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What is it All Going to Cost?

Young Sussex Nursery aims to be as flexible as possible to accommodate the needs of individual parents. We offer core sessions with the ability to extend the hours that your child attends. This means that you only pay for the hours you need. At our Hove and Brighton nurseries, we also offer term time only places.

Please click the button below for our current fee sheet, or click here for our fee and funding calculator (MS Excel required):

fees 2024

What is Included?

Our fees include breakfast, mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, milk, formula milk, nappies, wipes and suncream.

We have found from experience that many parents want to have greater control over what their children eat, and wish to provide a packed lunch. In order that you do not end up subsidising a service that you do not use, a hot lunch is an optional extra that is charged at cost.

Funding

Young Sussex Nursery is registered to offer Free Early Learning Funding for all 3 and 4 year olds. We also offer funding for eligible 2 year olds and 9 month olds. Further information can be found through the following link. It’s not as straightforward as you may have been led to believe, so take a deep breath!:

funding

Sibling Discounts

Where 2 siblings attend nursery, the oldest will receive a 5% discount off their normal sessions for as long as both children attend nursery. Where 3 (or more!) siblings attend, the oldest will receive a 10% discount, and the second child a 5% discount.

How to Pay

You may pay for your childcare online (BACS), with Tax-Free Childcare or with vouchers*.

We ask that you use your child’s first name and surname as the reference for any online or voucher payments. This will ensure that payments are easily identified and allocated to the correct account. Click the relevant link below for each nursery’s bank details:

hove

brighton

shoreham

We do not accept cash or cheque payments, nor do we currently have the facility to accept credit and debit card payments.

Tax-Free Childcare

This government run scheme replaces the childcare voucher scheme. It typically offers greater tax savings and can benefit self employed parents too, but you must meet the eligibility criteria: https://www.gov.uk/get-tax-free-childcare

For each £8 that is paid into your TFC online account, the government will top it up by £2, capped at an annual top-up of £2000 per child. This account can then be used like a normal bank account to pay any registered childcare providers. Please be aware that payments can take several days to be processed by TFC.

Broadly speaking, if you (and your partner) are working, and (each) expect to earn less than £100,000/yr and more than the equivalent of 16hrs at National Minimum Wage/Living Wage, then you should qualify. Others, such as carers or those on maternity leave may also qualify.

Voucher Payments

We accept vouchers from all major voucher providing companies.

*Please be aware that if on 4 October 2018 you were not already registered to claim vouchers with your current employer, then you are unable to join the scheme. Vouchers have been replaced with Tax-Free Childcare (see above).

Help with Childcare Costs

Click here for advice on any financial support you might be entitled to to go towards childcare costs.

Our payment policies and processes have been refined over many years to be fair to our parents, and fair to us as a business. However, we know that every individual’s situation is different and we welcome the opportunity to try and accommodate you and your circumstances. If you have any questions or think that we may be able to help, please do ask.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. Core standards must be met by all nurseries (though that is not to say that they always are), but beyond that, it is not straight forward to identify the added value in paying higher fees.

Generally, better nurseries charge more because they need to - skilled staff, correctly managed ratios, and well equipped settings all come at a cost. However, in no way does that mean that the cheapest nurseries are the worst and the most expensive ones the best. Cost is only an indicator of quality, not a guarantee.

As well as there being legitimate reasons for higher costs, some nurseries may simply be inefficient in how they operate; others might offer gimmicks to justify the extra cost; some might want to give the impression of being a prestige brand or they may just be taking a gamble that parents won’t compare, won’t care or won’t have a choice.

Comparing Costs

  1. Firstly, view each nursery - if you don’t like what you see or hear, then it shouldn’t matter how cheaply they will look after your child.
  2. Add in any extra costs for services that you need that are not included in the fees (food, nappies, milk/formula etc.).
  3. Divide this total session cost by the hours you’ll attend each day. You may be paying from 8am til 6pm, but if you only need 9am til 5pm, divide the session cost by 8, not 10 to get the hourly cost to you.
  4. Compare your shortlisted nurseries and bear in mind any rate changes as your child gets older - what makes financial sense in the short term may not add up when your child is three.
  5. Finally, remember you are only comparing cost and not quality of care.

At Young Sussex Nursery, we are genuinely passionate about what we do, and why we do it. We will never be the cheapest, but will always be competitively priced against the best nurseries out there. Whilst we aspire to be ‘the best’ and are always looking at ways to achieve this, we also know that we cannot be every parent’s first choice and other nurseries may occasionally do things better.

Parents should be able to make an informed decision about childcare, rather than be sold a product. All nurseries claim to be great - your best response is to get prepared and challenge the claims. A good nursery will welcome the interest and will happily bore you senseless with procedures, practice and protocols to demonstrate exactly what they mean by “we meet staff ratios” or “we assure you of your child’s safety”.

Every nursery will make the same claim - how this is achieved or implemented will vary wildly. If your questions get fobbed off or dismissed, or the answers given are incomplete or confused, persist with your questions or walk away. There should be no excuse for a lack of honesty or clarity.

Getting Value for Money

Cost is a major consideration, if not the deciding factor when choosing nursery care. Is there a benefit in paying more and if so, how much more? What if you pay less - what will your child miss out on?