Am I paying too much for nursery place?

[Clareada]

Hi Folks - Our son is 2 and goes to nursery 3 days a week from 9-5. The fees went up in April by £1 a day to £41 per day and today we've been informed that they're going up to £45 per day from January. £4 seems like a big increase to me, but the nursery have assured us, they are still competitive compared to other nurseries in the area. We live in the London borough of Southwark. Can anyone advise on how much they are paying so I can figure out whether to complain or not? I've tried to do some research but can't find any nurseries in the area who advertise their charges.
The nursery place includes 2 snacks and lunch by the way, but not nappies or wipes. We pay for 52 weeks of the year.
Thanks!

[lisad123]

Sounds about right sort of price. Do check contract about price rises though.

[PoppyWearer]

Sounds about right to me too. We live out of London, but in the commuter belt, and pay about the same.

[notcitrus]

Sounds cheap to me! I'm in Lambeth and nurseries 8-6 are 55 to 60 a day, or £75 for the posh one.
Includes 3 meals but you supply your own preferred nappies and wipes.

[FantasticMax]

A near 10% increase in less than a year is pretty steep. Very annoying - stuff like this can really upset a carefully thought out budget!

If you can be bothered, try ringing round some of the local nurseries to check fees to see if they are comparable. Unfortunately it probably won't make a difference to your nursery, they must be pretty confident they can fill spaces with the new price.

We pay £39.50 and that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, am and pm snacks, all nappies, wipes, etc. But we are in a rural area so not a fair comparison to your location.

[TheReturnOfBridezilla]

I pay £41.50 per day in Wales (all meals and wipes provided but supply own nappies) so £45 sounds pretty reasonable to me for London.

[mellen]

Check the prices in your area, don't just rely on them telling you, doesn't sound too expensive though.

[ArbitraryUsername]

It's £47 a day for a 2 year old at our nursery in the north-east.

[reddaisy]

We paid £48 a day for all meals, nappies and wipes in the East of England in 2011 so that sounds reasonable for London.

[2cats2many]

That sounds about right. You'd be lucky to get it cheaper.

[Sarahplane]

We pay £50 a day (Edinburgh), they're open 8-6 and this includes 3 meals (if they're there early enough for breakfast) plus snacks and nappies and wipes. I think it's probably reasonable especially for London.

[Emmie412]

We pay £44 per day for Scallywags. It used to be £40 but they increased it in September as the rent had gone up. Still very reasonable. A new nursery close to Canada Water was £50 something. Across in Canary Wharf you are looking at £70 per day so I wouldn't complain.

[sanam2010]

Your nursery sounds very reasonably priced - they probably had to raise more bc they were comparatively too cheap up to now. In Fulham/Hammersmith most nurseries charge between £55 to £80 per day, so even if Southwark is a bit cheaper, I don't think it could be much less than what they charge you. If you're happy with the nursery otherwise there's probably nothing to complain about.

[MrsBungleBear]

I pay £41 a day in Nottingham. I would have thought London was more than £45 TBH. It does, though, sound like a steep rise in a short space of time.

[Mandy21]

I pay £63 a day in the NW, and our fees go up once a year in January. We've just been informed they're going up by 2%. So even though I think your nursery sounds very reasonable, a 10% jump sounds rather steep.

[splashymcsplash]

That's sounds really cheap for London.

Around my area (middle of the road London area) nurseries are generally 75-80 per day. I'm really surprised you have it that cheap.

[2cats2many]

I think that £80 a day is shocking. The owners of the nurseries must be driving round in bloody Bentlys, because I bet they aren't paying their staff more than the £45 a day places.

[forevergreek]

£80 a day here. Hence why nannies are cheaper if you have 2 or more children

[Xenia]

Yes we had 3 children under 4 at one point nad a day nanny was cheaper than 3 nursery places would have been.

[forevergreek]

Exactly if you have two children, as long as your nanny costs less than £800 gross a week it's cheaper ( based on £80 per child per day it is at local nurseries)

Most nannies here on £500 net a week ( around £630 gross depending on tax band). Even if you add £100 worth of children and nanny eating at home/ music classes/ swimming / toddler groups etc its still cheaper ( and more convinent)

[Xenia]

And if it means your children are cared for when they are a bit sick where a nursery would send them home it makes it more likely your career is secure as you are more reliable to the employer and if it's expensive for a few years so what if then you have 30 years of high earnings as plenty of women do. The year our childcare was more than one of our wages years ago (that baby is now 28 - years not months) feels a long time ago.

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

I pay £45 a day in Hampshire. Sounds very good price for London.

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

Forgot to say provides wipes, but not nappies or cream.

[Gooseysgirl]

We pay c. 1050 per month for a full time placement for DD who is almost 9 months, includes 3 meals and nappies but not wipes. We are in East London.

[Xenia]

I doubt if the nursery owners are paying their staff the minimum wage the owners have Bentleys. They have to pay rent for the building, heat, light, business rates and all kinds of other costs.

[PearlyWhites]

I pay £32.50 8-6 including three meals and wipes. I live in the north west.