we used to be.. took a mum with foresight and knowledge to actually change it around and make otehrs realise that their child is the most precious thing but they are willing to leave them with someone and not willing to pay a suitable price for it..
as an example - We asked how much was the local car wash - how long did it take?
(we know it takes £5.00 costs £6.00 for a basic wash, or local hand wash is £5.00 but only takes a bit longer!)
So they are willing to pay that 5 mins for getting car washed but not a suitable rate for looking after their child.. we got them to work out the cost if they ahd to pay same rate for childcare as the car wash charges...
You could use any local service you know is used by parents.. how about a haircut.. how much and how long.. most are about 45 mins and £20.00 less if you are lucky.. but it still does cost more than someone to look after a child.
Our wages are not the best even now but we are and parents are aware now of the professional service we provide, training needed, etc.
How often do you get a pay rise and when? We had ours linked to the minimum wage.. we had to or soon it would have all been earning it! if it goes up by 5% then so does everyones by same amount.. (This year it is just under the 5% )
Its certainly not wages keeping you in the red...
we don't use mums in ratios.. may in an extreme emergency.. but eyfs says you must have contingency plans to cover for staff absences.
I never had time as a supervisor in the day but did have admin hours paid for off site work...still do as I still do some of the admin even now to relieve the load of the manager..
Some of it is committees really not being aware of the needs of a group in todays changing childcare needs.. unfortunately it is settings like this which will not survive, staff will find better paid jobs in better conditions ,
Our saving was the Education grant.. gave us enough to cope most years and give a relatively decent wage for the hours we do.

Our preschool fees are just going up from £5 per session to £6 per session, which is higher than other local preschools. We have a larger wage bill as our preschool operates out of 3 rooms and so need 2 staff to each room. This means that the staffing ratio is least 1:4 what ever the age of the children as we can take a maximum of 24 children per session.