Please can someone explain childcare costs to me?

[butterflycr]

Please explain to me like I'm 5 because I don't get it.

Currently pregnant with my first DC, due in August. Household income less than £100k. I work part time (22 hours), partner is full time. SE England if it's relevant.

I know the govt are bringing in 30 free hours for 9 months +, but I see so many people on here complaining about childcare costs, even though their child is getting the free hours, and I'm confused.

Am I right in thinking that if I put my baby in nursery anytime from 9 months old - May 2026 - it will be free for 30 hours a week? (except for meal costs etc on top maybe but surely that won't be crazy expensive??)

Or are there more extra expenses that I don't know about? How much is it actually likely to cost?

And do I need to start looking for a nursery before they are born?

TIA!

Ours will only allow funded hours to be used between 9am-3pm. We drop off at 8.45 and pick up at 5.15 so need to pay for four additional hours per day at £8 an hour. Plus a monthly fee for consumables and meals on top of that. With the 30 funded hours applied (spread over the year rather than term time) and attending 4 days a week we pay £890 a month. This is £300 more than we paid for my eldest when he attended for the same hours three years ago, so it’s gone up massively and I can only assume it’s due to the way nurseries have changed fee structures in response to the changes to the childcare scheme.

I can't imagine for a second that many nurseries round my way are going to be able to offer 30 hours of childcare, funded or otherwise for all 9m+ that want it-they are closing left right and centre and the ones that are left just don't have the capacity. The best one near me (near a station, so very popular with commuter parents) isn't offering any funded hours at all as they just don't need to-they have a long waiting list and the funded hours are inadequate and a complicated nightmare.

I have a strong suspicion that this amazing 30 hours childcare will be on a par with NHS dentistry. You might be eligible for it in theory, but if you can't find someone prepared to offer it, you'll have to pay full whack-if you can find someone to do it!

Thank you all, I'm so glad I asked here, this thread is so helpful!

I'm wondering whether a childminder would be more flexible in the hours, do they tend to allow you to drop off/ pick up at more flexible times using the funding?

There's a nursery just across the road from me though which I've always thought looked lovely, so it would be amazing to get in there!

I will book a tour/ speak to them of course, I know it will vary, just asking here for a general idea.

It could be that they offer 9-3 funded every day, term time only - and you pay £10 an hour for extra hours and full days in the holidays.
They might let you have 2 funded days and pay for the third.
They might take 7 hours off each of your funded days.
They might total up all your hours for the term and take 390 funded hours off it.
Basically it's impossible to guess without knowing what the individual nurseries funding policy is.

Childminders policies will vary too but they tend to be more flexible and cheaper/free.

If the nursery is open 8-6 they will usually charge you 8-6 regardless of when you drop off/pick up.
Unless its a nursery that allows half days (ours doesn't) but again those are usually set times eg 8-1 then 1-6.
So you couldn't do say 9-5 and only pay for 8 hours.
30 hours term time spread over the whole year is something like 22 hours a week. So would only cover just over 2 full days at nursery. So you'd have to pay full price for the third day + the 'top up fees', which I think they can't make 'compulsory' but ours does it as 'food' and as they're an allergy friendly nursery you can't bring your own food in and if you want to feed your child something else and therefore avoid the top up fees then you have to take them off site in the middle of the day to feed them which is obviously impossible for most working parents.
As an example for 3 days a week at our nursery full price would be ~£970 but 3 days a week using the funded 30 hours would be ~£430 which breaks down to ~£230 for the extra hours needed to do 3 full days and ~£200 food top up fee.
Our nursery has a very long waitlist so for our second we booked our place after our 20 week scan. With our first we waited until she was born and could only get 2 days starting when I needed to go back to work and had to wait almost 6 months for the third day.
I would not wait until the baby is born nowadays as demand for spaces is higher since the funding was expanded so the waitlists are longer than in previous years.
This will also give you a better idea of how the funding is being applied at that nursery and how the costs will work out for you. (For example the nursery near us that does half days only allows the funding to be used for the morning session and not the afternoon session)

This took me a long time to really work out and for it to stick in my head. The main components I had to get my head around were:

1. Funded hours cover 38 weeks of the year, not 50/52 (but usually can be spread)
2. You still have daily charges on top of this (food, supplies etc), usually between £6 - £15 depending on your area
3. Funding does not become applicable until the term after your child turns 9 months. If they turn 9 months in July for example, their funding would start in September.

I had many many spreadsheets going to try and work this out, and even now when my invoice arrives, it never makes sense (although it's usually only a few £ out!).

I did use this childcare calculator https://childcarecalculator.co.uk/ a lot, but you need to speak to nurseries first to find out their daily charges, daily fees, how they spread funded hours and how you can use these hours (half days etc).