options-you can change nurseries/find a childminder if you don’t like it. You can’t make them charge less because you think it’s too expensive.

This is happening all over the country in England with the ‘free’ (not free, but partially funded) hours which the governments haven’t funded adequately and haven’t done anything to ensure there are enough places.

It’ll become like NHS dentistry, yes, on paper you are entitled to dental treatment and 15/30 hours of childcare, but if you can’t find any who will accept you because the funding they get via the government is not enough for them to run a business, you have to pay to go private and the waiting lists can be immense.

You can't complain to Ofsted that your nursery fees are too high!

You could complain to your MP?

A nursery is a business. They can charge whatever they like.

Since March 2021 the daily fee at my nursery has gone up £15 a day. New fee for this year is £76 a day. Midlands based.

Another helpful one 🙄 Are you paying similar fees now? Who said they were charities, I must have missed that post.

The nursery I work at is putting fees up by £7 a day.
This will mean they just about break even on £72 a day fee.

Some of you are missing the point.

Up and down the country and within a 10 mile radius from me many nurseries charge a lot less.

We have a cartel where we live where they clearly price matched and screwed us over financially. They could charge less but they won't. And we are forced to pay.

How are you all so passive about it? It's not ok. It's not better service than in a nursery 10 miles away, I read their assessments. This is a robbery and should not be happening. And we shouldn't be justifying it by saying it's a business. It's a necessity not a shop where you can decide how much money to spend. They should not only be better subsidised, but also better regulated and accountable to us for spending public money we are claiming for them, and our money on our kids.