To think it’s actually really unfair to be charged for bank holidays at nursery?

Mine doesn’t charge.
i think this is fairer, it must make it harder for nurseries that do charge to fill places on Monday too. Surely everyone would pick their days not to be Monday

Mine charges for inset days which I do find quite annoying as I am paying ~£100 for the day and receiving no childcare… but then also have to find new childcare (another £100+) or take a day off work.

Bank holidays I don’t mind as I am off anyway.

The nursery I chose for my DC (many years ago now) stayed open on all bank holidays. They shut for 10 days at Christmas though.

surely the way to do it is to stay open and then arrange the bank holiday “benefit” for staff another way?

Either they charge you 12% on top of your hourly fees to cover holidays, or they charge you for bank holidays, but otherwise you're expecting the nursery staff to work without their statutory entitlement to holidays

Our nursery we paid 50% for bank holidays, which I thought was really fair. It meant staff had the day off as they should and we shared the cost of that, which seems reasonable to me.

Why don't you get paid for bank holidays?

There are two options

option 1: the nursery takes the total they need to charge you and divides by 52 or 12 and you pay a flat, predictable rate which means you end up knowingly paying for bank holidays.

option 2: the nursery takes the total they need to charge you and divides by the number of days you actually use. Then they have to send you an invoice for just those days. You have to adjust your payment each billing period. You have extra hassle, but end up paying the same amount over the course of the year. However, you don’t have the mental burden of thinking about paying for bank holidays.

I never got charged for bank holidays. If I went on holiday I’d expect to pay as the service is being provided but I am choosing not to use it. On a bank holiday no service is being provided.

Yes, I get paid for bank holidays but my clients don’t get charged as I haven’t carried out any work for them. Similarly I wouldn’t expect to get charged for a day when a nursery is not offering me any childcare.

The Nursery should surely work out their annual running costs and the number of days they are open as a starting point for calculating fees. That is what any other company does that has to pay salaries on a bank holiday but no money is being received. I really don’t see why nurseries are any different and why so many people think it is fine to charge for services which are not available on a bank holiday. Slightly higher daily fees for everyone seems to me to be far preferable to charging for days on which no service is provided.

I agree with you OP. Staff annual leave is a part of overheads which should be included in their overall daily rate, charged fairly and equally to everyone.

Yes there are still rates, electricity, insurance and other overheads to pay on non working days, but they don’t specifically ask everyone to cough up for weekends do they. Banks holidays should be the same.

They are a service provider and not providing the service. Therefore they shouldn’t charge. It’s the same as a coffee shop charging you for your daily coffee on a day when they’re closed.

Realistically you would end up paying anyway for in increased rates, but it would be split between all service users the same as non prescripted annual leave.

I used to find it annoying also. Nearly always had to work bank holidays and pay for childcare twice. Once for nursery he couldn't attend and once for a childminder who worked BH. If I didn't work the BH I didn't get paid

I agree. The nursery has to find the money to pay staff for bank holidays and it could be found by slightly increasing the day rate for all their customers. Astonishing that any parents at all choose Mondays as one of their days, unless full time.

Why did you sign the contract then?

Many of us have to work on Bank Hols. Nurseries - like shops and the uni I work for - should be open. Those parents needing the nursery services on that day should pay, nursery staff covering that day should get extra pay or time off in lieu. Parents not using the nursery that day shouldn't pay. The staff not working that day should get their usual salary.

I don't mind paying for their wages on the day off I did object to paying for food on a bank holiday for my child especially when he had a packed lunch 😂

I have friends who work frontline NHS, they are being charged for closed nurseries on Monday and have to find additional childcare to cover their shift!

I'm pretty sure most nurseries aren't making much profit op there's limited funds to go around so you just pay for bank holiday as we all still pay for Christmas Day if it lands on a week day etc it's just how it is

How do you expect the nursery to cover costs? They either have to charge more per hour or charge for the bank holiday.

Mine were only in on a Monday and Tuesday at one stage and I felt short changed too! But then I looked at is as I'm off anyway so it doesn't matter. However , my workplace only gets one of the May bank holidays so I had to pay the nursery and also pay for an alternative childminder too. That was frustrating.

I do see where your'e coming from. My GC goes to nursery school 3 days a week, not on Monday's for the very reason you've wrote your post about, but if they go away on holiday for a week/fortnight the invoice is still for the full 3 days, there's no leeway.

Nursery would save on nappies, wipes and meals but rent, utilities and wages all still need paying.

“From their profits”

OP, if you think nurseries can afford to pay every staff member for eight extra days a year without raising their prices you are living in a dream world.