The question
"Funding is complicated and changes every year. What do we actually say about it on the site?" The short answer: a plain page on fees by session, what is included, and how government funding or subsidies work in your country, applied to your sessions. It is the question every parent has, and the sites that answer it get the enquiry from the parent who was doing the maths.
This post is about what to say. The mechanics of building the page as records are in the fees and funding page setup post; this one is the words.
Say what it costs, then what pays for it
Parents read fees first and funding second, and they want the two connected. The mistake is to explain the funding scheme in the abstract, as the government does, and leave the parent to work out how it meets your session structure. Instead:
- The full fee for each session and age group.
- Which funding you accept.
- How the funded hours or subsidy apply to your sessions, in your words.
- What the parent pays on top, and for what.
"A three-year-old with the standard funded hours attending three full days pays for the hours above the funded ones plus meals" is one sentence that does more than a page of scheme description.
Keep it to orientation
Funding rules are set by government and change. Your page is orientation: what exists, whether you accept it, how it works here, where to apply. Link to the official page for eligibility and application, and say that eligibility is decided there, not by you. That keeps the page true when the rules move, and keeps you out of arguments about who qualifies. This is not financial or legal advice, and the page should not read as if it is.
By country, in outline
United Kingdom. Funded early education hours for eligible children (the entitlement has widened to younger ages in England in recent years; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own schemes), Tax-Free Childcare accounts, and childcare support through Universal Credit. Say which you offer, whether you stretch funded hours across the year, and what you charge for consumables and meals alongside funded sessions.
United States. No universal scheme. State child care subsidy programmes for eligible families, Head Start for some, Dependent Care FSAs through employers, and the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. Say which subsidy programmes you accept payment from and whether you provide the statements parents need for FSAs and tax credits.
Canada. Provincial subsidy programmes and, in participating provinces, the reduced-fee spaces under the federal-provincial early learning and child care agreements. Say whether you are a participating provider and what the fee is.
Australia. The Child Care Subsidy, paid to the provider and reducing the fee the parent pays, with eligibility and rate set by the government. Say that you are an approved provider, and show the full fee with a note that the subsidy is applied against it.
European Union. National and often municipal. Explain your country's scheme in your country's terms.
Keep to what you are confident about and say when a rule was last checked.
By kind of setting
Nurseries and daycare. The full treatment: sessions, fees by age, inclusions, every scheme you accept, a worked example. The nursery website parent is committing for years.
Holiday and after-school clubs. The question is vouchers and how to pay with them. State which childcare voucher and funding schemes you accept and the steps to pay through them. For a holiday club this decides whether many parents can use you at all, so it belongs on the booking page as well as the fees page.
Baby classes and tutoring. Usually no funding. Say so in one line so parents stop looking, and state the price per term and per trial. A baby class business that is silent on funding gets asked anyway.
Nanny agencies and babysitting. Placement fees and ongoing fees for a nanny agency; hourly rates, minimums and surcharges for a babysitting service. Mention the tax-free childcare or voucher route only where it genuinely applies to your arrangement.
Words to avoid
- "Free childcare." The hours may be funded; the meals and the extra hours are not, and parents feel misled at the first invoice.
- "Contact us to discuss funding options."
- The scheme's own text pasted in.
- A funding page with no fees on it.
- A fee sheet as a PDF.
Keeping it current
Put the fee review date and the funding review date on the page and in your calendar. Fees change in September or January; schemes change with budgets. Ten minutes a term keeps the page the one parents trust, and a page built on session and scheme records makes those ten minutes a form, not a rewrite.
Where this sits
Fees and funding explained plainly, in the context of your sessions and your country, is one of the six must-haves on every childcare website we build. Parents arrive at the page anxious about money and leave it either reassured or on another nursery's site. The words above are the difference.