Nursery e-mails me 5 pm...

It’ll likely still be covered - not providing a service because they didn’t have legal ratios is not likely to be something the OP will be able to go off claiming all the costs for as you suggested.

Nursery owners aren’t stupid - they know that staff illness or leaving can leave them unable to operate. They’re not going to leave themselves open to legal action (which would be relevant for one day or ten)

Same thing happened to me – and it was on the day of DH’s funeral. Absolute nightmare. I clubbed together with another family and hired one of the now out of work staff as a nanny and it worked brilliantly.

That's rotten they must have known they were in trouble.

It happened near us too. Nursery which also ran an Afterschool ran out of money and closed.

The other afterschool in the town snapped up their staff and filled it's provision but it still leaves a shortage of spaces for kids.

This is the problem with using private businesses. Government need to move back to LA provision so it’s not for profit

I'm so glad you left a follow up, I was so confused 😕 😂

Your local authority should have reasonably up to date data on vacancies within a certain proximity - they have to report on this to Ofsted to ensure they have sufficient childcare places. They may also have a brokerage service, soni recommend contacting them

Our village nursery shut last month for good.

Weather is different though and actually under the consumer act 2015, if a service provider doesn't provide a service you paid for, you are entitled to a refund. I think people are generally understanding for a one day closure due to snow. Leaving someone in the lurch for childcare is a completely different matter.

Have you tried getting a childminder lately? There's also a huge shortage and most will have waiting lists, so spaces are filled almost as soon as they become available.

That’s awful it’s already hard enough on the little ones having to attend nursery all day anyway for them to suddenly lose all that they know. Get a childminder so your child can have a more home from home experience perhaps.

That's such a shock for you OP. Hopefully your work will be understanding given the circumstances.

Ditto

Some of the Government have interests in the big nursery chains. Rishi Sunak's wife was recently in the news because she had interests in KoruKids - and they were advantaged by the last budget.

Many of the chains are backed by investment companies. It's in their interests that smaller, more independent settings are forced out of business. They don't care that you have unaffordable childcare and limited places. Children are money in the bank so far as they're concerned.

Why else do you think the Government has allowed things to get to this pitch? They've known about it for years.

I've been treated terribly in a lot of nurseries. Spoken down to and bossed around etc.
I go to one now quite regularly and it's so stressful. Some of the staff, mainly the unqualified ones are completely out of their depth and always shouting at the kids. Also, they speak to me like they are in charge, no respect.
I'm only doing this while I get sorted with a proper nanny role. The 8-6 shifts, constant nappy changes and stress is just soul destroying.

Hi, OP - setting aside issues around nursery funding (which I agree are atrocious), I have been pretty much exactly where you are. In my case, our childminder suffered a stroke shortly after we collected DS for the day, and was immediately forced to close down.

Clearly, the implications of this were much, much more serious for her family (she has 2 young kids of her own) than they were for us, but I've felt the terror of suddenly having no childcare literally overnight.

My advice - get yourself on the list for whatever local nurseries there are locally, cobble together whatever help you can using annual leave and family until then, and if all else fails, we used https://www.emergencychildcare.co.uk/ to get a place for a couple of weeks. It was a horrible month, but we got through it.

I sincerely hope you manage to find equally good provision elsewhere soon.

this scenario is my worst nightmare. Our nursery are like a second family to my kids. The staff are consistent from when my eldest started five years ago, I cannot imagine how stressful it must be to be trying to balance the books running a childcare provision, but it is a very scary prospect.

whilst the “earlier free places” sound great, I desperately wish they would adequately fund the places so the childcare sector can survive.

So true, also I havent seen an apprentice in a while. That used to be a way to keep costs down but still have a willing employee who is learning and capable.

The previous nurseries that I tempt in that were snobby and rude have become so accommodating when I have gone back recently, so fake and asking me to join permanently.

Also all of my agency friends have gone on to work permanently somewhere or have left childcare.

There are already talks in the early years about dumbing down qualifications, making it easier to get them and reducing the number of qualified staff needed in each room. All because the government are so dim, they think this will encourage people to work in nurseries. More children per adult who happens to be unqualified/very limited in their training and dumbing down all the training and qualifications, what could possibly go wrong ?

The industry won't get better.

The government will relax ratios and qualification requirements.

I have seen nurseries that I work in use me as L3 then use cheaper unqualified agency workers from Reed, who do not have a clue about childcare and end up sitting in a corner reading for their whole shift.

Not when its asked in quick rapid fire aggression and they look at you as if you are lying

Oh god, that’s a massive headache for you to manage. I hope your employers recognise it as an emergency and let you have time to sort it out.

What a shock that must've been . Just another effect of the complete mess the country is in .just hope you can get something suitable.

This happened to my friend and her ds. She's had to take unpaid leave while she waits for a space to come up because the nearest nursery with space on her work days was too far away.