The Increbible Increasing Nursery Fee

swampduck

My daughter works as a Nursery Nurse and would often be late home because a parent had been late collecting their child.
They introduced a £10 late fee per half hour to the parents so they could pay their Nursery Nurses for being forced to work over their stipulated hours.

andycarmi

swampduck wrote:

My daughter works as a Nursery Nurse and would often be late home because a parent had been late collecting their child.
They introduced a £10 late fee per half hour to the parents so they could pay their Nursery Nurses for being forced to work over their stipulated hours.

Sounds familiar...

The nursery I worked at closed at 6pm. Most people collected their children on time. You don't mind the odd time but one family was always late 15 mins or so. The late charge was intro £5 TILL 6.15 then £10 for every 1/4 hr after that. The Mum didn't work she was always late because in her own words "I was shopping in town"

But this family picked their child up at 8:45pm:eek: :eek: :eek: With not even a phone call to say what was going on. When the Mother game she couldn't see what the problem was as she bought cash to cover the extra time:rolleyes:

Js_Other_Half

andycarmi wrote:

But this family picked their child up at 8:45pm:eek: :eek: :eek: With not even a phone call to say what was going on. When the Mother game she couldn't see what the problem was as she bought cash to cover the extra time:rolleyes:

I was viewing a nursery last week, and their brochure said if there had been no contact from the family that 30 mins after closing time they'll be phoning social services as it would then be considered a child protection issue...

andycarmi

Js_Other_Half wrote:

I was viewing a nursery last week, and their brochure said if there had been no contact from the family that 30 mins after closing time they'll be phoning social services as it would then be considered a child protection issue...

Thats what the owner said to them if it happened again!

Spendless

Js_Other_Half wrote:

I was viewing a nursery last week, and their brochure said if there had been no contact from the family that 30 mins after closing time they'll be phoning social services as it would then be considered a child protection issue...

I was going to say that myself. I've seen that written into nurseries/holiday playschemes contracts I've used.

kitchpoo

Rachie_B wrote:

yes thats the norm for childminders too for example

You cannot fill a place at such short notice so it needs to be paid.

Well I must be very lucky indeed as we don't pay for missing a session. No registration fees, no late collection fees but they do ring social services as a last resort if you don't pick up, but they told me this has not happened yet.

It's a good nursery too. Ofsted report is very good and I am a teacher so like to think what I am looking for in a good nursery. This is my first child so the ins and outs of running a nursery like this such as the money side of things is new to me. I never really gave it a second thought...must have struck lucky!

sare_2

I know you don't want to leave the nursery, but the best value childcare is usually charitable pre-schools.
I'm on the commitee of the one my son goes to.
The fees are £4.75 for the morning, £1.75 for lunch and £4.75 for the afternoon.
Our ethos is we're there to provide a community service, not to make a profit.
I appreciate a nursery is a business, but that's just screwing parents over.

Savvy_Sue

Mabboo wrote: »

Speaking to my Brother, who's Daughter attends the same nursery 3 days a week, we're not the only people who are upset by the new T&C's and it maybe the straw that breaks the camels back.

Is a shared nanny with brother an option to explore?

As for that late pickup, yup, I'd have been on to Social Services LONG before 8.45 pm. How can you treat a child like that?

I have heard too that sometimes when a late fee is introduced, parents who wouldn't have dreamed of picking up late think that they can just pay for the extra flexibility ...

scrimpandsaver

Every nursery will have fees for late pick ups, simply because there are parents who do pick up their child late, this can mean they need to pay a member of staff to wait with the child, they are also not insured to care for children outside of their normal hours. Registration fees are quite common too, although they are usually refundable deposits, so that any parent who decides to take their child out of nursery will stick to the months notice that nurseries ask for.

At the end of the day this is a business, and fees will rise, just the same as it would do in any other place, usually nurseries pput their fees up every april, however if this nursery has been started up more for a hobby of someone than to actually make any profit it could well be that the fees were really low compared to others, I certainly dont think they are breaking laws,

vickyj

I woud ask them where exactly they would like thier re-registration fee stuck but have to say that the rest of the points are pretty fair