Nursery cost.
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I’m a childminder and therefore aware of the way the government pays the 15hrs. Knowing this it makes total sense. All nurseries and childminders will have had to change their payment methods according to the Surrey council term time dates. Hope that helps
We pay 12 payments per year. They invoice us by dividing the cost for 51 weeks by 12 so we pay the same amount each month, regardless if there’s 4 or 5 weeks. We don’t get the funded hours as we’re in Scotland so I’m not sure how that should work but I imagine they would just factor in what this would equate to in terms of the number of weeks in a year that your child attends and add in the cost of anything not funded like food and other materials? Seems strange to charge you weekly x
I think you should check what they will do in the future as my friend's nursery does similar and it's a couple of hundred each month then jumps to 700 over Easter, Christmas and summer because the funded hours aren't covered then. It'll all work out the same but might be a shock of you haven't accounted for it I'm advance.
I think they’re trying to get more money. My daughter’s weekly cost are £122 x 52 weeks then divide by 12 = £528 per month, which is £6344 for the year. This September to September 2025, I’ve calculated there are 5 months with 5 weeks and the remaining have 4 weeks. For the year that’s £6466. That’s £610 per month, when I have to pay for 5 weeks. When I joined the nursery all calculations were done using weekly cost x 52 weeks divide by 12. Why has it changed!! Doesn’t seem right to me. Paying different amounts every month is annoying to me!
Regardless of the funded hours, I’m paying for 1.5 days per week for the whole year. Why is it being calculated like this!?
Because government funding is based on weeks and exact dates, it can’t be accurately calculated monthly. As you have highlighted yourself, some months have more weeks or days than others and if you are using government funding, their dates dictate how payments work out weekly. All child carers have to adhere to the council system if they want to be paid. I would suggest you simply ask your nursery to explain the change to you and give feedback about how monthly was better for you. The nursery should be able to explain in detail and the new government will hopefully be asking for feedback from nurseries and childminders soon and changes are likely so it would be valuable knowledge to them.
We pay different each month to the childminder. It could be because the funded hours are term time only and if your child is going all year they may just claim for the term time. Some nurseries stretch the hours so its the same each month, some use it termly.