cheapest nursery/ pre school? where? which ones? how much do you pay?

[cheapandchic]

A friend of mine told me that the cheapest nursery were usually the funded ones attached to the children's centre...

but the one near me is still charging 24 per half day. is that the normal rate?
what do you pay? daughter is 2.5...should I just wait until 3 years old when it is free?

What do you want the child care for?
If your after a couple of hours to allow your DD to socalise, and give you a little break, try to find a playgroup. The one round us does school hours, term time for a couple of £ a session.

If you need cover for work, your paying what I pay, and we seem to live in a cheapish part of the country for childcare - but your paying for the ability to drop them off early more than anything else. One full day seems to work out cheaper than 2 half days for me.

Children's centre nurseries are at least as expensive as private ones where I am, but much higher quality of course.

I think that rates vary around the country. We pay £43 for a full day 8am to 6pm. Also it depends on what is included for your £24 and how many hours you get.

The local pre school charges £12 for 3 hours, but that only includes one snack and no meals. They have poor facilites and fewer toys than the more expensive nursery. DD's nursery has a ratio of 1 to 6 where as the local pre school has a ratio of 1 to 8.

A lot depends on what you are paying for.

What do you mean a playgroup? None of the playgroups around here allow you to leave your child?

I am looking for a break yes, to socialise, but also I work part time from home and need a few hours to make phone calls and emails.

you think the children's centre are better than private??

I just can't seem to find anything affordable, nor that doesn't have a 2 year waiting list.

Round here it's private nursery at about £25 for half day, or pre-school/playgroup which charges £8 for a 2.5 hour session. The playgroup are not for profit, and are altogether smaller and less smart. I prefer them personally, since I don't need it to cover work.

Children's centres will be better in terms of staff ratios, staff qualifications/training, resources etc as they have bigger budgets and pay staff much better than private nurseries.

There are playgroups that take children from around 2-4 that normally operate for a few hours a morning in term time - they are often run by church groups. You leave your child so they aren't like parent and toddler groups.

Where I live there are a lot of private nurseries and community pre-schools. They generally provide the same both with regards to education and facilities. They generally range from £3 to £5 per hour, we live in a busy city so maybe its because there are so many of them that the rates are low. There is one every 10 minutes walk at least, in fact there are 4 within 10 minutes walk from my house, 3 are community ones (at around £3 per hour) and the other private (£5 per hour). The private ones are more expensive as they do 8-6 care all year, the term time only ones are less as they are usually charities but they are not really 'playgroups' and are run by qualified staff and follow the Early Years curriculum.

I assumed this was the same everywhere?

If you contact your local council they should have details of all the local childcare provisions or go onto the Ofsted website and do a search using your post code.

By play group, I was referring to a service round here where there are qualified staff, and you can pay to leave your child for a few hours. You need to book in advance, and generally have the same sessions each week for the term - ie they operate like a nursery, but on shorter hours, so have lower costs. Sounds like they have a different name elsewhere.
Sorry if I confused things

ok maybe that is why I am confused. The one I am probably going to go to is 24 for only 3 hours, no meals.

its at the children centre, so I just don't understand why its so expensive, since they have state funding.

I am happy that the staff seem very qualified though. They said ratio should be 1 to 4 but lets see if it stays that way, I think they may be taking more children:(

Children's centres get some state funding, but still have to cover a lot of their costs through fees. But there's a big difference in CC staff earning £15k-£20k, whereas a private nursery pays staff minimum wage.

The ratio for a 2 year old will always be 1:4 minimum, it's a legal requirement - so they can't take on more children if it changes that ratio.

just to flag I wouldn't neccessarily go for the cheapest option - if cost is a factor a good child minder may be better than the cheapest nursery - visit them and see what they are like but don't make a decision purely on cost

sorry - just to add childrens centres do get state funding however in most areas children need to be 3 before they get a funded place (15 hours per week in term time or same amount of hours annualised) so even if the childrens centre gets some funding, it doesn't necc make the places cheaper for all parents. our local childrens centre nursery is fantastic but the cost is about the same as for other local private nurseries - its not hte case that if you go to a chidrens centre the cost is lower/subsidised. hope you find a solution thats right for you

ok thats fine. If that is the way it is...I just wanted to check to see if that price was common/ in line with other places.

The children's centre nursery my ds's used to go to cost me £11.50 per morning per child. That was 9-12. I then paid £1.90 per day/per child for lunch which took them to 12.30.

I looked at lots of nurseries and all of them where over double that price. We went for the Sure Start nursery because it was the best one by far.

The cheapest pre-school I have found which is a community one in a church hall is £13 for 3 hours. The others charge around £25 for similar hours. Day nurseries are around £35 for a half day session or £60 for a full day. The pre-school my DD went to now charges £1500 a term for 16 hours a week so my youngest is going to the church pre-school mentioned above.

Our local community preschool charges £9.90 for a 3 hour session (which is funded once they're 3 but they can go there from 2.5 if you pay), plus an extra hour lunch club is £3 (you give them a packed lunch). It also feeds well into the local primary so seemed the logical place for DDs to go. It depends what you're after - nurseries are care establishments that offer a bit of education, preschools are education establishments that also provide care ikswim? So for me I'd rather they went to a slightly more structured setting that prepared them for school (the fact that it was cheaper than anywhere else and right at the bottom of the road did help that decision though!).