30 hours free childcare and top-up fees

[pellegrinofernando]

@chuckpeterson At my LA we do not allow top up fees to be charged and food and drink must be reasonably priced with parents being given the option to provide their own.

My professional opinion is that you are getting reamed so query it with your LA's Early Years team.

 

[justthisone]

@pellegrinofernando What is an LA?

 

[arielah]

@justthisone Usually Local Authority

 

[justthisone]

@arielah Seems obvious now, thanks for clarifying

 

[needsomeadvice]

@chuckpeterson This is not par for the course at our nursery. They class a full day as a fixed number of hours and deduct the hours accordingly (but they do add a small amount for food etc). It has reduced our bill by about 50 % on average. I say on average because we only take our hours during term time - you have the choice to spread them or take them only in term time, but if you spread them you lose a few if you take holidays outside of term time due to the way they charge a holding fee (or whatever they call it).

 

[melaniee]

@chuckpeterson you can also try registering with an actual primary school that do full time hours. That way no other costs. The school simply takes 30 hours funding from the gov/LA. The only costs to parents are the meals. And it's 5 days a week term time 8:45 to 3:20. Plus they settle into Reception really easily as they progress on.

 

[thomaslowrens]

@chuckpeterson I had an issue with free childcare hours and a nursery. After trying to sort it via email, then sending them the parts they were breaching and asking them to reply by x date, I finally went to the council who sorted it out for me relatively quickly.

 

[lovefirst36]

@chuckpeterson Mine went down from about 550 to just over 200 with the free hours.

Tbh I'm not sure I fully understand it, but the hours are pro rata over school terms, so you still have to pay some, if that makes sense.

There are also the extras on top as they say, food, etc is still charged.

I was also disappointed with how much it went down but it sounds like it is pretty common.

 

[resjudicata]

@chuckpeterson You’re right and they aren’t allowed to do this.

There was a court case a few years back where a nursery had to repay a parent all the excess they’d been charged. Since then the Gov has tightened up.

They can:

Take the 30 hours, pro rats across the whole year and reduce your fee by that number of hours. I.e, you pay for the hours outside of 9-3pm and also for food and nappies (my nursery has us supply our nappies anyway).

What your nursery is doing is taking the £4.61 that the Gov pays for 9-3pm and then taking that cost off your bill.

 

[lovethemitten]

@chuckpeterson Goddamn London is expensive.

We have the same situation wherein we have gained the free hours this month.

Was paying £400ish for 2 days a week (North East). And now pay around £120.

 

[duke845]

@chuckpeterson Your bill should be reduced by 95 hours per month then sundries added (reasonable fee's for food etc).

They aren't allowed to do what they're doing.

If you use the nursery full time, for example 45 hours a week, your bill should be slightly over half what it was before so approx £900-£950 per month.

 

[phoenix23]

@duke845 If the nursery is open all day (12h say 7am to 7pm), that 22h per week will be used up in 1.8 days so OP would still need to pay full cost for 2.2 days, plus the additional food/nappies for the free 1.8 days. All considered, the bill would be higher than £900-950

Edit: comment below has corrected me. OP would get 22h per week, calculation above adjusted

 

[duke845]

@phoenix23 It's 1140 hours per year whether used term time or not so 95 hours per month if you pay monthly invoices.

Weekly all year round, it's 22 hours, not 17.

The funding is claimed each term by the provider so if they charge monthly, it will be however many invoices were issued in that term.

If they apply the core hour option, there's 120 (more for months with 30 or 31 days) hours in the month the funded hours can be used so OP would get the full 95 hours deducted and pay for any time before 9, any time after 3 and sundries/food.

That's the proper way to do it. Core hour option or just a straight deduction.

I'm a childminder and know that some councils also pay snack supplements to nurseries and childminders so some nurseries are really taking the biscuit when trying to simply deduct what they get from the council (it's more than £5 per hour FYI) against their full charges and still applying food fee's.

The nursery also get training for their staff via the council using the funded hours so that saves them money too.

 

[needsafriendtochatto]

@duke845 Just to clarify…not all councils offer snack supplements and not all councils pay the same rate of funding… I am also a childminder and I do not get any snack supplements and my funded rate from my council is nowhere near £5 an hour!!

 

[duke845]

@needsafriendtochatto The average across London was £5.67 in 2020, it's increased since then. Wandsworth for example is almost £6 per hour

 

[needsafriendtochatto]

@duke845 Outside London…my area is currently £4.21

 

[duke845]

@needsafriendtochatto OP's in London, hence my comment about London.

I'm not in London either but everything in London is more than everywhere else. Even minimum wage!

 

[needsafriendtochatto]

@duke845 Good point…just didn’t want any others reading thinking all were the same

 

[duke845]

@needsafriendtochatto Of course not. It's just in OP's case, I think they're being ripped off by this nursery. The nursery will be getting around £6 an hour for the funded space so £6,840 a year. I'm not sure on snack supplement as only some councils do it.

So OP is paying £15,600 a year and the nursery are claiming £6,840 a year in funding. That's £22,440 for one child!

That's what we'd get for 3 pre schoolers full time plus school kids before and after school! They get that for one child! It's crazy.

 

[needsafriendtochatto]

@duke845 I completely agree 100%. I think they have some big issues to raise either with the nursery or their Council that provides the funding. They are getting ripped off with the figures they have quoted most definitely