What the CMA's Early Years Market Review Means for How Nurseries Should Communicate With Parents

The Secretary of State for Education's letter asking the Competition and Markets Authority to review the early years childcare market has put fee transparency squarely in the spotlight, and rightly so (GOV.UK, Letter from the Secretary of State for Education to the CEO of the CMA, 26 May 2026). The concerns raised, private fees layered on top of funded hours, consumables charges, waiting list deposits, and restrictions on how funded entitlement can be used, are not abstract policy issues. They go directly to the question every parent is quietly asking when they read a nursery's fee structure: can I actually trust what this costs?

Whatever the review ultimately recommends, the direction of travel is unmistakable. Funded entitlement has expanded significantly, working parents of children aged nine months and older can now access 30 funded hours a week from September 2025, and more than half a million children are now accessing government-funded places (GOV.UK, Over half a million children to benefit from funded childcare). That expansion means more parents than ever are trying to understand exactly what "free hours" does and doesn't cover, often for the first time, and increasing numbers of them will be reading fee pages, FAQs, and enrolment terms with a more sceptical eye than before.

Nurseries that get ahead of this shift, rather than waiting for regulation to force clarity, will build trust faster than those that don't. That means fee pages that state plainly what is included in funded hours and what isn't, without buried caveats. It means proactive, upfront communication about consumables or top-up charges rather than surprising parents after enrolment. And it means content, whether a dedicated fees FAQ, a short explainer video, or a straightforward blog post, that answers the transparency question before a parent has to ask it.

This is also a genuine opportunity, not just a compliance exercise. A nursery that communicates fees with unusual clarity, at a moment when the whole sector is under scrutiny for the opposite, sends a strong signal about the kind of operator it is. In a market this trust-dependent, and increasingly this competitive, transparency is fast becoming a marketing advantage as much as it is a policy requirement.

Want your fee pages and parent communications to read as clearly and transparently as the sector is about to demand? Speak to Betula Marketing Hub about a fee transparency and messaging review.

Sources: Secretary of State for Education letter to CMA CEO Sarah Cardell, 26 May 2026; DfE, 30 hours funded childcare from September 2025