Nursery Fees and Funded Childcare: What Should Your Website Show?

Fees, funded hours and chargeable extras

The page parents look for first

Ask a parent what they wanted from a nursery website and could not find, and the answer is almost always the same: how much does it cost, and do you take the free hours? A fees page that answers both plainly wins more visits than any amount of photography. This guide covers what to show, what the funding rules now expect you to publish, and how to lay it out so it stays accurate.

It is written for settings in England offering the government-funded early education entitlements. The rules and the numbers below come from the Department for Education’s statutory guidance for local authorities, valid from 1 April 2026, and are correct at the time of writing. Check your own local authority’s provider agreement, because it can add conditions.

The funded hours, in plain English

Since September 2025, eligible working parents can access 30 hours a week of funded early education for 38 weeks a year (1,140 hours) from the term after their child turns nine months until they start school. All three and four year olds get the universal 15 hours (570 hours a year), and eligible two year olds can get 15 hours through the Early Learning for 2-year-olds entitlement. Terms start on 1 January, 1 April and 1 September.

Most settings let parents "stretch" the hours across more weeks. Whatever pattern you offer, say so on the page. The guidance expects providers to set out the pattern of hours parents can take the entitlements (A1.40).

What the funded hours must not cost

The guidance is direct. The 15 or 30 hours must be delivered free of charge, with no mandatory charges in relation to them (A1.31). Providers must not charge:

• Top-up fees, or the difference between the funding rate and your usual fee
• For materials necessary to deliver the entitlement, or for business running costs
• Non-refundable registration fees, deposits or retainers as a condition of a funded place
• For SEND support
• General non-itemised charges described as enrichment, sustainability, business continuity or enhanced ratios
• Anything not itemised as a chargeable extra (A1.38)

What you can charge for

Providers can charge, on a voluntary basis, for consumables such as nappies and sun cream, for meals and snacks, and for optional extra activities (A1.32). You can also sell additional hours beyond the entitlement on your usual terms. Every chargeable extra must be genuinely optional: parents must be able to opt out (A1.34), you must have a policy offering reasonable alternatives such as bringing their own or waiving the charge (A1.35), and no extra can be a condition of taking up a funded place (A1.36).

What the guidance says you should publish

This is the part that changed the job of a nursery website:

• Providers should publish their admissions criteria and any fees for consumables, additional hours and services, so that they are easily available to parents, together with the alternatives offered (A1.39)
• The costs of chargeable extras should be published on provider websites or, where a provider has no website, on the local authority’s Family Information Service. They should be clear, up to date and easily accessible to parents, set out the amounts charged and the pattern of hours parents can take the entitlements (A1.40)
• Providers should use the DfE’s Chargeable extras template (A1.40)
• Local authorities may exempt childminders and providers caring for ten or fewer children from publishing online (A1.41)
• Invoices and receipts should be itemised so parents can see funded hours, paid hours, food, non-food consumables and activities separately (A1.42)

So if you offer funded places, your website is now the expected home for your chargeable extras, in the DfE’s format.

What a good fees page shows

Your standard fees

Daily and session rates by age group, whether meals are included in the private rate, and any sibling discounts. Say the date the fees apply from and when you next review them.

Funded hours and how you offer them

Which entitlements you offer, the patterns available (term time only, stretched, mornings only), whether funded-only places are available and on which days, and how a parent applies. Link to the government’s Childcare Choices site so parents can check eligibility and get their code.

Chargeable extras, in the DfE template

Publish the completed template as a table on the page, not just as a download. Meals and snacks, nappies and consumables, trips and optional activities, with the amount for each and the alternative a parent can choose instead. State clearly that all extras are optional and that opting out does not affect a funded place.

Additional hours

Your rate for hours beyond the entitlement and how they are booked.

The boring but important lines

• Registration and deposit terms for private places, and confirmation that none are required for a funded place
• Notice periods and how fees change
• Late collection charges
• Where to find your admissions criteria

Layout tips that stop the phone ringing

• Put the table on the page as real text. PDFs are fine as a download but are hard to read on a phone and impossible for search engines to read properly.
• Use one table per age group rather than one enormous grid, because two columns is the comfortable limit on a phone screen.
• Show the date. "Fees from 1 September 2026" tells a parent the page is current.
• Keep chargeable extras separate from fees, with the alternatives beside each one.
• Link to the funding page from the home page and the rooms pages. Parents rarely start on the fees page.

Keeping it accurate

Fees change every year and funding rules have changed every year since 2023. The page is only useful if you can change it the week you need to. That means a website you or your provider can update quickly, not one that needs a developer. On a Little Fruitcakes nursery website the fees page is a normal page: edit it yourself, or send the new figures from the Fruitcake Media app and the team updates it for you.

Example of the wording parents understand

Those figures are illustrative. Yours go in the DfE template and on the page, with the date.

Common questions

Sources

• Early education and childcare: statutory guidance for local authorities, DfE, valid from 1 April 2026 (sections A1.31 to A1.43)
• Chargeable extras: template, DfE, 2026
• Childcare Choices, HM Government
• Early years foundation stage statutory framework, DfE, in force from 1 September 2026