This article was sent to FCUKTUS by an nursery owner after reading the Mother and baby Article published on 10 February. The author wishes to remain anonymous.
The recent article in Mother and Baby by Hannah Carroll about nursery fees needs some serious adjustments.
Joining the popular (and wearing) rhetoric, Carroll announces that “in the UK, childcare costs remain among the highest in the world”. This is incorrect. What she actually FAILS to mention (or possibly even realise) is that UK childcare is one of the most underfunded childcare sectors in the world. It receives less than half of the amount paid in Nordic countries, and therefore costs parents a lot more money. It is not cheaper to provide an early years place in, say, Iceland. It’s just funded by the Icelandic government properly. This is because while caring for, and educating very young children should and does cost a lot, this cost is falling to UK parents because the government is failing to fund it properly. In any western economy with legalised wage levels, the cost will correlate directly with that and the legal ratios of staff to children in that country. The UK spends less than 0.6% of GDP on childcare up to the end of Reception year. This is shocking. Iceland spends 1.7%.
Nurseries review their fees each spring, it’s an expensive and stressful time for families but also for nurseries. It is in April that national minimum wage (NMW) increases, which is about 80% of a nursery’s costs. Staff are not just those caring for children but the managers, leadership team, training staff, maintenance team; cleaning staff, gardeners and cooks. However much the NMW increases (percentage-wise), you can expect your private fees to increase by at least that. The problem is that for 25 years, the government haven’t kept up with their own rates. So, there has been an increasing gap between the provider’s rate and the amount that they are paid by the government. So the ‘free’ hours become catastrophically underpaid. Currently we are about 100% under the rate needed to operate at a good level (or, put more simply, we are being paid half of what we’re owed).
The author goes on “Alongside rising headline fees, many parents will also encounter something called consumable charges. These can feel like yet another cost added to an already eye-watering bill. But what exactly are they, and why are they so common?”
In the spirit of the ‘transparency’ that the government wishes nurseries to demonstrate, these are simply the gap between the inadequate funding and what the provider needs to survive. However the government don’t like to admit their underfunding so we’re not allowed to say ‘top up’. We’re supposed to categorise the uncategorisable and so, to parents, it sounds mystifying and often ridiculous. We think so too. But we are all trying to remain financially viable, pay our staff as much as we can, and keep within the increasingly unworkable rules.
While we recognise that even though it’s tough on parents, we know that you are better off with your £500 off fees a month so we do what we can and try and stay within the rules while giving you all the best deal. However, these articles are wearing our patience thin and nurseries are now pulling out of the funding altogether in disillusioned disgust at the way they are being treated by the government, the media, and honestly, by some of the parents.
The writer of the article complains about having to pay £1000 per year towards her underfunded childcare as she ‘sets about understanding what the consumable charge means’. She says that this is ‘no small change’
Perhaps I can help her to understand. Imagine having a member of staff that has breast cancer that you want to support on full pay. That’s a whole £20k for six months that you need to find cover. That’s no small change either. These are the things that people just don’t think about when they idly multiply their child’s hourly rate, deduct what they think their key-worker earns and come up with ‘money-grabbing rich nursery owners’. Most of us have eye-watering mortgages taken with second charges on our own homes to provide a roof over your child’s head. We’ve taken a HUGE RISK!
The writer says (I imagine just in case her nursery reads the article), that she wants to be clear that she genuinely loves her child’s nursery; they go ‘above and beyond’ in the care they provide.
In the next sentence she complains about having to pay a ‘silent parent tax’. It’s not a tax. It’s a service, provided by a business. And it sounds like a good one! They go ‘above and beyond’. When I had my three children I didn’t expect someone else to look after them for nothing. I didn’t resent paying for what was best for them. Parents are paying a fraction of what they were paying ten years ago. Providers chose to accept the funding because in 2010 the rate was the same as our own. It no longer meets that target and so the only reason we keep doing the funded hours is for parents to get the discount that they get!
I want to be clear. We love our families, but it’s enough to make any nursery worker wonder whether they are valued at all when their nursery receives a paltry £5 an hour to do some ‘free childcare’ when they have a degree in education.
It’s not about how many bananas or glue sticks your child uses. It’s about the fact that when the government underfunds a service it either stops, becomes dreadful, or charges the difference.
The frustration at such an article being positioned as ‘informative’ makes me despair. It is full of misleading information. Funding used to cover 80% of a nursery’s salary costs. Now, it is worth just 35% of national minimum wage only. Any graduates or qualified teachers are simply not accounted for.
So, as a nursery owner, what are consumable charges at nurseries?
Consumable fees are the ridiculous way that nurseries have to justify their prices to remain sustainable and high quality.
A recent update (Feb 2026) in guidance reveals the government explicitly prohibits nurseries from charging certain fees to “top up” the government funding. We’re not allowed to charge for more highly qualified staff or better buildings! Why aren’t parents questioning this? Surely parents WANT to be able to offer their children the very best care? Why would parents actively WANT to lower the quality of who, how and where they are looked after?
Apparently we must ensure that any additional costs remain strictly voluntary and never mandatory. But this is a bit like going out for a burger and then deciding you’d like it for half price!
The author goes on to explain ‘Core nursery fees vs consumables: what’s the difference?’
She explains what the core fees are; supervision, care, use of the premises, delivery of the EYFS and so on, but not once does she mention that location, type of premises, quality, standards and qualifications vary WILDLY! And that £5 an hour is simply ridiculous if you’re a setting who has prided itself on environment and and staff qualifications. These things matter to outcomes.
Nurseries have been told that they have to list consumables, meaning parents believe everything to be optional. But as with the burger, you wouldn’t question a McDonald’s being cheaper than a gourmet burger at a michelin starred restaurant.
So, Why are consumables charged separately?
We don’t know why the government refuses to be honest about the underfunding. The ‘free childcare’ headline is a winner for parents and there are more of them than there are nurseries and childminders. We don’t know why they don’t call it a subsidy and pay it directly into parents tax free childcare accounts. We don’t know why it’s not means-tested without the sudden cliff edge that it has at the moment.
All of these things are questions that we’ve asked. Repeatedly. But, as I say, we’re not the ones with the loudest voices. This is the parents and unless they start shouting then institutionalised state care will be their only option.
History tells us that this is not a good thing.
Parents. Please remember that your nursery is getting around the price of a coffee to educate your child, give you feedback, do the health checks previously done by midwives, claim your funding, prepare for OFSTED, keep a child’s records up to date, spot children with SEND and break the news to parents, act as therapist and bouncer to parents with relationship breakdowns and still smile.
Please write to your MP and challenge the low funding paid by the government. We need double the current rates to be able to operate without significant financial input from parents. Please understand this and please be realistic with your expectations around funding and fees.