In February 2025, the Department for Education updated its early education and childcare funded places guidance that local authorities – and consequently providers – must follow.
What can I do and what can I not do from April?
NDNA members have been in touch to ask us questions about the guidance and to let us know what impact this new guidance will have on their nurseries, their families, children and staff. We have some FAQ’s in the section below.
Timelines for the guidance
By January 2026 at the latest you must:
- publish details about parental charges on your website or FIS website
- have itemised invoices in place for parental charges.
Letters from NDNA Networks to local authorities
Some have decided to formally write to their local authorities to express their concerns in no uncertain terms. You can see some quotes below or download the letters on this page. Contact the membership team to find out if members in your area are working together or if you would like help in organising a similar coordinated response.
Read our networks letters to local authorities
“Bullied, humiliated, dictated to by government and stuck in the middle between parents and the council.” – NDNA Network member
FAQs about the charging parents nursery guidance
How can I challenge this? What is NDNA doing about this?
NDNA is standing up for nurseries and defending your rights to be sustainable private businesses. See NDNA’s underfunded childcare campaign page.
You will find template letters to send to parents and we are creating letters to send to your local MP setting out what this new guidance means for your setting and also for children and their families.
NDNA is exploring legal avenues regarding this guidance and is raising these issues at the highest levels of government.
We have given comments and background information to the press and media – our comments and arguments were covered in many national and local newspapers and websites across the country.
We have briefed MPs so they are aware of the unique challenges nurseries are facing.
How do I find out who my local MP is?
You can find your local MP and more data about your constituency here. Scroll down to see our interactive map and enter your constituency.
How do I explain rising prices to parents?
NDNA has development a template letter to parents to explain the new guidance and voluntary charges which you can find here.
Is legal challenge an option? / How can I challenge the legality of this?
NDNA is currently exploring all legal avenues regarding the recent court case which prompted the new guidance and also the new guidance itself.
We advise nurseries to check their interpretation of the guidance and communications with parents with our FREE 24/7 legal helpline and with member benefits partner and early years legal specialist Morgan La Roche
Why is NDNA not pushing for strike action?
NDNA is a membership association and not a union – we cannot call for strike action and have no mandate to call for it or organise this. Any strike action or withdrawal of services or funded places will cause harm to our nursery members and the children who use them. We are raising awareness of the challenges you are facing and defending nurseries at all levels of government.
Our questions to the DfE
NDNA has sent a list of 30 questions to the DfE to answer. As this guidance is new, it has not been tested or challenged in court, so we are being advised legally that we can’t give you answers to your questions with 100% certainty. That can only come from the team who has developed this guidance. We will publish these questions and answers as soon as we have them.
Download FAQs from DfE which provide some responses to the questions we have asked on behalf of members. We will be following up on the questions which haven’t yet been addressed by the FAQ.
“I’m absolutely fuming. If this (guidance) goes ahead I will most certainly very seriously be considering closing my doors.” – NDNA member
Template letter to explain charging parents nursery guidance to parents
NDNA understands that you need to be able to communicate clearly with parents about why you make charges to them, what they cover and the impact of parents NOT paying those.
We have a template letter here for you to download. This is a template only so please adapt for your own circumstances. We hope this wording will be useful to you.
I/we would like to contact our local authority about charging parents nursery guidance
We would advise you to get in touch with your local authority. Many of our networks have already done this and written letters on behalf of local nurseries. Please contact your local network. If you haven’t got a local network but you would like us to look into setting one up in your locality please contact [email protected]