Teddies Day Nursery: Sheffield parent says daycare changes will cost £5,000 more a year 'with no alternative'

A Sheffield nursery's decision to raise prices while axing both term-time and one-day contracts will cost families "thousands", a parent has said.

Teddies Day Nursery, in Kenwood Park Road, has told parents how, along with a rise in fees, they will need to pay for two days minimum per week starting in January.

The daycare nursery - operated by Bright Horizons, which also runs Millhouses Day Nursery - is also ending term-time contracts, meaning teachers and educators would have to pay for childcare they likely don't need during school holidays.

Mark Latham says he and his wife chose Teddies over eight other nurseries for their young daughter because of its term-time contracts.

With other nurseries in Sheffield "already full", he says they are left with "no alternative" but to pay an extra £2,000 a year for childcare two days a week.

"Meanwhile, families who need five days will need to pay £5,000 extra a year," said Mark.

"For me personally my daughter has taken the last four months to settle, and we are now left with two options; either pay the extra money, or try desperately to find another nursery - near enough impossible.

"We won't hinder our daughter’s education and general quality of life by moving her again and leave her disrupted and unsettled."

The new price sheet, which takes effect from January 1, reads as such:

Standard monthly fees (days per week)

Funded monthly feeds (50 weeks stretch funding)

The childcare sector is under strain nationally under gaps in Government funding, with several nurseries in Sheffield closing in the past two years. Among them was the former operator of Sunshine Nursery in Woodthorpe, which said funding gaps meant they were "unable to pay staff".

Ecclesall Pre-School in Ringinglow Road closed in January with just two weeks notice, after the pre-school’s team said they struggled to recruit staff to the point they would have enough members to “run safely”, but also aimed criticism at underfunding.

They wrote in a last Facebook post: "The reality is that the early years sector is very underfunded and this contributes to many problems, including the ability to adequately staff settings. As a setting that gets over three quarters of its income from government funding, this affects us significantly."

In England, a flagship policy of the Conservative Government was 30 hours of free childcare a week for children aged between three and four, paid for by subsidizing nurseries.

However, since 2016, more than 4,000 childcare providers have closed. Providers have criticized the Government as the subsidized payments have not risen in line with wages for childcare staff.

Mark says he has complained extensively to Bright Horizon's in the meantime, and says the 'month's notice' parents were given does not give the changes a pass.

He said: "It's partly understandable in these times where costs have increased across the board.

"They could have, for example, reduced the costs for existing parents for six months or so to see out the year and give us time to find another nursery if we needed. It wouldn't be perfect but it would help immensely.

"But it's totally unacceptable for the nursery to pull the rug from underneath many families who have put their trust in Bright Horizons. Further to this I feel the totalitarian response of 'we are changing it, deal with it' is a smack in the face to the ethos of any educational institute and a disgraceful way to treat children and parents."

In May this year, Teddies Day Nursery was rated 'Requires Improvement' by Ofsted after previously being downgraded to 'Inadequate' six months before, with inspectors praising the "hard work" by staff.

A spokesperson for Bright Horizons' Teddies Day Nursery said: “Like other nursery providers, we have been faced with rising costs such as price rises in energy and food which continue to affect us, but we have made every effort to mitigate this impact on our families. Like many organisations we're trying to balance the needs of our customers with those of our staff and the current economic climate.

"The team has met with this family this week to discuss their individual needs and we are pleased to have been able to work together to accommodate these.”