A survey of 1,156 nurseries by the Early Years Alliance has found nine out of 10 nurseries expect to raise their fees this year.
The rises, which usually take place in April, will likely be by an average of 8% the EYA found – higher than in previous years. Though some providers said they could raise fees by as much as 25%, struggling under the weight of a crumbling system that’s been underfunded by government for years.
Childcare costs in the UK are some of the most expensive in the world – full-time fees for a child under two are, on average, £14,000 a year. An 8% rise would be £1,120 on top of what parents are already paying.
A shocking 99% of providers told the EYA that the governement isn't giving the early years sector enough financial support.
And 87% of nurseries and childminders say the money they get to cover the ‘free hours’ given to three and four year olds isn’t enough and leaves them out of pocket. While such steep rises may shock parents, they’re not lining the pockets of nurseries. More than half of those who answered the survey said they operated at a loss last year.
Childcare costs continue to rise each year, but in between August 2021 and 2022, 5,400 childcare providers were forced to close their doors.
The broken system, which sees parents often paying out more than their mortgage for childcare (two-thirds according to Pregnant Then Screwed in a survey of parents last year) is also seeing childcare providers closing and their workers paid incredibly poorly.
Grazia combined forces with Pregnant Then Screwed to ask the government to hold an independent inquiry into what is going wrong in the UK two years ago. In January this year, it was announced an Education Select Committee would review things.
It was also revealed this weekend that the Department for Education has placed a raft of ideas in front of the treasury to try and help parents with childcare costs, in a bid to encourage parents back to work.
One idea was a proposal which could expand free childcare to one and- two-year-olds in England. However, campaigners – such as Pregnant Then Screwed – pointed out that this could cause already struggling childcare providers even more trouble filling the holes in their budgets that government funding might not stretch to. The data by the EYA today seems to back that up.