Creche fees and places

Ngannou54

Hi I decided to post on here as I am a little clueless when it comes to creche fees and reserving places! We are expecting our first child. I realise each creche will be different but maybe there is a general approach taken...

Are creche fees generally based on the amount of days or hours that your child is in the creche or us it a flat fee per month?

How soon should we or can we reserve a place in a local creche?

timetogo1

Ngannou54 wrote: »

Hi I decided to post on here as I am a little clueless when it comes to creche fees and reserving places! We are expecting our first child. I realise each creche will be different but maybe there is a general approach taken...

Are creche fees generally based on the amount of days or hours that your child is in the creche or us it a flat fee per month?

How soon should we or can we reserve a place in a local creche?

For mine we pay a flat fee per month. We could choose to have our daughter in the creche for 3, 4 or 5 days a week and they calculate the rate accordingly. I.e. if we keep her out for a few days we don't get a reduction.

Ring your local creches now and see what their availability is like. I don't know what it's like now with Covid but before it, there was a waiting list at our creche.

Also have an idea at what age you want your child to go at. Some creches won't take kids before they're a year old. Others will start at 6 months. That gave me a shock when I initially started ringing around as I assumed they'd all just take babies when maternity leave was over.

Ck18

Ngannou54 wrote: »

Hi I decided to post on here as I am a little clueless when it comes to creche fees and reserving places! We are expecting our first child. I realise each creche will be different but maybe there is a general approach taken...

Are creche fees generally based on the amount of days or hours that your child is in the creche or us it a flat fee per month?

How soon should we or can we reserve a place in a local creche?

Once you have booked in for say 5 days then you pay for the 5 days every month regardless of baby being there or not... there’s never an hourly option but most crèches offer a half day option
A lot of crèches are full so I would ring around and get your name down ASAP!
With my son I wasn’t prepared and then only got 2days a wk when I needed 5, I was much more prepared this time, once I hit three months pregnant I booked my baby into crèche! She’s two months old now and will start in December

yourdeadwright

Out of intrest what is the going rate these days,

As our kids have grown up my missus has been a stay at home mam but now she is thinking about going back to work as she got a decent offer in a place she would like to work .
So we are looking at our youngest going to a crèche, he's 8 months old it would be 3 days a week form 9 till half 1

Obviously prices vary but what ball park figure would that be in or around ,

Black_Knight

Depends per crèche, but typically you set the number of days your going to avail of, and that's how your price is calculated regardless of how many you avail of. Our crèche also offers half day options at a reduced rate. Not half the price, but cheaper.
Eg. Our daughter was in for 4 days a week. We pay a rate for 4 days a week, but if she's sick or we go on holidays we still pay our full amount. The crèche grants us 2 weeks a year where we don't have to pay, typically parents utilise this at Christmas.

We recently switched to 5 days, but gave them plenty of notice and there was no problem. Price went up accordingly.

Our price is around 930 or so for 5 days full time. They also include breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner for that, but as far as I know that's not typical. There's a government subsidy which for us is about €20 a week, but depending on your income it can be more.

As for when to book, book now. They can fill up quicker than you'd imagine. Pay your deposit, get a receipt, ensure you have your spot.

Nickibaby*

Haven't started the little one in the creche yet but it's 180 per week for babies and there is a government subsidy of 20 per week that you can avail of which isn't means tested.

Reduced rate for 3 days but I'm not sure how much that is. Same price for 4 days as 5 days no reduction

Minier81

We pay about 870 a month for full time (5days) creche, all meals are provided in creche.