Nursery want £400 pm for "free" hours?

[5minutestobed]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me understand. My son has just turned three so I have been looking for a nursery so he can get his funded hours. I went to see one the other day and they sent me an email explaining the funding. They want £400 pm even though he would only be doing 15 hours a week?! Can someone explain how they can charge this much for free hours?! Is this a normal thing for private nurseries?
I thought free meant free!

[AndNowItsSeven]

Makes sense now re hours however £24 a week for lunches is not £400 a month!

[OhFuds]

£400

Would it not be better if he went to a council run nursery for his free hours?

[5minutestobed]

I live in a not very nice area so I don't want to send him to the catchment school nursery. (I realise that might make me sound a bit snobbish)
It seems just about impossible to find another nursery where he can just do his free hours though.

[JeanGenie23]

These free hours are such an ill thought out idea.
I hate hate hate them! I am a CM and only accept funded hours for a full time place otherwise I am taking such a cut in my wage. For years I have managed to operate without using funded hours but more and more people are requesting that they only do 15hours with me and it's just not feasible.

[Sunshineonacloudyday]

Term time is when schools are open and that is what the government is funding school term time hours. The nursery should not be charging you for 3 hours because they will get this money from the government. I have heard the free hours they give to parents they have to wait a long time to get that money back from the government. Find somewhere else they are pulling the wool over your eyes.

[Sunshineonacloudyday]

• 15 hours sorry.

[ninjapants]

It may be that the 'free hours' are only available at certain times eg. 8.30-11.30 Mon-Fri, and if you were to use hours outside of those times you would have to pay. Or it could be that you have to pay upfront then they refund the money to you. If you haven't applied for funding for a place at the private nursery then you may not get it at all as some councils don't offer funding for this, or only fund a limited number of places. It varies from area to area for some reason.

If you don't like the nearby council run nursery could you ask for a place at another in your area? As nurseries don't have catchment areas like schools do, our local authority only guarantees a place at a nursery in the town or area in which a child lives, which may not necessarily be at the closest nursery.

I'd definitely ask for a breakdown and explanation as to why they expect you to pay them £400 per month, whether you are receiving funding for the place at all and how you will be reimbursed, and any 'extras' you may be paying for.

[Sunshineonacloudyday]

I would put your snob down and apply for the local nursery at your nearest school. It will be less hassle for you.

[Sunshineonacloudyday]

He has to learn to get on with all types of people. Was you planning on sending him to the catchment school or another.

[SauvignonPlonker]

I wish the term "15 hours free" wasn't used. IME, it is only "free" if you use school nurseries in term- time only.

If you use private nursery, it's more like a government contribution towards childcare & is about £2k pa, which the nursery discounts from fees.

My DD has just become eligible for the funding; she does 2.5 days a week at private nursery & the funding is applied retrospectively. So although her birthday was in April, she was entitled to the money from August onwards & the private nursery discount her fees from December onwards ( as the council don't give them the funding till November).

Instead of paying around £6.4k for her year-round nursery place, I'll pay £4.3k. Still a significant amount but better than a slap in the face.

Very few private nurseries can offer completely "free" hours as the council pay less than their running costs.

I think your options are either:

• local catchment nursery
• applying out of catchment (but your DC will go to their catchment school, so will lose friends when having to move back for school)
• pay private nursery & suck up the costs.

[5minutestobed]

Thanks for all the replies. We are planning on moving to a different country next summer so the school catchment area thing doesn't matter. I will maybe look into out of catchment nurseries although I'm not sure if I've left it too late to get a place. We can't afford to pay £400 pm.
That is the amount minus the "free hours btw" or we could pay the full fees of £580 and get money refunded when the council pay them the money.

[SauvignonPlonker]

That's similar to what I pay too, £530 per month before discount. Childcare is so expensive.

Hopefully a school nursery will have a place nearby for your DC.

[rollonthesummer]

The 30 free hours was a stupid government vote winner that childcare providers just can't afford to offer without going under!

[TheGruffaloMother]

You'd have been paying 580 per month for 2.5 days' care? For that I'd want Mary Poppins herself.

Have they given you the breakdown of the 40p yet? Because it looks like it covers 2 lunches a week.

[chocomochi]

Looks like they are only giving you 3 hours per day "free" (9-12), so are charging you 12-4 for both days.

[Igneococcus]

Do they probably reimburse you at the end of term?
The nursery my dc went to did this for children who did not only attend the free 2.5 h (it was a few years ago) per day. I paid fully each month and at the end of term I would get money back for the free hours. The money changed every time depending on what the council felt was the right amount and the number of eligible children who attended the nursery that term. It was a bit of a mess but tbf to the nursery, they did usually return enough money to cover the free hours.
Also, ds whose birthday is on the 23rd December didn't qualify for free hours during the spring term because he didn't turn 3 during the previous term (which ended on the 21st or 22nd that year). I never found out if they were bullshitting me but I missed out on hundreds of pounds during a time when it would have been very welcome.

[OnlyEatsToast]

'Free funding' in Scotland esp in private nurseries is a myth . All hype but practically useless. My 3yo gets no funding

[Eminybob]

That can't be right. I pay £400pm for 2 full days, non funded. I know that costs differ from area to area, but even if you are in central London that still seems ridiculous.

[BikeRunSki]

Surely it's 2 lunches per week @ £12/ lunch, and the cost of days out of term time, spread over the whole year.

[SauvignonPlonker]

I'm £530 for 2.5 days a week in Edinburgh, sounds about right for round here.

London nurseries are about £70-80ish per day

[jelly10]

When my DC were in preschool (a year ago now so it may have changed) you could only have a certain number of funded hours per day - I think it was 5 maximum (that wasn't the nursery's decision, it was part of the government scheme rules). So if he's doing 9-4 that's 7 hours and they may be charging you for 2 of them - plus lunches etc. as PP have said.

[MephistoMarley]

£12 per lunch? this place is taking the piss. If you don't want her going to school in the rough area that's one thing but nursery is nursery. A nursery in a rough area will still be full of tiny children and the staff will be no worse than your posh over charging nursery.

[Bovneydazzlers]

I think you're getting 6 weeks where they are open (£3,480) but it's not term time. Plus £24 per week for the rest of the time for lunches. Divide that over 12 months, and you get roughly £400.

[Allyoucaneat]

In our council you can't use 'free' hours with private nursery. It needs to be a school nursery 5 days per week 8:30-11:30 or 12:30-3:30.

Completely useless for most working parents as wrap around care for preschool is non existent .

We used a private nursery as we both worked but couldn't get any discount on the fees

[thatsn0tmyname]

I assumed that you could compress the free hours to suit you- you can't. My son did a day and a half a week at nursery but we still paid £167 a month. The day is broken down into free and paid sessions and August has no free sessions at all. It's all very confusing and annoying.