Who is BU, me or the nursery?

I used to manage a nursery and think this is unacceptable.

If they had cancelled your place and not charged you - then fair enough. However they are charging you for a service they are no longer making available to you!

I would check the T&Cs carefully to see if they reflect this stance.

Really frustrating for you! Nursery fees are astronomical but not because they're making a mint, it's because they're cross subsidising 'free childcare hours' from the government look at the significant numbers of nurseries going bankrupt and shutting down. Look at the wages of nursery staff. You are being ripped off but it's the government that are responsible!

I don't imagine the nursery my DD is at wld then tell u that u can't bring them. It's quite a large nursery so maybe if it was quite small it wld be different.

I get they want to plan staff etc and know how many kids are going to be in. However if you've paid for it then I still believe you should have been able to bring her in.

They are creating bad behaviour though as now you will no longer add the holidays in until the last minute when you now for sure your going.

The reason nurseries and childminders ( I am one ) charge is because you are paying for a space whether or not you use it . If they sell that space to someone else and it is not available for your child they should not charge you .

Whenever we were stuck we’d ring our local preschool/crèche to see if they could take our sons, and we’d get a place sometimes, other times not. It didn’t happen regularly though, so it could be someone like me who was stuck for a few days

The OP isn't complaining about paying when her dd isn't there.
I think everyone understands you pay to keep your place.

The issue here is that the Nursery - despite accepting OP's money to save her space - are now saying they haven't got that space.

They can't have it both ways. They either 'PAYG', which is clearly an unsustainable business model, or they ensure a family that has paid to hold the space, can use it if circumstances change.

Yes they can fill the slot by all means, but that should mean that the OP gets a refund right? I understand having to pay when my son doesn't attend/ I even pay for BH with no in lieu time because nurseries peddle this idea that they're struggling and we need to consider their "sustainability."
As a PP said only in the UK would people put up with that- they've doubled their money and that's not on at all. OP should get a refund as she didn't use that weeks fees, they covered their costs by selling the slot on!
There's also the whole can of worms around taking government funding too....

OP agrees that's reasonable but you have missed that she is paying for the spot and is not allowed to send her child in that day.

If nursery’s didn’t charge for days you decided not to bring your daughter in they would have an insecure income. People would take advantage and decide last minute not to send their child in for multiple reasons if they didn’t still have to pay.

You are paying a set fee for childcare security.

They haven't necessarily got any more money, our nursery had 3 rooms and when someone was on holiday they would use the spot to move one of the younger kids up for extra settling time in the room they were about to move up to, it eased the transitions between rooms massively being able to be a bit flexible with the kids that found it hard.

@changedit1234 this is all you need to do in future.

When I was a childminder parents booked the place not the child. It was their space to use or not. Not mine to resell.

This^. Phone them every day of the holiday to let them know they've had a cancellation for the day.

Surely if you've paid full fees for the week, then you've paid for the space - holiday or not.

So if you want the flexibility to book extra sessions, you need to accept that this will impact others.

What would you do if the child who is booked off in September decides to turn up after all?
Would you be happy for them to take thier day back and you have to lose the extra day you needed?

If you tell them you are off, they will make plans accordingly, especially when organising rotas for that week.

It's not unreasonable to ask for a refund, but I do think it's unreasonable to expect them to have a space for you.

At our nursery they tell us that the place is still
available even if we’ve put a holiday in and they don’t give the space away, never actually tried to cancel a holiday day though to see if that’s true. I have needed to book an extra session though when I knew a friends child was on holiday, they initially said they had no spaces but I spoke to my friend who said to ask to use her daughters space and they allowed me to do that with my friends permission so maybe they do keep the spaces.

This is pretty standard at our nursery but if you give sufficient notice of holidays then you have the hours to use on any additional days they have space. Otherwise nobody would let them know about holidays.

@changedit1234 i don’t understand why you told them in advance? If you’ve paid then just don’t use them if you go away? I didn’t know you were supposed to tell nursery and seems quite cheeky they are being paid twice effectively for a child to attend in her place!

I'd be raging, and wouldn't expect it for a second at ours. We aren't in England though so I don't think things are as dire with either funding or staffing.

I'd be expecting a refund for this week - you pay on holidays to keep your place and they haven't kept it - but having the days in September free of charge in lieu would be a reasonable compromise.

This is what any business would do. Ridiculous to think they wouldn't fill the slot.

That's fine but in that case they shouldn't be charging for the time off

Doesn't matter if this seems to be normal practice nowadays, it's absolute bullshit.

DD has been out of nursery for a decade but if you're paying for a service you should be able to receive it. They should give you the money back as they're not able to provide the service. It's very different from paying when children don't go because that's your choice.

We would still have you on the register as holiday but your child wouldn’t have been included in the ratio for that week and staffing would have been arranged around them being off.

We had a similar situation recently and the extra child coming in unexpectedly pushed us to one over ratio so needed emergency staff cover for that room. We are usually pretty accommodating to changes so long as we know before the end of the previous week.

If you're paying for the week but not using it cos you're away .then why tell them in the future ...I mean if you called her in as sick she'd not be there and they couldn't fill the place to double up on fees ...so another time do that then if holiday is cancelled she can just go in !?!?

How some people think this is normal, is beyond me.

It just seems like we are willing to accept being shafted left right and centre in this country.

Go to some other places and people would be up in arms about so many things we accept.

OP, definitely ask them to not charge you for the days you need in September.