30 Hours Free Childcare - Our Nursery Has Bumped up Costs - 5 day week =£351 a month?

Merchandiser2367

Hi there,

Has anyone else experienced these costs for the 30 'free' hours??

Our nursery want to charge £351 a month for a 38 week term? £610 a month to stretch this to 51 weeks a year!

What is everyone else being charged for their 'free' hours?

Not so free it seems?

IAmWales

The government are not paying nearly enough to cover costs. Nurseries need to bump up the extras to cover the shortfall.

Contact your MP and let them know how you feel about being misled.

Merchandiser2367

IAmWales wrote: »

The government are not paying nearly enough to cover costs. Nurseries need to bump up the extras to cover the shortfall.

Contact your MP and let them know how you feel about being misled.

Yes I have seen/heard the line which is fair enough but would be good to see a comparison with other parents to see what costs they are being charged to see how standard it is across the board.

Darksparkle

What do these extra cost cover?

Merchandiser2367

Darksparkle wrote: »

What do these extra cost cover?

Just the standard childcare, Mon- Fri. 8.30 - 3.30.

Darksparkle

Merchandiser2367 wrote: »

Just the standard childcare, Mon- Fri. 8.30 - 3.30.

Not necessarily standard childcare. My provider is 8-6. So you'd have to pay for the excess hours, non term time, food, additional lessons/trips.

Merchandiser2367

Darksparkle wrote: »

Not necessarily standard childcare. My provider is 8-6. So you'd have to pay for the excess hours, non term time, food, additional lessons/trips.

We can do these hours as well at our nursery but obviously this is not then 30 hours a week so would expect to pay more outside this.

This is for standard childcare - 8.30 - 3.30 - Mon to Fri. Lunch breaks are not included in the 'free' hours so there are 5 hours a week there to pay but the nursery has said as they aren't getting paid enough by the government, they have bumped up the hourly rate of the 'free' hours.

So parents have to pay these bumped up costs so they work out no where nearly free at all.

Merchandiser2367

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

So you have 35 hours per week childcare minus 30 free hours. Does this mean for 5 hours per week for 38 weeks (not even a full year), you are paying £351 per month?

More in line as government aren't paying nurseries enough so there are in face no 'free' hours as these still have a cost to parents.

That's why I was interested in knowing what other parents have been quoted from September onwards on the new scheme?

Merchandiser2367

Merchandiser2367 wrote: »

More in line as government aren't paying nurseries enough so there are in face no 'free' hours as these still have a cost to parents.

That's why I was interested in knowing what other parents have been quoted from September onwards on the new scheme?

Just to add to this, the government only offer 38 weeks a year help (do they think parents get 14 weeks holiday a year!!? lol)

Our nursery offers a'stretch' solution so you can spread the 38 government payments across 51 weeks a year (they shut for Xmas week) so this then works out to £610 a month!!

There you go, £610 a month for 30 'free' hours a week!

alipops1986

We've moved our little boy from Nursery to preschool due to issues surrounding how you can take the 30 free hours.

Nursery were only doing the free hours Mon, Tues, Wed 8am - 6pm - anything before 8am you had to pay for. So, I'd have to pay for 7:30am - 8am, even though I always pick my son up at 5pm if not before, so don't need 5pm-6pm. Meals for these free hours were £12 a day which we'd have to pay.
Thurs & Fri would have to be paid as full days so £48 a day.
This was term time only, as we both work in education. However, due to the way they work it out, we wouldn't be saving a great deal at all really.

So, we've moved our little boy to preschool. 9am - 3pm everyday for free. We're using our childcare vouchers to pay for breakfast club in the morning including breakfast, and two afterschool clubs - totalling £150 a month from our vouchers. Lunch is £2:10 a day, and we're sending a pack up for the after school club days. This is working out far cheaper for us, and we feel as though we're getting a better deal for the free hours.

I completely understand why Nursery imposed the hours as they did - they have to make their business work. However, they've actually lost quite a few children because of it.

Alipops x

Merchandiser2367

alipops1986 wrote: »

We've moved our little boy from Nursery to preschool due to issues surrounding how you can take the 30 free hours.

Nursery were only doing the free hours Mon, Tues, Wed 8am - 6pm - anything before 8am you had to pay for. So, I'd have to pay for 7:30am - 8am, even though I always pick my son up at 5pm if not before, so don't need 5pm-6pm. Meals for these free hours were £12 a day which we'd have to pay.
Thurs & Fri would have to be paid as full days so £48 a day.
This was term time only, as we both work in education. However, due to the way they work it out, we wouldn't be saving a great deal at all really.

So, we've moved our little boy to preschool. 9am - 3pm everyday for free. We're using our childcare vouchers to pay for breakfast club in the morning including breakfast, and two afterschool clubs - totalling £150 a month from our vouchers. Lunch is £2:10 a day, and we're sending a pack up for the after school club days. This is working out far cheaper for us, and we feel as though we're getting a better deal for the free hours.

I completely understand why Nursery imposed the hours as they did - they have to make their business work. However, they've actually lost quite a few children because of it.

Alipops x

Thanks Alipops,

When you say preschool, is this part of a standard school? Our Nursery offers preschool but are subject to the same costs as mentioned above?

Thanks