Funding & Fees for England-based nurseries
Who this is for: nurseries based in England.
Your profile's Funding & Fees section shows parents a price estimate built from what you've entered in the Portal, along with badges confirming whether you accept government funding and Tax-Free Childcare. In England, completing your details in full unlocks a calculated price, an estimate of what a parent will actually pay after funding is applied, rather than just your private rate.
The two funding badges
Two separate Yes/No questions appear on your profile as badges:
- Do you accept government funding?
- Do you accept Tax-Free Childcare?
Both are independent of each other, a nursery might accept one, both, or neither. Answering both is part of marking this section complete, regardless of how you answer either one.
Private fees
Your private fees are your rates before any funding is applied. What's needed here depends on the attendance patterns you offer:
- If you offer both full-time all-year and term-time attendance, enter private fees for both patterns.
- If you offer term-time only, enter your term-time fees.
- If you offer all-year only, enter your all-year fees.
You're also asked whether you offer a discount for children attending full time (five days a week). If you do, enter the discount amount as well as answering yes, both are needed to complete this question.
Unlocking a calculated price
Answering Yes to accepting government funding opens a further set of questions:
- Maximum funded hours per day
- Whether funding is stretched across the year
- If stretched, the number of weeks
- Whether extras are charged on top
- Your standard chargeable day length
Completing all of these is what produces a calculated price on your profile, the figure showing parents what they'll actually pay after funding, rather than just the funding badge on its own. If you answer No, none of these further questions apply to you, and there's nothing more required in this area to mark this section complete.
Additional costs
We also ask whether you provide meals, whether you provide consumables such as nappies and wipes, and whether you charge separately for activities outside your core provision. If you provide any of these, we ask a couple of follow-up questions, what you provide, and how you charge for it. These answers shape the "what this price covers" summary parents see alongside your estimate.
Marking this section complete
Funding & Fees makes up 25% of your overall Profile Completeness score. To mark this section complete, you'll need:
- Both funding badges answered
- Private fees for the attendance pattern(s) you offer, plus the full-time discount question
- The additional costs questions, answered fully
- If you accept government funding: the full funding calculation set above
Checking your figures
To see how your details translate into a price, use the calculate button in the Portal. This shows exactly what a parent will see. If anything looks wrong, see How we calculate your price, and what to check if it looks wrong.