How we calculate your price, and what to check if it looks wrong
Who this is for: any nursery that has entered Funding & Fees details.
This explains how we work out the price shown on your profile, why every nursery is shown the same way, and what to check if our figure looks different from your own headline rate.
What we show
We display every nursery's fees as a single averaged monthly cost. We do this for every nursery on the site, whether you bill weekly, monthly, or term time only. It's one figure, in one unit, for every profile.
Why we show fees this way
Parents are usually comparing several nurseries at once, and those nurseries bill in different ways. A weekly rate, a term-time rate, and a monthly rate aren't directly comparable, so a parent trying to weigh them up has to do the maths themselves, often incorrectly. Putting every nursery into the same unit, an average cost per month, removes that work and lets parents understand the difference between settings at a glance.
This isn't about making nurseries compete on price. Most parents don't choose a nursery on price alone, location, availability, and fit matter far more. A consistent figure simply removes confusion and helps parents understand what they're looking at.
How we calculate it
We start from the total amount a parent would pay you across a full year, based on your own fees and the way you bill. We then divide that annual total by twelve to give an averaged monthly cost.
Because we start from your real annual total, the figure reflects exactly what a parent pays you over a year. We're not changing the amount, we're spreading it evenly across the months so it can sit alongside other nurseries on a like-for-like basis.
Why your figure might look higher than your weekly or term rate
If you bill weekly or by term, your headline rate covers a single week or a single term. The averaged monthly figure covers the whole year, including any weeks where a parent pays a different amount. That's why the two won't match line for line, and it's the most common reason a nursery thinks the figure looks high.
A common example is funding that's stretched across the year. Some nurseries spread funded hours across, say, fifty weeks, while a child attends for fifty two. For the remaining weeks, a parent pays the full unfunded rate. Those weeks are a real part of what a parent pays over the year, so they're included in the annual total and therefore in the averaged monthly figure.
We're not increasing your fees. We're showing the true yearly cost as a monthly average. A figure that left those full-price weeks out would understate what a parent actually pays you, which would be misleading to parents and unfair to nurseries that smooth their billing evenly.
If you're based outside England
If your nursery is in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands, your profile shows your private fee rather than a calculated funded price. See Funding & Fees for nurseries outside England for why, and what's required to reach full completeness for your nursery.
How to check we have your fees right
Because the preview shows the averaged monthly figure, it won't match your weekly or term-time rate directly. To check our figure, work out the total a parent pays you across a full year and divide it by twelve. That's the figure you should see on your profile.
If your annual total and ours agree, the display is correct, even where the monthly figure looks higher than a single week or term. If they don't agree, the difference is in the underlying fee data rather than the way we display it, and that's what to send us so we can put it right.
What this changes for how you bill
Nothing. You continue to bill parents exactly as you do now, on whatever cycle you use. The averaged monthly figure is only how your fees appear on your profile so that parents can compare nurseries fairly. It doesn't change what you charge, or when you charge it.
If something looks wrong
Use the calculate button in the Portal to preview exactly what a parent will see. If a figure looks off, or anything doesn't behave as you expect, there's a link in that preview to message our product team directly. We're actively watching for issues, and your input helps us catch problems quickly.