Fees And Funding

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

In my area I have the lowest fees.

£4.75 am session 9.30-12.00

£4.25 pm session 12.30-3.00

£1.50 if you want to stay fro lunch (makes a 3hr session)

or £10.50 for 9.30-3pm

 

I am a committee run pre school and all our overeads are met with some

over. We are not competing for the lowest fees but why charge more when you don't need to.

 

We normally have half funded and half fee paying.

 

I have now been told by 2 separate pre schools in my area that ofsted has told them that they must out there fees up so they are more in line with the £7.?? funding money, so the funding money is not compensating for the fees.

 

Has anyone else heard this.

 

 

Net x

[Guest]

Hi Net

I haven't heard that Ofsted have told groups they have to increase their fees. But I do know that education funding cannot subsidise other places. Our fees are £7 for a three hour session, and this is what we need to charge in order to cover costs and have some to spare. So the grant funding is on a par. But at the moment we have a lot more fee paying children than funded children so in some ways the fees are subsidising the funding! This will change after Christmas when many of my children will move to funding.

Linda

[Guest]

I'm very surprised by to hear that Ofsted would comment at all on fee structures. Is this their remit? What National Standards, Outcomes, etc would this fall under with regard to Inspection of statutory / quality provision?

 

I have never had the "business / financial" side of my service looked at or queried during any Inspection.

 

I agree with Linda that funding is not to be used for anything other than "education time" ie: any time over the 21/2 hours to be paid by fees.

 

 

Peggy

[Smiles]

We charge £5.75 a session and £1.75 extra for our lunch session. This has just recently gone up after nearly three years of staying the same. I have tried telling my Committee that funding should not subsidise the other places and have now had my budget cut. We now have more fee paying children then funded children. I am glad you have confirmed for me what I already knew. We will just be able to keep our heads above water next year.

 

Sue

[Guest MaryEMac]

At the moment we charge £3.50 for a two and a half hour session. Of our 18 children only three are fee paying. We only put this up last year and I can't envisage my committee putting it up again so soon. Many of our fee paying parents would be hard pressed to pay the equivalent of the funding.

Mary

[Rea]

here

This should link you to a thread about top-up fees. The answer to the question regarding charges is addressed. Hope it helps