Fees income
This is a large area which needs to be considered closely. Often most or all of the businesses income will be from fees. This may include charges that are
- Fees
- 3&4 funding
- Top ups
- Childcare vouchers
Each of these sections contains more detail below, however in general the following things need to be considered when setting fees. It is important that you think realistically about the level you set, it must be affordable, however it also needs to reflect the costs of running the business. Once you have established the level you need to think about how you will communicate this to your customers, including what policies you will have for paying the fees.
Fees
There are a number of ways you can decide to set your fees.
Firstly you must establish what you are charging for, will the cost be per hour, per session, per day?
How much will you charge?
You may want to look at the local rate, what your competitors are charging? This may seem to make sense however it is important that in order to be sustainable your charges actually cover the costs, so a more effective way of setting the rate would be to consider how much it costs to operate and then break this cost down over the sessions/time you are charging for. Using your <cashflow forecast> will help you understand the costs you need to cover.
3 & 4 year old funding
Also known as Nursery Education Grant, if you are registered to receive this funding it is important that you understand the way the system works. The funding is administered through the 3 and 4 year funding team at Dorset County Council. Each child becomes eligible the term after their 3rd birthday. They are then entitled to 5 x 2½ sessions per week for a maximum of 38 weeks. Each setting is required to complete 2 forms, one before the beginning of the term, where they list the predicted numbers of children who will be attending, and another on the census day (which is normally a couple of weeks into the term) to record the number of children who are actually attending.
The funding is paid twice termly, the first half is paid on or before the start of the term, the second payment, is an adjusted half which reflects the actual number of children on the census day form. This second payment could therefore be more or less than the first one depending on the number of children who have actually attended compared to the number who you had predicted would.
Code of Practice - www.surestart.gov.uk/improvingquality/guidance
/freenurseryeducation