60% price rise at Kiddicarru nursery since Jan for my 4 year old!!!!

[Carolineabroad]

Hi all, would be very interested to hear from other parents who have experienced the same thing.

Feeling APPALLED & OUTRAGED!!! My Nursery bill for my 4 year old son has gone up by over 60% since January!!!! I don't feel that this is fair or reasonable or that it was communicated in advance clearly at all.
Despite what myself and several other parents were told, this has nothing to do with 'new government legislation' & our bills will not 'even out of the year'.
After months of battling over emails, the Managing Director has now suggested I remove Jack from nursery.
How can they be allowed to increase prices so much mid way through the year??!!!
I have arranged my working patterns around Jack attending 4 mornings & will struggle to find alternative provision; not to mention the fact I don't want to cause him upheaval & disruption so close to him finishing there.
I think this will strike a chord with many of your readers who are struggling with the cost of childcare.
How are hard working parents expect to be able to work, even part time hours with a 60% increase to our childcare costs?
Kiddicarru is a national organisation with nineteen branches country wide. So it won't be only Northampton parents who are being ripped off.
I have piles of email correspondence which clearly demonstrates the company's appalling customer service & where they have failed to be transparent. I am taking this up with the media, my MP, the council....

In summary;

A 60% increase to fees is a disgrace. This should not be legally possible. Hiding the change, refusing to reply or confirm the change & then requesting that our child be removed from the nursery after we complain.

Caroline

[insancerre]

can you provide more details
how have prices increased?

[Cindy34]

Have they withdrawn from the nursery education funding? That may be a reason for the increase.

Have they increased costs for non-funded hours?

[insancerre]

the nursery can lose the funding if they are judged as inadequate at an ofsted inspection
have they had an inspection recently?

[Onesleeptillwembley]

It's a private company I'm guessing. What do you think the council and your MP can do?

[SavoyCabbage]

If it's a chain, is it only yours that has had the price hike? Sound like they have failed their ofsted if not.

[TiggyD]

Maybe they're trying to pay their staff the Living Wage?

[Carolineabroad]

If only they were paying the child care workers more!

They have reduced the amount of early years hours you can claim and massively increased the non funded hours!!!

They area a private nursery so can in effect charge what they like as long as it is communicated clearly in advance. They did not do this , in fact when I queried my bill in January which was more than double of it what it used to be , I was told by the manager that it was just a change it billing method and that it would 'even out over the year'. And that the change was due to local and government legislation'

Both of which are completely untrue.

I have spoken to many other parents here in Northampton with children at Kiddicarru nursery who were told the same thing.

Just wanted to see if other parents nationally have been affected too.

When we questioned the massive price rise and miscommunication the management of the company at all levels were not only unhelpful but extremely rude as our email trail testifies.

We are pursuing this as think a 60% price rise in mind way through the year when you will struggle to find alternative child care is a disgrace, never mind the disruption it would cause my little boy and never mind lying about why it has come about!!

[Carolineabroad]

Media & council & our MP can put pressure on the company to be transparent with us ........ And also I want to expose the CEO or refusing to have any more contact with me or my husband 'whatsoever' and that if we don't like the levels of communication we have recover to remove Jack from nursery.

What a bully.

I think the more parents who complain, the more likely they arevt get away with treating parents like this.



I have recently discovered that hell hath no fury like a mother scorned!!!!

[Carolineabroad]

Should also say that we are very happy with the childcare our son receives , he is happy and settled there with lots of great friends, which is even more reason why I dint think I should remove him just because I've complained about a 60% price hike & being mislead!!!

[Carolineabroad]

And yes Kiddicarru is a national chain with 19 branches

[TinyTear]

Would help if you had spelled the nursery name right but at least Google managed to find it...

Any more details? how much were you paying, how much are you paying now?

[Carolineabroad]

Sorry! its Kiddi Carru

[Carolineabroad]

A summary on the key financial points:

Apr-Dec 2013 – Monthly Cost for 4 morning sessions per week £213.52 per month
Jan 2014 - £336.18
Feb 2014 - £323.76
I predict in Aug 2014 my bill will be £458.4!

Change in pricing (I have had to work this out myself Kiddi Caru refuse to confirm):
2013 – early years grant full government entitlement of 114 free sessions per year. 204 full sessions in total. Pay for 90 sessions (the difference) @£28.65 billed as average amount over year = £215 per month
2014 – we are only now allowed to claim 12 out of 15 hours free in any week, maximum of 3 hours per session. Remaining time outside free hours is now charged at higher hourly rate (nursery justified this as some food is provided & an obligatory extra 30 minutes has been added to the session that we are charged for) This results in cost per session of £17.43 for 38 weeks a year (4 sessions a week)…. £28.65 for 13 weeks a year. Each session is charged based on term time based on term time & holiday. I.e. during term time you receive the free hours.. this is why the August bill will be very large. Over the year I work this out as 60% higher. Average bill £344.93.

The new pricing structure was communicated but it is a complicated change, as I hope the above demonstrates, so we could not immediately realise the full implication of the increase.

[MoaningMingeWhingesAgain]

I would speak to the LA about only being allowed 12 of your funded hours.
But
nurseries don't have to offer NEG funded sessions. And businesses can change their prices though I would check your contract about how much notice they are supposed to give you.
and
Breathe. Vote with your feet.

[Carolineabroad]

Council are looking into it but I don't think it's as simple as going elsewhere like you would if your local supermarket started charging 60% more for your peppers!

I don't think any nursery should be able to hike prices so dramatically MID year when local alternative provision is full.

If they had introduced these prices last summer we coud have looked at our options.

As it is, Jack is extremely settled with not long before he starts school, I don't want to yank him out now and 'shop around' .That would be greatly to his detriment.

The price hike is one thing. Misleading parents is something else but doing in the middle of the year is a further insult

[insancerre]

so the nursery is offering the free hours, but is limiting them to only 3 a morning
you do 4 mornings so you can only claim 12 hours and not 15 hours
presumably your child attends longer than the 3 hour session, which you rightly have to pay for
if you don't like it then go to a different nursery
the nursery is not trying to rip you off, it is probbaly just trying to remain a viable business
and the fee for august will be higher as the funding finishes in july

[Carolineabroad]

But as my LEA have pointed out nothing has changed recently which would have caused them to make his morning sessions suddenly uneconomical

They shouldn't have tried blaming council & govt leg and just said this is a commercial decision because we want to make the same money out of every child wether they get funded hours or not. At least that would have been honest.

In addition to this they have also added an extra half an hour to the morning session was billed as completely free 7.30-8am but now it has come to light that yes I have to pay for it and it's at the exorbitant price rate

So that's half an hour extra a day I have never asked for and will never use at an extra cost to me!!!

[Carolineabroad]

*they want to makes same money

[Carolineabroad]

All the initiatives to help mums back to work are made a mockery of, if private nurseries can work out sneaky ways of passing on more cost to the customer

[MoaningMingeWhingesAgain]

They can dictate when they offer funded sessions.

They can raise their prices.

It's a business.You are buying a service from them.

Not being upfront about price rises is utterly shit, that's the part where you may have a leg to stand on. What does the contract say about notice of price changes?

[insancerre]

private nurseries are businesses and are not interested in helping parents back to work
they only want customers that can pay the fees
and the free funding is not to help mums back to work, it is actually for the child, to receive a better start in life and education

[McPheezingMyButtOff]

This chain failed my dn.

Not a fan

They are all for the money.

[TheNightIsDark]

Hi Caroline (J's mum from W's class). Did you contact ofsted with regard to the attitude? As far as I'm aware any complaint will be logged so any other parents looking at kiddi Caru will see the pricing and how parents have been misled.

I don't think there's anything they can do but it will make other parents more aware.

[Carolineabroad]

Thanks all I agree that they can charge what they like ; a grand a day if they want to!!! It's the way they have lied and mislead parents and tried to shift the blame. And as I said the timing stinks too.

what I haven't shared here is the emai trail with the most rude and evasive customer service I've ever come across.

They simply won't admit that it's a commercial decision and confirm our calculations

[Carolineabroad]

Mcfreezingmybuttoff did they try to lie about changes to you too?