Charging More For 2 Yr Olds?

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I have just been involved in some financial planning for my son's pre-school of which I'm on the committee.

Usual story of low numbers in the Autumn term which build up through the year. They will make a loss in the Autumn based on predicted numbers at the moment. Lots of children are off to school so they will be left with the younger children initially.

They are registered for 2.5 to 5 year olds but if they have more 2 year olds obviously the ratio needs to be 1:4.

They currently charge £3.50 an hour (same as our grant funding) for everyone.

They are a charity pre-school mainly open in the mornings.

 

Does anyone in a similar village set-up charge a higher rate for 2 year olds to help fund the higher ratio? How much will people pay? My worry is that people don't need to send their 2 year olds to pre-school so may wait until the grant kicks in if the price is too high. Do you think people would pay £4 an hour?

 

What are other people's experience of this?

[alis2son]

Hi,

 

We charge 3 separate amounts for 0-11 yrs.... our brackets are 0-2, 2-3, and 3+ ... as far as im aware in this area thats the normal way to structure the prices due to the ratios. 3+ is £2.60 per hour, £3.10 for 2-3 and £3.30 for 0-2. we havent had a price increase yet this year. This is in Knowsley.

 

Ali

[Guest]

My daughters pre-school charges the same for all ages.

 

Next year they are going to have a limit on the number of older children. But they have the opposite problem, that the places all go in September.

 

Can I ask why the lower age bracket is 2.5? Surely you can take from 2?

 

Have you bench marked against other local providers?

[sunnyday]

Hi Edlee - I think that would be perfectly reasonable.......it's not something I have ever done or needed to do - but certainly would if needs be!

 

I'm also very small village setting - my hourly rate from September will be £3.80 per hour........so £4.00 sounds OK to me........any idea what other settings close to you are charging?

[anju]

we are in brighton and charge £4.00 per hour for all ages. not many can afford it for the 2 yr olds but we only take 4 max at any one time. they do pay it more readily for extra hours for funded children. we also do a funded 2 yr old pilot which is at a higher rate. not sure how much longer that will go on for though.

[Guest]

Thanks for that.

 

Our registration is obviously for all 2 year olds but we only take them from 2.5 mainly because we are all just in one big room with no separate space for sleeping and no changing tables etc. We find it quite hard as it is trying to cater for 2.5 to 4.9 year olds with 3 staff in one room.

For a pre-school like ours we can't really afford to have more than about 4 2 year olds at each session otherwise we need to put on more staff . It's okay if we are full but we make a loss otherwise if we are paying staff for set-up before and after work as well , hall hire,employers contribution, holiday pay, insurance etc.

[Guest]

My daughters pre-school is one big hall. They don't have space for sleeping because it is just a 3 hour session. Also no changing table, so children get changed on floor if they are still in nappies.

 

They do have lots of staff though - 8 (ish) for 29 children. i think the manager is supernumerary, and staff also have non contact. And children here tend to go to Nursery class (if they get a place) so different dynamics, I guess. They charge £13 for 3 hours/

[thumperrabbit]

They charge £13 for 3 hours

 

Wow - that's something to aspire to

 

We are a pack away, charity group, we take from 2 to school age but about 80% of ours go to school nursery so we never really get much funding, especially since the schools have now started to take them as soon as they are 3 not waiting until the September after they are 3 as they used to

 

Our fees are going up to £9 per 3 hour session this September which is a £3 per session increase - huge increase due to increase in hours.

[Guest]

Hi Edlee

 

It sounds like you are at my setting - fancy coming to be my new treasurer!?

 

I don't think you will make that much more by increasing the rate of 2 year olds and you wouldn't want to risk them going elsewhere, as they will become your next year's 3 and 4 year olds.

 

What we do is make sure that via fundraising, we have about a surplus of £4k in our current account at the start of term one. This is in addition to the £8k we have in reserve. This £4k covers the dip in the first term, so we don't go into negative cash flow. We then aim to ensure that the £4k is back in place by the end of the summer term, when we make more because our numbers are high.

 

I hope that helps.

 

p.s. we charge slightly less for 2 year olds (£3 p/h) but that is a historic thing and we are putting it up in line with the nursery grant for next September.

[lynned55]

I cannot understand why anyone would charge less for U3's. Why, when you are paying more for staff, even if only in theory, would you charge less? Even if youdont charge more at least charge the same

Edited May 26, 2010 by lynned55