Nurserys

susancs

I doubt that you will find a Nursery open from 6.30pm, most open between 7am to 8am. Unless a Nursery was undersubscribed it would be unusual that you would be able to get a place outside of your usual allocated sessions at short notice.There are room space and staff ratios per child regulations set by OFSTED that Nurseries have to adhere to. If you had to start work at 7am, you may have to look at other arrangments such as paying a family member to look after your child and drop your child to Nursery when it opens and have back up plans with family or friends in the event of short notice shift changes (or if your child is ill).

The amount of chilcare tax credits you would receive is based on your household income and you could ring the helpline to get a quote on your proposed income and childcare costs.

Nursery fees can vary but you usually book set regular days each week and it is rare that you pay an hourly rate, it is usually a sessional rate or full day rate , so you would have until the session or full day end time to collect your child. If you were working until 5pm then you would usually pay the full day rate and you can collect your child anytime up until Nursery closes. You usually pay for the regular days/sessions even if your child does not attend (e.g when on holiday, off sick etc) to keep the place open for your child and so the Nursery can cover costs.

pesky85

Nurseries are not very flexible in my experience. Childminders can be more flexible - however I have found it difficult to find a childminder that could accommodate the exact hours I needed (due to already have maximum numbers at that time, for example).

I would speak to the nursery to see how they work re: short notice. If your child is young they have to have a higher staff:child ratio and do their staff shifts accordingly.

Could you compromise with your employer to give to a certain amount of notice when you're working an extra / different shift?

The other thing with a nursery - they tend to charge per session (am / pm) and then by the hour. The hourly charges can work out up to 50% more expensive than the session rates.

Also consider that with a nursery, they will not look after your child if they are unwell - yet you will still be charged.

thorsoak

Why not ask your Health Visitor if she has a list of Childminders? She may also know which ones will have vacancies with older children starting school...

LL30

Your local council should have a list of all the local registered childminders, can't for the life of me remember what department I spoke to mind...your HV should be able to point you in the right direction. My daughter goes to a childminder now, although she did go to nursery for a while, and I much prefer our childminder. I also went to a conference recently on 'attachment' and it's put me off nurseries for life...beyond scary...

kingfisherblue

The Family Information Service or the Early Years team at your local council will have details about childminders. They will also have some information about nurseries, but I doubt if it will extend to whether they open early for individuals, or whether they allow late bookings.

Just to comment about nurseries taking an extra child at the last minute, as others have said, nurseries have to take into account child/adult ratios. This is a legal requirement. They also have a limit on the number of children they can take, based on floor space. A lot of nurseries will take an extra child on some days, but often only if they have somebody absent. They will obviously only know this when the parent or carer has phoned in. Whilst it may be that in some cases, a nursery will know that Flossie is on holiday all week, so there is space, it can be different if Flossie is off sick. They will not usually risk taking a child in Flossie's place in case she turns up unexpectedly. Therefore, most nurseries will only take in an extra child after a certain time, which would not help you if you need to drop your child off early.