Mumsnet Talk

Hi

DD started nursery a month ago (she was with a child minder for a year before that). Before we accepted her place at the nursery we confirmed with them that she would be attending Mon-Thurs.

At the moment she's in the 0-2 room but as she'll be 2 at the end of this month, she'll be moving up to the 2-3 room. I was told yesterday by the nursery manager that when she moves up there isn't space for her on a Thursday, though there is space for her on a Friday. They asked me to change the days I work but unfortunately this isn't an option for me at the moment.

I really think they should have realised there isn't room for her when she moves up before we signed a contract confirming the days she would be attending.

Has anyone else been in a situation like this? I'm not really sure what my options are and I'm loathe to have to move her again, seeing as she's just got settled and seems to really be enjoying it- any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Oh dear!

Check the contract. This might be disruptive to your DD, but I would say that you tell them very firmly that your DD has a 4 day a week place, and you cannot accept less than the contractual notice period for change of days. She will therefore continue to attend on the days as per the contract, and it is up to them whether they move her, keep her in the same room, or split her time between rooms. It is very shabby of them to attempt to do this to you.

You might want to consider if there are any other nurseries, with better management, that you could to.

I think the nursery is being unreasonable and I wouldn't be happy. When I put my daughter's name on the waiting list for her nursery, I was advised that they would only be able to confirm the days she could attend a month before she started. Fair enough, that was my choice to go along with that. When she was due to start, they confirmed the days (which were the days I'd requested anyway) and made it clear that if I wanted to change her days in the future, there was no guarantee that they would be able to accommodate that change, I'd effectively go on a waiting list for the new day that I wanted. There was never any mention of the nursery not being able to accommodate the original days in the future. Is there any mention of that in the contract? I think if there isn't, they have an obligation to maintain the days they're offering you.

Ah, thank you both for your replies, very helpful.

I did wonder whether I was being unreasonable for being so annoyed about it!

Mandy21, when we signed the contract they also said to us that there wasn't any guarantee they'd be able to take her for a full week (for example) if we wanted to change in the future. I'm going to double check if it mentions anything about changing days and if not, do as Edithweston suggests and tell them she's going for the days we originally signed up for any they can decide when and where to put her

Very very unusual and poor planning on their part. The should have projected forward and planned accordingly. Never heard of a nursery doing this before and I've been running a nursery for the past 8 years and hear all sorts of things.

Surely they can't move her up unless there is a space? In which case she needs to stay in her current room until there is.

I also think it's quite poor of them to expect her to move rooms within a couple of months of starting.

Agree with everyone else - my son stayed in the baby room at his nursery for a couple of months because they were tight on space in the next room up and they didn't want to move him up just before a big holiday as it would be hard for him to settle. This seemed to be reasonable - the nursery manager never suggested that was my problem, just a logistics thing for the nursery.

My nursery would also never ask a customer to change their working days because, well, doesn't it kind of defeat the point? You are paying them for childcare to fit your work arrangements - if it doesn't, you wouldn't choose that place for childcare. And that was the opinion of the nursery manager when we discussed my son changing rooms.

Hope you sort it out.

I think they should keep your DD in the baby room until a child moves up from the next room who does a Thursday (and no letting the other days go to someone else in the meantime). Our nursery would look at moving staff between rooms to make it work.

Yes this is odd. The nursery th DCs were in didn't have set times for moving them, so if they were the only walking 16mo in a room full of tiny babies they might move up, whereas if they were 26 months and most of the others were 18m-2y then they'd stay in. So just doing whatever was best for the child and the others.

Ask them to keep her in the current room until a thursday is also available. Point out that it is their mistake, so they need to find a way to accommodate you.

AS a nursery nurse I find it really odd that they nursery have started your DD in one room only to have to have again a few weeks later- that won't be good for your DD, she will have just got used to her current room and staff members.
It sounds like they took her on knowing they didn't have the room for her in the older room. In my nursery we would ahve strated her in the older room, to avoid unsettling her.
What does it say in your contract about days?
I would be inclined to just keep taking her in on the days that she normally attends or threaten to take her out altogether (don't do this unless you have a back-up plan just in case they call your bluff)
Sounds like bad management

Thanks so much to everyone for your really helpful replies.

It actually seems that they've found a solution now, in that another child is due to move up a room shortly so there will be space after all. She'll stay in the baby room longer than she would have done which suits me fine as she's only just settled there.

I'm still puzzled that they hadn't noticed there was a way round it before they spoke to me - bad management as most of you have said. And I was prepared to put up a fight as our contract says that additional days can be purchased but contracted days cannot be changed (under any circumstances).

Anyway, thanks again all

That's great (or as it should be). Did you have to push them to sort it or did they discover the solution on their own?

A bit of both I think - DH got involved and spoke to the nursery manager. I'm not sure of what he precisely said but they discovered a solution the very next day..!

I suspect they were jusy trying it on, a lot of nurseries struggle to fill space on a Friday so they were probably hoping you would change days to help them out!

Yes, and as I result, I'm currently without work and on mumsnet instead.

I am self-employed and usually work from home. A job offer came up which has meant that I could not do the work from home. It was only for 9 hours a week, but the pay offered was very good for me (£25 per hour). So I agreed to the contract and last month, made arrangements with a nursery for care from 8.00am to 13.30pm Monday to Wednesday. I paid a £500 deposit plus 1 months fees in advance.

10 days before the start of the contract (a new job and perhaps the opportunity to go permanent with the firm after 6 months - so really important to me), the nursery rang, and said that regrettably they could no longer accommodate dd2 during those days, and offered alternative days.

Needless to say, I felt a mixture of anger and disappointment towards the nursery. They shafted me. I had to go through the humiliation of phoning up the firm to renege on the contract. Towards the end of the phone conversation, I was very unprofessional as I was in tears. I almost slammed the phone down.

Words cannot describe how bitter and disappointed I am. I have found an alternative nursery but dd2 cannot start there until September. I should be spending the afternoon chasing up my deposit, but what I might do instead is attend the nursery and submit my one month withdrawal notice on the first day.