Parents who are entitled to hours of free childcare should not have to pay mandatory extra charges to secure their nursery place, the government has said.
Updated guidance from the Department for Education states that while nurseries are entitled to ask parents to pay for extras – including meals, snacks, nappies or sun cream – these charges must be voluntary rather than mandatory.
The guidance, which comes amid concerns that parents have faced high additional charges on top of the funded hours, also states that local councils should intervene if a childcare provider seeks to make additional charges a condition for parents accessing their hours.
Since September last year, parents and carers with children aged nine months and older have been entitled to 15 hours of government-funded childcare a week, rising to 30 hours for three to four year-olds.
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From this September, the 30 hours of care will be made available to all families – a rollout that was first introduced under the previous Conservative government.
However, there have been concerns that in order to subsidise shortfalls in funding, nurseries have charged parents extra for essentials that would normally have been included in fees.
Under the new guidance, nurseries will be now obliged to clearly set out any additional costs parents will have to pay, including on their websites.
It says invoices should be itemised so parents can see a breakdown of the free entitlement hours, additional private paid hours and all the additional charges.
‘Fundamental financial challenges facing the sector’
Representatives of childcare providers welcomed the announcement but pointed out the financial stress that many nurseries were under.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: “While we fully agree that families should be able to access early entitlement hours without incurring…
