Guide
The nursery pricing page rules from April 2026
The Department for Education's statutory guidance on funded childcare now tells local authorities what providers may and may not charge for, and says charges should be published where parents can find them. Most nursery fees pages were written before it.
The guidance, and who it binds
"Early education and childcare: statutory guidance for local authorities" is issued by the DfE and the current version is valid from 1 April 2026, replacing the version from 1 April 2025. It binds local authorities, who pass its conditions into the funding agreements every provider signs. So while it is addressed to councils, it decides what your fees page can say if you offer funded hours.
Source: gov.uk, "Early education and childcare", statutory guidance, version valid from 1 April 2026.
The five rules that touch the fees page
- Funded hours must be free at the point of access (paragraph A1.31). You cannot charge for the hours themselves, and you cannot require a parent to pay for something else in order to get them.
- Charges for meals, consumables and activities must be voluntary (A1.32 to A1.35). Nappies, sun cream, snacks, trips. Parents must be able to opt out, and you must offer a reasonable alternative such as supplying their own.
- Extras cannot be a condition of the place (A1.36). A parent who declines the meal package still gets the funded hours.
- No non-refundable registration fee, deposit or retainer as a condition of a funded place (A1.38).
- Charges should be clear, up to date and easily accessible to parents, via your website or the local authority's Family Information Service (A1.40). The DfE publishes a "Chargeable extras" template for provider websites. Invoices and receipts should be itemised to show funded hours, paid hours, food, non-food consumables and activities separately (A1.42).
Local authorities may exempt childminders and providers caring for ten or fewer children from the publication requirement (A1.41).
What a compliant fees page looks like
Answer first: a table. One row per session or day type, with the funded hours shown at £0, the paid hours at their rate, and a separate list of extras with the price of each and the words "optional, you may opt out" beside it. A worked example for a typical week for a child on 30 hours, then one for 15, then one for a child not on funding. The date the prices apply from.
Below it, the DfE template completed for your setting, downloadable, and one paragraph in plain English on how stretched offers work if you spread the hours across 51 weeks.
What it does not say: "please contact us for fees". "Registration fee £50, non-refundable" without the words "not applicable to funded places". "Meals included" as a charge that cannot be declined. "Top-up fee". Each of those is a phrase that appears on many current nursery sites and contradicts the guidance.
Why parents care as much as the DfE
"nursery fees london" is searched 390 times a month, and "30 hours free childcare" 33,100, rising to 60,500 in September 2025 (Google Ads data via DataforSEO, United Kingdom, September 2026). Parents are doing the sums before they ring anyone. A page that shows the numbers gets the visit; a page that hides them gets skipped for the one that does not. Coram's 2026 survey found a part-time under-two place is now "theoretically free" for eligible families in term time, which means the extras are the whole conversation.
Sources: DataforSEO, Google Ads search volume, September 2026; Coram Family and Childcare, Childcare Survey 2026, 18 March 2026.