Nursery Fees on Bank Holidays

haras_nosirrah

We have had this with our local nursery. My son was going to do Mondays and Fridays and then I realised about the bank holidays so he is just doing Fridays and is on the waiting list for a wed

I do think it is wrong that they charge when they are not open. If they are open and the child doesn't go then fair enough but if they are closed then I don't think they should charge for the session. At £55 day it isn't exactly pocket money .

duchy

greenface wrote: »

Thanks for all the great advice . Although I don't know how too multi respond . The above is wrong as my daughter pays someone else to care for her daughter on bank holidays . so pays twice for the same day . She works in a hospital on Mon/Thurs and weekends (every sun and every x2 sat)

What a shame......is there no family locally or father who could have the child instead of a childminder ?

happycomper22

greenface wrote: »

Same staff on a tues /weds/thurs & fri . so why not spread the Monday fees across the week . She says they charge just over £3 for brekky and dinner , this is additional and not inclusive . I need to check her contract and T&Cs . Just to point out to her . I just don't like to see unnecessary charges to a single mum trying to do her bestest . (think its my age)

but surely if she has signed the contract she has already read it and signed and agreed to it.


My LO's crèche is the same. I get charged the same amount per week whether they are of on bank holidays/easter/Christmas etc. I also get charged if my son is too ill to go or gets sent home sick. This was explained to me before I signed to agreement for his place so there's nothing I can do about it. All the nursery's around here work on the same rules so I just have to suck it up.

pinkshoes

Our nursery works out the price based on how many bank holidays there are.

Those who attended Mon/Fri have lower monthly fees than those who attend Wed/Thur.

They made this change after lots of parents using the nursery on Monday complained.

vroombroom

My son's old nursery did this as well. I understand why they do it, but when I suggested to the nursery they give parents another day in lieu they looked at me like I was crazy.

We used to rely on the nursery heavily due to having no family who could help with childcare so I changed my job to fit around my OH's work and now we don't pay. £500 better off a month!! x

gayleygoo

This seems to be the norm. My SIL has to pay for the bank holidays her son doesn't get to attend, even though it's the only day of the week he goes. They did offer that perhaps he could have a different day instead when that happened, but the nursery is full it's never been an option. She's at uni rather than working so it hits hard on the pocket when she has to find more childcare for those days.

My sister works in a nursery and would much prefer to be working the bank holidays and be able to choose more holidays during the year. Because she has to be off when the nursery is closed, she only gets 5 days a year to pick. There are over 100 kids in her nursery, so that's over £4500 the nursery gets on a bank holiday even though the wage bill is less than £700 for the minimum wage staff they employ.

susancs

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

We have had this with our local nursery. My son was going to do Mondays and Fridays and then I realised about the bank holidays so he is just doing Fridays and is on the waiting list for a wed

I do think it is wrong that they charge when they are not open. If they are open and the child doesn't go then fair enough but if they are closed then I don't think they should charge for the session. At £55 day it isn't exactly pocket money .

I seem to remember that years ago this happened in most childcare situtations, in that if the place was not offering a service you did not pay and staff did not get paid and other overheads for that day had to be built into the overall fee structure. However it then came to light that a number of parents who used childcare on a Monday were getting most of the bank holiday Monday childcare paid via Govt tax credits and were also paid by employers, so in effect kept money meant to pay for bank holiday and childcare staff were not getting paid for bank holidays. This changed when the statutory holiday entitlement for employed staff (this did not include childminders who are self employed) was was upped from 4 weeks to 5.6 weeks paid annual leave which could included bank holidays, so employed nursery staff had to be paid and it was felt that parents receiving money from childcare tax credits or in the form of childcare tax relief vouchers for the bank holidays should be the ones to pay more towards this.

I would agree that this reasoning is unfair on those who work on bank holidays (plus only get standard pay rate for bank holidays) and pay for alternative childcare or don't get help with childcare costs. Four bank holiday Mondays at £55 would have cost you £220 a year, plus £55 for the Good Friday bank holiday for childcare you can't access.

On the other hand the Nursery has to cover costs to remain financially viable. If we take OP's sugguestion that the 8 bank holidays should not be just charged to parents who would attend those days but paid for by all parents fees for other days over the year. Then using your a rate of £55 per day and OPs sugguestion that 40 children attend on a 5 day week basis (260 working days minus 8 bank holidays is 252 working days) it would mean all parents would need to pay 70p extra per day their child attends the Nursery.

surreysaver

If you have to work on a Bank Holiday, then you are having to still find childcare even though you are paying for childcare that the nurseries are refusing to provide. People say they still have to pay their staff - if this is the case, why are their staff not working on Bank Holidays, then? Why do nurseries not close on other days at random, during the year, but still charge parents, so their staff can have annual leave? This might then even out the unfairness a bit.

greenface

duchy wrote: »

What a shame......is there no family locally or father who could have the child instead of a childminder ?

I live on a park bench in the woods so unable to help in anyway and probation officer thinks its a bad idea , P.S its not a shame far from it . Maybe her dad & family does more than you think .

pleasedelete

greenface wrote: »

I live on a park bench in the woods so unable to help in anyway and probation officer thinks its a bad idea , P.S its not a shame far from it . Maybe her dad & family does more than you think .

They asked a question in a polite way!

Have you been on the sherry or are you just rude?

The original comment to which you gave this scathing remark was :

What a shame......is there no family locally or father who could have the child instead of a childminder ?