Nursery e-mails me 5 pm...

They get agency staff and suck up the extra cost.

OP i would email and say that they are contractually obliged to give notice (the amount will depend on your contract). You can take the nursery to small claims court fir any costs associated with the breech, so unpaid time off work, cost of a nanny compared to a nursery, increased travel costs to get to another nursery etc.

there are lots of nurseries/pre-schools who make a decent amount of money, especially ially in the SE. We have had a new nursery open in the village recently. I used to be the treasurer of our local pre-school and we had a £25.000 surplus - which I insisted they spend some of.

If they haven’t got the staff for the X amount of children in the room they’re unlikely to have a surplus of staff in other rooms to cover them all.

Especially as mixed age rooms would likely need more staff to keep everything safe and appropriate

They can't move rooms as certain age groups need certain ratios.

If there aren't enough staff there's nothing they can do - they're not allowed to open.

Putting prices up won't make any difference if they don't have enough staff.

Is it the room he’s in due to his age or is it the whole nursery? Are they not able to take some children from the room that’s closing and scatter them elsewhere?

For example, DD just turned two in May. Surely if the room was closing due to staffing issues then they could move her up a room or down a room? Or maybe I’m living in dreamland😂

How awful though. I really thought nurseries would find a way to make it work without giving more or less no notice of the closure!

What did they eat and did they sleep is standard hand over information

It's inconvenient but if they can't meet legal ratio requirements, they can't run.

Are you serious?

The only nursery that is doing well round here, and hasn’t had any “sorry we’re a staff member short so can’t open today” days is one that basically doesn’t do funded hours.

They are expensive and unaffordable for some people, but they seem to be the only one that’s coping as demand is so high for spaces people are paying them.

(I believe pre-covid they offered a very very very limited number of the free places but only for the 15 hours - if they still offer any at all)

How if there are no staff

A parent was shocked when I said I hoped the new 'free hours' doesn't come in next April.

This is the reality and it will only happen more and more now. The childcare sector is in crisis!

There was a demonstration in London at the weekend from the early years sector regarding the funding crisis, I didn't see a single news outlet comment on it.

The whole thing is shit and because it doesn't affect anyone for more than a few years, no one really cares.

@cinnamonfrenchtoast I agree that this is probably what happend. Also closing one room isn't going to stop the nursery from dealing with angry parents, they're still going to get emails, phone calls and parents turning up to drop off, only to find the room closed. Also many families will have children in different rooms.

@BiscuitsandPuffin

how is that going to help with recruiting staff? If they don't have a safe & legal ratio, WTF do you expect them to do??

Or maybe someone walked out on them with no notice, or went off such and they're not actually physically able to open?

What money?

It costs a fortune to run a nursery - staffing costs, insurance, building costs (rent, mortgage, business rates), electricity, heating, internet, food, drinks, anything the children require, toys, equipment, cleaning staff and supplies - the list is endless.

Add on the fact that the government want everyone to provide funded hours but only pay the nurseries about £4 per hour per child and what do you expect?

@BiscuitsandPuffin the problem there is the paying parents would have to pay more to subsidise the funded places. How high would the fees have to increase, some nurseries already charge more for the funded places.

LA’s and children’s services almost force some parents to take up these free places. Most nurseries have little choice.

As a crude example. If you have 20 two year olds in a room and 10 of those are funded @ £4 an hour how much will the other 10 need to pay to keep that room open?

Its because of the shit pay and the passive aggressive parents.
I left a permanent childcare job and now only do agency.
Some examples of passive aggressiveness.

1. A parent kept bringing their child in expensive earings that would end up getting lost in the garden. She would berate us for losing them and would complain about everything else if an earing got lost. Would also say things like "but I put a plastic protector on the back?!". She knew the policy that we weren't responsible.

1. A parent would pick up there child, take them to the park and return 20 min later saying they had done a poo, and it mustve been done when they were in our care and this shouldn't be happening. Clearly lying as we checked every child before they left.

1. After receiving a bill for extra sessions a parent starting to questions us about it, we don't deal with the financial side so couldn't comment. The parent then insisted that they left a bag here and where is the bag. We had to search everywher and stay behind after our shift. The next day it turns out it was at home. No apology.

1. Parent complaining that their child got a sun tan when playing in the garden, when they took their child to lego land the day before.

1. What did they eat? What time did they sleep? Have they done a poo? Where's the grey hoodie, no not that one, the other one? So he came in today with 3 small toy cars where are they?

They have minimum staffing ratios that they must adhere to. If something unforeseen has made that impossible, then there is little they can do as they have to comply.

What a pain for you - hope you can sort out an alternative.

This happened to me the summer before DS2 started primary as the private school it was attached to went bust. I knew the school was closing but naively thought the nursery would be able to stay open independently.
We managed to muddle through those 6 weeks but it was tough.

It's a shame the nurseries closing don't at least try to put their fees up to a break-even point first. I'm sure many parents would grumble about fee increases (especially when nursery is eye-wateringly expensive anyway) but I bet many would ultimately rather that than no nursery at all. I feel like the nurseries need to keep a closer eye on their finances and increase fees accordingly to keep in business.

I suspect they did it this way so parents couldn't kick off. More concerned about not having to deal with angry people than giving parents any real chance of sorting alternative childcare for the following day. So shitty.

Posted too soon
The overheads, heating, lighting, utilities, equipment, maintenance, rent, loans, all of these costs have increased. I don’t know how more are not closing.

Childcare providers have been voicing concerns since the introduction of the two year funding offer. No one in government is listening.

The headlines are full of free childcare places and funded hours.

Those headlines should be full of how those hours are not funded by the government and childcare providers are struggling. Add to that the fiasco that is ofsted and it’s no wonder it is in crisis.

WHY can't these nurseries pay their minimum wage staff adequately / at all? It’s not like they're charging minimum prices, is it?

The blame for this lies squarely on the conservatives.

This is going to happen again and again-funding is simply inadequate and nurseries can’t afford to pay staffing, rent and energy bills. Two nurseries have already closed their doors on the same road as my primary in the last month. There is nobody to signpost them to as the others are full, with long waiting lists.

That sounds like an absolute nightmare. I had no idea this could happen. I hope you get something sorted ASAP.