The question every parent has
Before a parent books a viewing, they want two numbers: what a place costs and how much of it funding or subsidy will cover. Most childcare websites answer neither. Fees are "on request", funding is a paragraph of scheme names, and the office spends every morning explaining the same arithmetic on the phone. The parent, meanwhile, has phoned three settings and booked a viewing with the first to pick up.
The fix is one plain page called Fees and funding, written once, edited by you each September, and linked from every room and class page. Here is what goes on it.
Sessions and fees, as a table
Start with what you sell. Session types (full day, morning, afternoon, school day, term-time only, breakfast club, after-school), the hours each covers, and the fee for each, per day or per session, by age group if your fees differ for babies. A table, not prose. Then a worked example: "Three full days a week for a two-year-old: £X a week before funding, $Y in the US example." Parents want to see the shape of a month.
What is included, and what is extra
Meals and snacks, nappies and wipes, formula, sun cream, trips, sports coaching, late collection charges, holiday retainers, registration fee, deposit and whether it is refundable. Each stated. The most common source of a fees complaint is an extra the parent did not know about.
Funding, explained for your country
This is orientation, not advice, and schemes change; say so on the page and date it. Funding regimes differ by country and often by region, so write the paragraph that applies where you operate and keep it to what you administer:
- UK: funded hours for eligible ages, how they are spread across the year (term-time versus stretched), what the funding covers and what you charge alongside it, and Tax-Free Childcare as a way parents pay the balance. Link to the government eligibility checker rather than restating the rules.
- Australia: the Child Care Subsidy, that it is paid to the provider and reduces the fee, and that the parent's rate depends on their circumstances, with a link to the official estimator.
- US: whether you accept state childcare assistance, and a line pointing to the federal tax credit for dependent care. Rules vary by state; link to your state's page.
- Canada: whether you are enrolled in the relevant provincial fee-reduction programme, and what the reduced parent fee looks like.
Then the part only you can answer: how to apply with you, what code or document you need from the parent, and when funding starts once they have it.
Vouchers and payment methods
For a holiday club or after-school club, which voucher schemes and payment routes you accept decides whether many working parents can use you at all. List them, and say how to pay with each.
Notice, absence and changes
Notice period to leave or reduce sessions, whether fees are charged for sickness and holidays, how to swap a day, when fees are reviewed (the month, every year). Plain sentences.
How to apply
The route from reading the page to a place: book a viewing, join the waitlist, receive the offer, complete enrolment in Famly or Blossom, pay the deposit. Numbered. Book a viewing and Join the waitlist buttons at the end.
For classes, sitters and agencies
The same principle, shorter. A baby class states the price per term and per trial with what a term includes. A babysitting service states hourly rates, minimums and late-night or short-notice surcharges. A nanny agency states placement fees and any ongoing fees with what is included, because families compare agencies on exactly that.
Keep it editable and keep it matching
Fees change every year and funding rules change more often. The page has to be a record you can edit in ten minutes, not a PDF a designer laid out two Septembers ago. And it has to match what your software invoices, so the number a parent read is the number on their first bill.
Where each answer also lives
The full-day fee beside Book a viewing on every room page. "Funded hours accepted" in the header strip. The fees link in the viewing confirmation. The voicemail: "For fees and funding, everything is on the website under Fees and funding." Half the callers hang up satisfied.
Where this sits
One plain fees and funding page, as an editable record matching the software, linked from every room and class page, is part of every childcare business website we build. The office should be answering the questions the page cannot, and once the page exists that is a much shorter list than most settings currently hear every morning.