Is it impossible to get a 1 year old a place in a council nursery in Glasgow?

[warmcupcoffee]

How does it all work?

DP and I both work and have a combined salary of 80k pa. We don't have anyone who can help out with childcare so we'd have to look at nurseries from about 11 months. I'm calculating private nursery fees at least £75 a day which would be £1.5k a month, which is obviously an arm and a leg

Are council nurseries which take that age impossible to get a place in?

Pretty impossible for someone in your circumstances yes. Council places for babies tend to ficus on the most needy or vulnerable children and not ones from two parent home with a very comfortable salary.

You will need to go private unless there's something in your circumstances which would put your child into a priority category.

Council run nurseries usually only take children from age 3-5. Some of the newer Early Years Centres have a small intake of 2yr olds who pay the standard council hourly rate (roughly £6/hr) for a morning session. If you're using a nursery because you work then you'll need a private nursery not a council one.

An 80k combined salary means you can afford a private nursery. We are in South East England and pay almost £2k a month for our two at nursery four days a week.

Have you looked at Tax free childcare? Cuts a bit off the bill

If cost is an issue look at a childminder instead, they may have a cheaper rate closer to £5/hr.

All childcare is expensive though, until the 1140hours of funding kicks in at age 3.

No, I need to look at it all and maybe try to balance each of us going to 4 days etc.

How do you go about booking (?) a childminder? Can you do that before a baby is born?

It's hard to do while keep ttc private, so thank you.

Contact childminders in your local area and see what their pokicies are (search on childcare.co.uk or careinspectorate.com to check their ratings and get a feel for them if you don't want to ask anyone in real life)

Some will have waiting lists a good few months in advance. Remember childminders are self employed and set their own terms. Check their policies for holiday, meals, how many children of different ages they mind, what schools they drop off to etc. A childminder is "at home" care so its very different to a nursery and you need to do your research.

It is a lot of research. Thank you for posting those links, lots to think about.

You can get cheaper than £75! What one was that?

Council run nurseries only do from aged 3 here. I’ve never heard of one that takes younger children. We have a slightly lower combined salary and live in the SE. Our nursery is £1,200 for 4 days. Despite our salary, our childcare bill means we have hardly any disposable income. It’s the same for most people we know. It seems to be a choice between paying nursery fees or one of you being a SAHP. Either way it’s tough financially unless you have grandparents willing to help.

Rising star nurseries are all over ggow and from £42 a day- take from 6 weeks?

My daughter attends a council nursery. She started just after turning 1. I put the application form in when she was 6 weeks old though. They do a panel 2/3 times a year and give spaces to those who need it most. My & DP both work but on low incomes and i needed it for going back to work which just happens to be GCC so don't know if that helped me.

I also use a childminder a few days a week that charges £25 for a half day or £40 for a full day.

The first one I googled tbh

There seems like so much to decide. Thank you so much for all the help.

If you haven't conceived then you don't need to worry just yet! Look round nurseries once pregnancy and sign up once baby born

And start saving now

We're just not sure if it's best to save save save for a year or two or just go for it. I'm early 30s and so broody but we need to be sensible too.

Whatever the prices are now, add 10 percent given inflation - sure nurseries are facing significant wage and other cost increases.