Meals Included


We recently decided not to charge for meals in the nursery unlike many other nurseries. If your child is in the nursery at any meal time or snack time then your child will be entitled to that meal or snack free of charge.


Paying your Fees

Fees are payable monthly in advance on the 1st of the month and are calculated on an annualised basis.

An invoice is generated 10 days before the beginning of the month. This will include any extra sessions from the previous month and extra services you asked us to provide.

Fees Summary (April 2024)

Daily Rate £75.00
Weekly Rate
(Full time, 5 days per week)		 £359.00

Deposits

Unlike some nurseries we charge a reasonable deposit whereas others would charge a full months fees as a deposit. If your child attends nursery more than 3 fulls days a week we will ask for a deposit of £200 any less than that and we ask for a deposit of £100

Deposits are fully refundable once your child has left the nursery and your last invoice is settled.

Tax Free Childcare

Tax Free Childcare has been introduced to replace the voucher schemes. With Tax Free Childcare every £0.80p you pay into a childcare account is supplemented by £0.20p to a maximum value of £2,000 contribution by the Goverment.

There are eligibility criteria mainly both parents have to be working. There are pitfalls too; claiming tax free childcare may effect your tax credits if you claim them!

For more information please follow the link to the Childcare Choices website.

Payment Methods

Our prefered method of payment is Direct Debit. A direct debit can be setup using Famly Pay, more information can be found here ..... Famly

If you can not pay us electronically we are able to accept cash or cheques.

Vouchers

Childcare vouchers are a tax efficient way of paying for childcare through your salary. You may at present pay for upto £243 of childcare through salary sacrifice and avoid paying tax and NI on that amount.

We accept ALL childcare vouchers. Ask your employer about salary sacrifice schemes as this is a way of you saving money. These schemes will be closeing in the near future.


Government Funded Nursery Hours

3 & 4 Year Old Funding
(Universal Offering)

A child is entitled to claim 3 year old funding from the term after they turn 3. They are entitled to 15 hours of funded childcare for 38 weeks of the year which equates to 570 hours. We are able to "stretch" these hours over the year which equates to 11 hours per week for the entire year.

Please contact the nursery for more details and availability of these hours.

2 Year Old Funding

Government funding is available for 2 year olds but this funding is "needs" tested and eligibility is determined by our Local Authority - Wokingham. Eligible 2 year olds will be entitled to 15 hours of funding per week for 38 weeks of the year.

 

Working Parent Entitlement

2 Year Olds of Working Parents

From April 2024 parents of 2 year olds who meet the eligibility criteria will be entitled to 15 hours


9 month olds to 2 years old

In September 2024 parents who meet the eligibility criteria will be entitled to 15 hours of funded childcare for their child between the age of 9 months to 2 years oldf.


September 2025

From September 2025, if parents meet the eligibility criteria they will be entitled to 30 hours of funded childcare for all children who are aged 9 months to under 3 years old.

30 Hours Funded Childcare
(Extended Entitlement for Working Parents)

For parents that meet the eligibility criteria they will be entitled to an additional 15 hours on top of the universal entitlement for 3 & 4 year olds. This means that you will be entitled to 30 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year, or 1,140 hours.

Stretched Funding

Little Ducklings will only be offering the 30 hours options as a "stretched" service over the entire year meaning a qualifying child is entitled to 21.92 hours funding per week.

Eligibility Criteria

For working parent entitlement you require an eligibility code to claim the entitlement. Please follow the link to the Childcare Choices website to gain a code from HMRC.

Sustainability with Government Funding

There is no such thing as FREE and hence why we refuse to use the word to describe this policy. Although the Government has advertised this vote winning policy of theirs as FREE it is not free to nurseries and the funding offered to providers is in a lot of cases is significantly lower than their hourly costs.

At Little Ducklings we refuse to subsidise this Goverment policy. Our fees are seperated into a childcare fee and a "meals / consumables / essentials" charge which covers the costs that Government funding is not meant for. We want your experience to be outstanding and this requires we invest back into the nursery!

To understand more about the Early Years funding crisis please visit Champagne Nurseries on Lemonade Funding