Nursery funding and meal charges

It’s because the government offer funding up to a certain amount and it doesn’t actually always cover the full hourly cost of having them there for the day. I’m not really sure because I use a childminder and her hourly rate plus the snacks she said was covered by the government funding so I don’t need to pay, but I’ve seen so many people post on here about nurseries doing what yours is doing. Hopefully your fees are at least a little bit reduced which is better than nothing 🤷🏻‍♀️

It is standard practice across nurseries. The 15 free hours is still a good deal even when you factor in paying for the food. I believe they should provide an option for you to provide your own meals and snacks if you don’t want to pay it, but it saves time to use what the nursery provide, and probably money too.

unfortunately so the nursery is still making a profit this is what they do to make up for the shortfall in money. It’s always the paying parents that get penalised the most. It’s the same when it comes to the 30 funded hours, they make up the shortfall by charging more for the daily rate for the under 2s who don’t get the funded hours. This is likely why they’ve made the decision to start charging for meals. In April they will likely increase the daily rate too.

Our meals are included in the daily rate but it went up by a tenner a day in April and our boy is in 5 days so it’s made the bill go up significantly 😭. We’re in Scotland and our government here aren’t doing the funded hours for under 3s x

It's not sneaky, most nurseries do it. The funding they get is so minimal they need to make it up somehow. £5 is pretty good. We pay £11. I'm grateful that I'm still so much better off with the 15 free hours than I was paying in full previously.

We worked it out that to get the 15 hours funded, my boy will have to double his time in nursery and we will be paying more ultimately. 😞 not sure whether to even do it.

No that's actually completely normal. They always charge for meals extra on top of the funding because the funding isn't there to cover meals/snacks. We pay 400 quid a month on top of our funded hours. This covers wrap around care because it only covers 9-3, meals and extra curricular activities they run. It's essentially a discount rather than "free hours". It does actually still save us over 300 quid a month. We still can't afford for him to claim his full 30 he's entitled to though (he's nearly 4). If it wasn't for the saving 300 quid a month we couldn't afford to send him at all.

It’s not sneaky at all, all nurseries do it as the funding they get from the government doesn’t actually cover the costs.

And the 15 hours are not free as much as it seems everyone on here keeps saying it is 🙄 they are funded hours.

Mine charges £24.50 on funded days which is absolute robbery!! I’ve no problem paying a top-up but that amount is ridiculous. I’ve queried how they’ve calculated this and why it’s so high and they’re taking a very long time to come back to me…

Thank you all. I thought it was sneaky that we don’t currently have to pay the additional £5 charge and lo is in one day a week but will in sept as soon as the funded hours start when lo is in 3 days.
But the government are giving the funds to the nursery so the nurseries are not losing money though are they?

The funding from the government only covers the care element not consumables such as food etc. However I think the rate they pay is below what it costs to deliver the care which is why rates are otherwise so high and why many nurseries charge top-ups meant to be for consumables but secretly covering more of their costs.

No what the government gives them doesn’t cover the entire cost. So yes they are losing money.

This is how my childminder broke it down for me (and she said it’s the same for nurseries)…

What the government give the nursery, doesn’t cover their full rate. So for example, if your nursery charges £9 per hour, they get around £6 from the government and need to make up £3 to cover their costs.

From the nursery side, they have to report figures back to the council/government regarding how many children have funded hours etc.
Care providers aren’t allowed to charge a “top-up” fee (which would be the most simplest way to make up their hourly rate, and is what they use to do), so they have to be creative and “charge for food”.

They have to do this for every day that a child attends, otherwise it would be flagged via the reporting process.

Hopefully if you work out the total across a month and compare to the cost without any free funding, it will show you are making a saving.

Not sneaky at all, funding system is shockingly underfunded.

Ok thank you but then I shouldn’t pay the extra £5 on the days I pay for them right? As I don’t pay for them now

How are you working that out? You’ve had multiple people tell you it’s completely normal so why are you still thinking you shouldn’t be paying anything? £5 a day is literally pennies for childcare.

Id double check the contract and conditions for the days you fully pay for. All nurseries will do this differently