How much do you charge?

Hi
The committee that run my pre-school have just decided to put up the fees..from £5.75 to £6.75. I just wondered how this compared with others as they seem to think that this will still be seen as being cheap. I realise it maybe different for different parts of the country. We are based in the East Midlands.

[busybee]

Where i used to work it was really cheap at 4.50 a session but then without much notice after summer hols it went up to 7.50, quite a jump which i thought was bad and they could of done it more gradual, although they done it to come in line with other settings. I changed settings no more than 4 miles away and at present we charge 8.50 a session and 4 if they want to stay for lunch, so for full day your looking at 21 pound. I'm in Cornwall by the way.

we charge same as education grant funding... nad then per part hour of that for lunch club

Reason is that we need to show that the funded children are not subsidising the children who pay.. and if we charge less then it could happen..

also if we charge less and justify that we could survive if we received the same for all children who is to say that they may decide to change rules and reduce funding .. after all we showed we could manage on a lower amount by charging lower fee.

make sense?

[Kathie]

We only charge £5.00 a session but are only open in the mornings 9 till 12 and feel that this is quite reasonable as not in it to make a profit just to provide care

We also did a costing exercise to ensure we were not over charging.. if all the children at the session brought in the same amount (eg NO education grant) how much would you need to charge each child to cover all costs.. eg. wages, rent, resources, insurance phone, equipment, etc etc. This should be the minimum you charge per child

we are no profit making and only just cover costs many years we run at a loss...

[DizzyDora]

We provide nursey wraparound and out of school care. From September we will charge £3.15 per hour. We have several extra value offers for children who have a whole session/ all 3 sessions in the day which work out between £2.90- £3.00. Currently we are operating at a loss! wraparound works out at £2.20 ph and we still get people complaining about cost. We are in the west midlands

[SomeoneSpecial]

we charge different amounts depending on the childs age and session

[confusedkim]

I work in oxfordshire and we charge £7.50 a session. This seems to be the norm round here though some do charge £8 or £8.50.

[Buzzybees]

I'm in bedfordshire the pre-school is £8.50 per session (2 1/2 hours) and the creche 12 months - 3 years is £7.50 for the same time time scale

I moved from scotlnad where is was £4 for 3 hours!!

Gald to hear others are running at a loss...the committeee think its wages but at £6.66 for supervisor per hour I think not!
We are really running on minimum staff...one supervisor, one deputy, assistant on some days and on busy days (24 children) that plus another assistant. Supervisor never gets any office time so has to fit it in and they also count parent help in the ratio which is not good if they dont show (have to use other mums!). Anywhere else like this?