How Do Nursery Fees Work

happyhero

Hi, my wife joined our little boy up with a nursery down the road and he has been going there a while now. We were paying about £11 a session and he had 3 sessions a week but we new this would change when he reached 3. Well he recently reached 3 and they told us it would get cheaper from the first term after he became 3, which he starts next week.

Also we just got our child benefit details through and they included a leaflet. In this leaflet it says 3 and 4 year olds are entitled to a minimum of twelve and a half hours free pre-school a week and some authorities offer as much as 15 hours a week.

Well our little boys sessions are 3 hours long and we are now increasing his sessions to 4 per week, ie 3 x 4 = 12 total, but they still ask a fee of about £1.80 per session. Now I am not so worried as this is not a lot of money, although I would rather not have to pay it and keep it simple, but what bothers me is that I don't understand it. Why are we still paying if 12 1/2 hours should be free?

I asked my wife but at the moment she has no more idea than me. Probably seems a bit nieve but at the moment we don't know how its classsed ie is it private semi-private or what, that they still can charge a fee or is it for a totally different reason that they still charge part of the fee?

When my wife went looking for a nursery for our son, she basically just looked for a good one that was not too expensive, so we don't know if it is classed in some special way etc.

Just want to understand, can anyone here shed any light for me please?

Any help appreciated.

Spendless

It's 2.5 hours per session free, so you are still paying for the time over that.

LJM

the nursery i work at the children get 5 mornings or afternoons (2 1/2 hours a session) free any extra you have to pay a top up payment or wraparound care.

sarahsarah

If he's there for 3 hours session then you are paying for half an hour. Even if you only do four sessions of 3 hours the govenment grant will only cover 2.5 hours of each session.

Otherwise it's because the cost of the nursery is more than the grant that the government give, some private nurseries are more expensive than others because they offer different things, eg some charge more if all meals are cooked from scratch or organic etc, or if they have an extra high staff ratio, the goverment grant wouldn't cover this.

Janepig

I think the free sessions have got to be with certain providers (but I'm not sure about this) - I don't think it can be with just anyone. Also, the free sessions DS is having have to be paid for up until April (I pay £8 per week for two sessions @ £4) and then I get a cheque reimbursing me for the fees paid up until Easter. But the day nursery he goes to at the beginning of the week are only doing it by way of insisting you book an extra day which you get free. Which I wasn't going to do. So I'm not getting the full entitlement of 12 hours (I get 6) but it was the only way it could be done.

Jxx