If your child gets free childcare hours and your nursery bill went up this term, or a new line appeared on it that you do not remember agreeing to, the question worth asking is not whether the charge is fair. It is whether the charge is mandatory. That single distinction decides almost every case.
The government's statutory guidance for England is blunt about the principle:
The 15 or 30 hours must be able to be accessed free of charge to parents. There must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. Government funding is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.
Both halves matter. Your funded hours have to be genuinely free — and at the same time, the funding was never meant to pay for lunch, nappies or a trip to the farm. So nurseries can ask you to pay for extras. What they cannot do is make those extras a condition of the free place.
What a nursery is allowed to charge for
Four categories, and every one of them must be optional:
- Consumables your child uses — nappies, wipes, sun cream, formula.
- Meals and snacks your child eats.
- Optional extra activities — music or language sessions, trips, specialist tuition, events.
- Additional hours beyond your funded entitlement, as long as buying them is not a condition of getting the free place.
"Optional" has a specific meaning here. You must be able to opt out, and the provider has to offer a reasonable alternative — letting you send a packed lunch or your own nappies, for example, or waiving the cost. If you do opt out, your child must still receive provision of the same quality as everyone else. A nursery cannot quietly make opting out so awkward that nobody does.
What a nursery cannot charge for
The guidance lists these explicitly. A charge is not allowed if it is:
- A top-up fee — the gap between the nursery's usual hourly rate and what the council pays them. This is the big one, and it is the most common unlawful charge.
- Materials needed to deliver the childcare — craft supplies, paper, crayons, books, toys, instruments, learning resources.
- Running costs of the business — rent, wages, cleaning, insurance, energy, water, waste.
- A non-refundable registration fee as a condition of taking a funded place.
- A non-refundable deposit as a condition of taking a funded place. (A provider may keep a deposit if you end up not taking the place at all.)
- A non-refundable retainer for a funded place.
- SEND support costs charged as part of, or as a condition of, your funded hours. These are meant to be met through the Disability Access Fund and the SEN Inclusion Fund, not by you.
- A general or catch-all charge — "enrichment", "sustainability", "business continuity", "enhanced ratios", or an hourly supplement applied across your funded hours.
- Any fee that is not specifically identified and itemised as one of the permitted extras above.
That second-to-last point catches a lot of invoices. A flat "consumables fee" of £2 per hour across every funded hour is not a consumables charge in any meaningful sense — it is a top-up fee with a different name on it.
The test, applied to real invoice lines
| What is on the invoice | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| £4/day for meals, with a packed-lunch option | Allowed |
| £4/day for meals, no opt-out offered | Not allowed — mandatory |
| £2/hour "consumables fee" across all funded hours | Not allowed — a top-up in disguise |
| Optional £10 French class you chose to add | Allowed |
| £50 deposit, refunded on the first day | Allowed |
| £50 non-refundable deposit to secure a funded place | Not allowed |
| £8/hour private rate plus £5/hour on funded hours | Not allowed — a top-up |
| One blended hourly rate across funded and paid hours | Not allowed — must be itemised |
| 1:1 SEND support staff billed to you | Not allowed |
| Place refused because you opted out of trips | Not allowed |
New for 2026/27: your invoice must be itemised
This is the change most parents have not heard about, and it is the most useful thing on this page.
Providers must now break an invoice into five separate lines: funded entitlement hours, additional paid hours, food, non-food consumables, and activities. A single blended figure covering everything no longer meets the requirement. Providers must also publish their chargeable extras and prices, usually on their website, and complete a declaration with you before your child starts — recording your pattern of hours and which optional charges you have actually agreed to.
Practically, that gives you a reasonable and specific thing to ask for:
"Could you send an itemised invoice showing the five categories separately, and a copy of the declaration I signed?"
It is hard to argue with, and it tends to resolve the question on its own. If a charge cannot survive being written on its own line with a name next to it, that tells you most of what you need to know.
If you think a charge is wrong
Work through it in order. Each step is cheap, and most cases stop at the second one.
- Ask for the itemised breakdown. Plenty of disputes turn out to be badly worded invoices rather than unlawful charges.
- Put your concern in writing to the provider. Name the specific line, say that you understand charges on funded hours must be voluntary with an alternative offered, and ask them to either confirm the opt-out or remove the charge. Keep it civil — in most cases the nursery is not trying it on, and the relationship matters more than the money.
- Raise it with your local council. Councils fund these places and are responsible for making sure providers meet the conditions. Their early years team is the right contact.
- Escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if the council does not resolve it. The Ombudsman has upheld complaints about mandatory charges on funded places and has recommended refunds where parents were charged for something that should have been optional.
Two honest caveats. Guidance is not the same as a court ruling, and an individual case can turn on its specific facts — so nothing here guarantees a refund. And this covers England only; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run different schemes with different rules.
Common questions
Can a nursery make meals compulsory?
No. They can charge for a meal, but the charge must not be mandatory and an alternative, such as bringing a packed lunch, must be available. They are allowed to set a sensible packed-lunch policy about what food is permitted.
Can they charge a flat hourly "consumables" or "enrichment" fee?
No. Blanket hourly charges applied to funded hours are specifically listed as not allowed, however they are labelled. Charges have to be itemised and tied to something real and optional.
Can they refuse my child a place if I opt out of the extras?
No. Opting out cannot cost you the place, and your child must still get provision of the same quality.
Can they charge extra for my child's SEND support?
Not as part of, or as a condition of, your funded hours. That support is meant to be funded through the Disability Access Fund and the SEN Inclusion Fund.
What if the charges started before I knew the rules?
The itemisation and declaration requirements are current for 2026/27, so it is reasonable to ask about charges on this term's invoice. Whether anything earlier gets refunded depends on the provider and, if it goes that far, on your council and the Ombudsman.