What is the current situation?
The majority of our parents qualify for so-called ‘free’ (actually government funded) childcare places but pay extra for things their child needs while they are at nursery – mainly meals and snacks. Parents can bring their own nappies and we provide suncream, extra wipes and nappies if a child runs out. This is because the government’s funding is designed to cover the cost of the care a child receives while they are at nursery – and not any added ‘extras’.
These payments make up for a loss of income that we would get from parents who pay the full amount themselves and allows us to offer the same quality of care to all children, rather than offering a two-tier system.
New rules make paying for chargeable extras ‘voluntary’
From 1 April 2025, we can only ask funded parents for a ‘voluntary’ contribution – meaning you can choose to pay or not. These extras include:
- meals and snacks
- consumables used by your child, such as nappies, wipes and cream
- optional activities such as events, celebrations and specialist tuition
If you fully fund your child’s nursery place from your own income, there is no change. This is because meals, trips and consumables are already included in monthly fees, so it’s business as usual for you.
In addition, the new statutory guidance has confirmed that early years providers must make all additional charges – whether for nappies, wipes or food including lunch, snacks, breakfast and tea – clear and upfront to parents, and that these charges must not be included as a condition for parents accessing their free hours.
So what does this means for you and your child?
The fallout from the new guidance has the following implications for our funded families:
Lunch Hour Changes:
We can no longer charge for staffing a lunch hour. This means that one funded hour from elsewhere in the day is needed to cover this. As a result, we will need to make changes to our session times.
Healthy Meals and Snacks:
Government funding does not cover the cost of any food provided within the nursery, typically a two-course hot meal and snacks freshly prepared by our in-house chef in our 5-star rated kitchen. We encourage all of you to continue to benefit from our nutritiously balanced meals and snacks. Here’s why:
- Our meals are extremely cost effective, even after considering the increased cost of ingredients.
- Nurseries like ours are inspected by Ofsted against providing nutritionally balanced meals and snacks for all children. We are the only nursery in Stockton-on-Tees to achieve the council’s Healthy Settings Accreditation– a recognition that children achieve their best when they are happy and healthy.
- Some children are in nursery from breakfast to teatime. We believe a hot and healthy meal is an essential part of their experience.
- Children eat a wide variety of foods which they may not otherwise experience. There’s something about being sat with their friends at mealtimes that encourages them to try new things.
- Children learn table manners, social etiquette and how to communicate with each other. They use cutlery properly, drink from open top cups, use napkins, scrape their plates, pour their own water and learn how to carry trays safely. This is excellent preparation to ensure they are ‘school ready’.
- We do not have appropriate storage in the kitchen and will struggle to ensure packed lunches are kept at the correct temperature.
- The routine of mealtimes is one of the most important parts of the nursery day and curriculum. It is a valuable teaching opportunity and allows children to be independent, make choices for themselves and develop their social skills.
- Our chef and deputy manager are highly trained in all aspects of food safety and allergies and understand the individual needs of each child.
Packed lunch option:
You may now choose to supply a packed lunch and snacks. The team would prefer this not to be an option, but our hands are tied. The reasons we do not want packed lunches in nursery include:
- Many of our children (30+) have allergies – some of them severe. All packed lunches will need to comply with strict standards to ensure the safety of all children.
- We will not allow any non-compliant packed lunches in nursery. We do not want busy parents to experience the hassle of rushing home and returning to nursery with appropriate contents.
- Children with packed lunches will need to sit at a separate table. We fear they will miss out on the social and learning aspects of a traditional The Montessori People lunchtime which the children enjoy.
Chargeable extras:
At a considerable cost to the business, we provide essential items used consistently and in abundance such as spare nappies, nappy bags, wipes, Calpol and suncream, to mention but a few.
We also offer all children a broad range of extra-curricular activities such as Tees Valley Music Service visits, hatching chicks, gymnastics and a whole host of Christmas enrichment activities. We have never asked parents to pay for this as we believe the joy and learning opportunities these provide are worth the significant cost to the business and are a key part of what makes The Montessori People the special place that it is.
However, we will need to assess the frequency and nature of these enrichment activities. Sadly, what have up to now been our natural acts of kindness and generosity will need to be closely evaluated for cost and benefits.
We appreciate these extra costs may not be affordable for all families but feel that the DfE changes will create a two-tier early years offer which we believe is detrimental to the whole school, especially when we pride ourselves on being inclusive.
Changes to fees and session times:
We were holding off on reassessing our charges until September 2025. However, because of this new guidance – together with the huge impact of the increases in The Living Wage and National Insurance – we have been left with no option but to reassess our fees and session times to ensure the nursery can survive.
The average staffing costs for nurseries will increase by 15% from April 2025. For context, the funding rate for Stockton-on-Tees will increase by less than 9% for the same period, and by only 2.8% for under 2s.
We point-blank refuse to compromise the quality of service we offer. As a result, the quality of teaching and teacher:child ratios will remain as they are, and we will not employ apprentices to save money. The only option available to us is therefore to increase our fees. We simply can’t afford not to.
What does this mean for nurseries like The Montessori People?
Life is tough for small business owners. Many are already facing huge financial challenges with the increases in Employers’ National Insurance contributions and the statutory minimum wage from April 2025. For some nurseries, this additional pressure may be the final nail in the coffin – or at the very least, will lead them to offer fewer funded childcare places.
We want all our children to receive the same quality and access to provision but if the government insist that funded families can choose whether or not to pay for added extras, something has got to give – or we risk facing permanent closure.
We’re being dictated to by government and we’re very concerned that the changes could drive a wedge between us and parents and cause a lot of upset for the children. We hope our parents understand this situation is entirely beyond our control.
Next steps
We’ve written to our local MPs, Andy McDonald, who represents the Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, and Matt Vickers, MP for Stockton West, and are currently waiting for a response. We were not consulted on the changes – no nurseries were – so we’re hoping our concerns will be properly considered. After all, it’s your children’s lives they are playing with.
We’ll update this blog if and when we receive a response from our MPs.