All services
  1. Home
  2. Schools and education
  3. Early years and childcare
  4. Funding information for childcare providers

Additional charges - childcare providers

As a childcare provider, you can charge parents for the following extras in connection with the free hours. (but these charges must be voluntary for the parent or carer):

  • consumables to be used by the child (e.g. nappies or sun cream)
  • meals and snacks consumed by the child
  • extra optional activities such as events, celebrations, specialist tuition (e.g. music classes or foreign languages) or other activities that are not directly related or needed for the effective delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework

The parent or carer must be able to opt out of paying for these extras and the associated charge or activity

The additional charges should not be an hourly charge. You should charge by session, per day, week or month.

Listing, invoices and receipts

These additional charges should be listed on your pricing policy, your invoices and your website. If you do not have a website, you must list them on our Families Information Service webpage. If you need the details to be added on to the Families Information Service, please email [email protected].

Your invoices and receipts must be itemised with charges broken down separately into:

  • the free entitlement hours
  • additional private paid hours
  • food charges
  • non-food consumables charges
  • activities charges

What you can't charge for

You must not charge a top up fee under any circumstances. A top up fee is charging the parent or carer an additional rate to make up the difference between the funding rate you receive from us and your setting’s normal hourly rate.

You must not charge parents for the following in connection with the funded hours:

  • the supply of or use of any materials (including, but not limited to, craft materials, crayons, paper, books, instruments, toys, or other equipment and learning resources that are needed for the effective delivery of childcare)
  • business running costs (including, but not limited to, rent, staff wages, cleaning materials, insurance, or utility bills such as energy, gas or water)
  • registration fees as a condition of taking up a child’s free entitlement place
  • non-refundable deposits as a condition of taking up a child’s entitlement place
  • general charges (including but not limited to, non-itemised enrichment charges, sustainability charges, business continuity charges, additional charges, enhanced ratios, hourly rates, or any other supplementary charges on top of the free hours)

Last updated 01 April 2025