Nursery top up fees

Legally it says they have to provide ‘reasonable alternatives’, and I would saying having to collect your child for meals is unreasonable. You can complain to your local authority, but not sure where that actually gets you.

Our planned nursery has the same rules, I think it justified to say no packed lunches - when we were touring they had all the children algeries on the wall - it would be really tricky you to keep up with those and the risk of cross contamination... but it does still seem impossible to pick up for each meal/ snack time!

As above, some settings won’t allow food bought in from home in order to make sure children with allergies aren’t at risk. And if that’s their stance, then the next reasonable alternative is that children can go home for meals and return after, there isn’t really anything else they can offer is there? They don’t HAVE to allow you to provide your own food, they only HAVE to allow you to ‘opt out’ of that consumable charge, which they’ve done- though obviously totally impractical for most people.

Same for mine. You can’t take food in from home. This is a fairly ‘normal’ policy for private nurseries. To be fair £1.6 per funded hour is very good! We still pay £46 per day for funded days!

The problem is the national average amount the government pays the nursery doesn't match real costs and they have to pay for this stuff somewhere right?
It's impossible for them to run at such a substantial loss without compromising safety, engagement, care etc I know amt is discussing banning this but I don't see a way around it unless they fully fund actual costs which they are not going to do. Else, they will close and we won't have childcare available to be able to work!
It's a nightmare all round x

£1.60/hr is pretty reasonable and probably just about covers the shortfall between government funding and costs.
We pay £12.50 per funded day plus meals (£2.70) and nappies/wipes (£1.50) because they do so much and the staff also deserve a true living wage.
Unfortunately the cost of providing lunch also includes the cost of staffing and ensuring ratios for lunch. Between managing allergies and packed lunches taking staff away from watching everyone eating, because 90% of the time there are a billion things to open in a lunchbox, it isn’t as simple as opting out and bringing in a packed lunch.

£1.60 an hour for meals and consumables? They are using this as a get around of being allowed to charge for these and not allowed to charge a top up hourly rate. That amount of money a day is ridiculous and so cheeky, I know they don't get enough money from the government but they are being super sneaky about what they're doing!

I pay £11 something a ‘day’ (she goes 5.5 hours daily) which covers food and consumables.

I called up the other day to ask if we still need to pay for days off - stating there’s a few days we’ve already informed them off that she won’t be attending and was told we still needed to pay 🙂🙂

I think its quiet normal. I pay £10.10 a day for consumables. I couldn't make her the amount of food they provide with the variety and with the time I do have free for that cost

We get charged £7 a day for 12 hour day in Plymouth for extras they need to provide (food, suncream etc). So I think £15ish a day is very normal price for near London

I think it's a reasonable fee. We're lucky to get any funded hours tbh, so paying the top up fee really doesn't bother me.

My first nursery didn't charge anything for funded hours, and we had to send all food and snacks. Our new nursery doesn't allow you to send any food in, and charges £10 a day to cover consumables including nappies and wipes

I would say that’s pretty reasonable, and it’s also super common for nurseries to charge on top of the funded hours.
Unfortunately if that is their policy you’ll either need to pay it or choose a different nursery, I highly doubt they’ll make an exception.

I’m confused, what’s the £1.60 for ?