15 minutes more at nursery?

[cjt110]

My son started his nursery in January 2015 so he has been there 16ish months now. He attends 2 days a week. His core hours, as selected by us, have always been 8-5. The contract states a day is 9 hours and to cover staffing, they need to know each child's core hours. Fab. No probs.

I used to work 9-5.30 making it impossible to do drop off and collect within these hours so my husband would collect DS from nursery at approx 4.30 after he finishes work. We were effectively banking 30 mins every day. On odd occasions we have asked can they keep him til 5 or a little after and there have been no problems whatsoever.

My hours have now changed to 9-5. As such, I emailed the manager asked the nursery with the following:

^Hi M,

I hope this email finds you well.

I would just like to double check something if possible? C’s core hours are 8-5 on Wednesday and Thursday. I usually drop him off around 8am and his Dad collects at approx. 4-15pm. Previously, on occasions where we have had to collect C after 5pm, the girls in the baby room have said not to worry as we “bank” an hour and a half each week which is paid for but not used.

Going forward, the hours above for collection and drop off will be the same for a Wednesday but on a Thursday, I will be collecting C at approx. 5-15pm due to my husband’s new work commitments.

Will there be an extra charge for the additional time past 5pm on those days?^

I got a reply back which said "Thank you for your email. That is fine to collect C at 5.15pm on a Thursday – you will not be charged for these extra 10-15 minutes."

DH and I were discussing the other day and it would be easier for us if I collect him now my hours have changed. It means DH can get home around 4.15 and do a bit of housework etc before I get home with DS at around 5.30.

I have emailed the nursery this morning asking whether it would be ok to collect my son at 5.15 on both days and if so, would this incur an extra charge.

Just wondering if IABU here? Part of me thinks not, it's only 15 minutes and we banked lots of time in the previous 12 months which was paid for and not used. Then another part thinks, at the end of the day, they run a business and if everyone did an extra 5 minutes, they wouldn't be charging for a lot.

If you think it's reasonable to charge for those extra 15 mins, how much would you expect to be charged? We pay around £43 for the full day.

Thanks

[someonestolemynick]

I think it's fine to ask.

You asked them perfectly nicely and given them the option to charge you extra. I wouldn't be offended at the request and given your history probably wouldn't charge you at least for a specified time.

[WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant]

I think that depends on the staff.
If the staff are there until 6, it will probably be OK
If the staff are only paid until 5, you would need to pay extra.
You have asked, they can work it out somehow.

[NotMeNotYouNotAnyone]

Yanbu because you've asked and made it clear that you would be OK if they did charge.

If you're fretting, ask them to let you know when your banked hours have run out and you'll pay up accordingly. But if you're still collecting early several days a week, you're still banking more than you're paying for. As long as it's part of their staffs normal day and the nursery are happy for you to do it then there's no issue.

[DesertOrDessert]

Is nursery only offering a 9 HR day? Do they offer a 10 HR day? Or does everyone need to do a maximum of 9 hrs?
An hour comes in at £4.77. I'd charge you that, I think.
I'd suspect most people don't use their full allowance, as you need spare time to allow for delays.

[cjt110]

Have emailed them and had a reply that that would be fine and they would charge an extra £1.08 for those 15 mins which I think is very reasonable. Nursery is open 7-6 daily.

Husband has decided that rather than pay that, that he will collect him. Afterall, it does all add up at extra £112.32 a year.

Just didnt want to seem cheeky asking.

[InternationalHouseofToast]

Just checkingyou know that you may have posted your son's name in your 10:30:38 post. If you want to remove it, report that post and MNHQ can amend it for you.

[cjt110]

Whoops! Thanks International!

[mummyla]

I have never heard of banking hours, I am pretty sure our nursery doesn't do this. Our nursery is open 8-6 for all children costing £39, I pay an additional £3 to have a 7:30 start, if I pick my daughter up early then that's of my own accord and I wouldn't be able to bank the time. We don't receive any funding as she is only 21 months but for those that do they are given certain hours during term time but wrap around hours can be added.

[starry0ne]

Nursery's don't bank hours... Trying to keep track of how many banked hours would be a nightmare ..

There was also a thread last night about a teacher not been free childcare..I think this same applies here .. Why should they do an extra 15 minutes a day unpaid..The staff would of been employed to stay there till you DC was due to leave.

[angielou123]

There's no banking hours at my sons nursery either. His days are tues and fri 8.30am til 4pm. As my 7yr old son's school is opposite the nursery and he finishes at 3.30pm, I pick up the liitle one then half hour early. So thats an hour a week he loses. Not much i know and I don't worry about it. On the last good friday, kids obv off, so I asked the nursery if I could swap the friday for another day so he didn't miss out. That was a no go, can't do that apparently.

[DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease]

We were effectively banking 30 mins every day.

I don't understand this. If your child is booked in till 5pm, staff will be arranged to cover until then. Even if you decided to pick him up at three every day, unless you change your booking, you are banking nothing.

But, that doesn't matter now as you've sorted it with proper communication. Are you happy with the arrangement, will your dh still do a bit of extra housework each day, if that's even an issue in your household?

[cjt110]

Going to stick to our current arrangements I think.

[MintyBojingles]

It's fine to ask. Our nursery is a blanket £40 per whole day which covers any hours between 7.30 and 6.

[GrumpyMummy123]

Wow you've got a good nursery there! When my DS was at day nursery there was no such thing as 'banking hours'! Core hours were 8-6 and if you dropped off later or picked up early then that's up to you but couldn't carry over any unused time. Staff had to be there for those hours regardless.

Your could pay extra £5 for 6.15pm pick up but had to prebook it and only limited spaces - you are basically paying for a member of staff to do an early start/ later finish. But daily rate was £67!

£1 for 15mins sounds very reasonable.

[teacherlikesapples]

I think it is ok to ask, but just keep in mind they would not be unreasonable to say no.

While in your mind you were 'banking' hours. You had booked in that time, so the ratios were arranged & staffed accordingly. You chose not to use the set hours, but the staff were still booked and prepared to accommodate you (i.e Their wages paid) So what you paid, covered part of this expense. Now you are expecting extra time for free. They may agree, out of goodwill, but I am sure if will depend on staffing ratios, if the staff are working shifts, the staffing numbers tend to drop in the late afternoon, as children go home.

I wouldn't mind, if it I felt the child was otherwise settled & happy, and I had the staff to do it, but I would prefer it to be the exception as I couldn't do it for all parents and would want to be fair.

[NightWanderer]

I'm also surprised to hear about banked hours. It sounds like it's sorted anyway.

[Pseudo341]

The nursery will be arranging their staffing levels by the hour. At the nursery I use the set hours are 8 to 6. If you want anything outside those hours you pay extra because they have to pay extra to provide someone to care for your child. Most of their staff cover the set hours only but then however many are required will cover the early/late shift each day. They need to know in advance how many children will be there at that time so they can have the right number of staff. You can't bank hours, it's not as if they've sent a member of staff home every day when you've picked your child up and they've saved lots of money, you've just chosen to pick your child up early. I used to pick my eldest up before 5 but still had to pay until 6 because that was the standard nursery hours.

[Pseudo341]

Just reread your OP and saw it was the nursery staff who came up with the idea of banking hours, not you. I'd be surprised if there was any formal arrangement for such a thing, they probably just meant you've always been really good at collecting on time or before and therefore they're happy to cut you some slack. I've always been very good at collecting pretty early and got let off being over charge when I ended up running late once thought the contract clearly states I would have to pay.

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

I think it has worked out for the best actually. It's hard work to be under pressure at both ends of the day and your working day has just been shortened. In practice I would suck it and see if I can actually be on time all the time.

Plus - it's worth considering that if you wanted to arrange additional hours of childcare just to do uninterrupted housework would your husband be on board/see the value ?

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

I think it has worked out for the best actually. It's hard work to be under pressure at both ends of the day and your working day has just been shortened. In practice I would suck it and see if I can actually be on time all the time.

Plus - it's worth considering that if you wanted to arrange additional hours of childcare just to do uninterrupted housework would your husband be on board/see the value ?