Nursery closing early Xmas eve and still paying

Which is a privilege for people who aren’t working Christmas Eve. Those who are working have to find alternative childcare on a day when most people already have plans.

In the interests of moving the discussion on, I did outline above what steps I think the OP should take if she's unhappy.

So you can envisage a situation where you would sign a contract that says this? Really? Isn't that a bit of an idiotic route to go down?

To the point of legalities, it is legal to charge for days where nurseries are closed, if that's been contracted. Our nursery did it that way.

But we can go on this merry go round forever; neither of us is going to change our minds. I don’t like a lot of the posts here, though. Always on childcare threads; funny that.

If I did, it would apparently be permitted because I’ve signed it, right?

Contracts do not cancel out what is legal, is the point. Policies on what to do when my child is ill, how to make a complaint, health and safety and all of that, sure. Billing me when you’re closed? Um, no!

Would you sign a contract that said this? Really?

Contracts aren't for shits and goggles, they are binding documents. You are supposed to at least read what they say.

I expect all of talking about how the low paid staff deserve your money for not working all campaign to ensure higher pay for them and are willing to increase your fees throughout the year? Or is your interest in them more focused on a day of the year that you and your partner were planning to take off anyway?

Our old nursery used to close early, charge anyway, and all staff were required to take the afternoon from their annual leave. Similarly, when they increased costs by 10% citing staff costs, the staff only received a 1.5% increase that year.

Check your contract is becoming like cancel the cheque.

I mean, what if your contract said ‘we will beat your children if they refuse to eat their food’? Obviously I’m being facetious there but the point still stands: the contract doesn’t supersede what is legal (and moral.)

As @Thehop says it’s not a hill most of us wish to hang ourselves on so to speak. I haven’t been thrilled with DDs nursery lately for a whole host of reasons but I don’t want to be That Parent. I do think sometimes that’s what they count on.

You can still complain about a service taking the piss though - even if you’ve signed a contract (and assuming that contract is legal).

As I've said, multiple times, that's one way to do it. Our nursery however structured things differently.

The overall costs though will end up the same.

Ok OP, in the interests of actually getting somewhere, here's what you can do.

Check your contract. If you then feel this is something you haven't signed up to, raise it with the nursery.

If you aren't in agreement with them still, after talking to them, talk to a solicitor.

I'm a nursery manager and we wouldn't ever charge for a service not provided. So no charges in bank holiday Mondays. Could you imagine paying for a decorator to not come and work? It's ridiculous....nurseries charge for closure and make staff use holiday days.

however: if as a parent you are happy with nursery and have a child who's happy there then I completely understand it's not a hill you'd want to die on.

It's factored in to the overall costs. You're not going to do your shop at Tesco's this week and be told at the till, "actually, we're charging you twice for this shop, to cover staff holidays over Christmas". If the nursery run their business properly, then staff paid leave should ALREADY be covered, including for this Christmas Eve half day (otherwise OP would have already encountered the same issue with Easter, bank holidays, and indeed Christmas Day itself). Your idea of how the world works is frankly bizarre.

This is how services work though. If you don't like the terms, you get to take your business elsewhere. The nursery and under no obligation to change their approach because the OP now decides she doesn't like it.

No I don't know what her contract says. How would I, because even she doesn't it seems. It is however, perfectly legal to do this if both parties have contractually agreed to it.

Yes, so you keep saying (with apparently no concept of the real world and how limited childcare options are for millions of people).

As I've said before, if the OP prefers this they should find a nursery that takes that approach.

Again, you keep repeating this like it’s fact but you have no idea what her contract says or whether it’s legal.

Parroting the same lines over and over just makes you look a bit silly.

Nope no to holiday pay.

It's not part of the staffs " holiday" allowance or shouldn't be at any rate

That’s fine - that’s spreading the cost out across the year so you pay equally every month regardless. That’s not the same as randomly closing on Christmas Eve lunchtime and charging parents for it 🫣

YANBU. Ours did slightly reduced hours over the holiday period without reducing the fees - I think the normal hours were 7.30-6.00 and they changed it to 8.00-5.30 - so it’s such a minor change that it barely makes a difference. But yours is charging for half a day that they’re not open!

Christmas Eve isn’t a bank holiday. My work is closing at 3.00pm so it’s certainly not a half day.

If the OP checks her contract, I'm sure she will be able to see exactly what she's agreed to with regards to these kind of discretionary closures.

You’ve posted a lot in this thread and we aren’t going to agree. It’s one thing to have pre agreed days the nursery is closed which parents who send the children on those days pay for: I don’t like this, but then you could say I am biased as my DD attends Mondays and Fridays. A couple of my friends have argued this with nurseries and ‘won’; they have got their children in for a different day. I haven’t bothered but it does grate that I have to pay for at least five days my daughter doesn’t attend whereas this wouldn’t be the case if she attended Tuesdays and Thursdays. But it is at least known about in advance. Sudden closures are completely different and again, it’s different when it’s a last minute emergency but just ‘we feel like finishing early’ doesn’t fall into that category.

If if was up to me everyone would finish early on Christmas Eve. But it is not up to me. Contracts do not supersede the law .

Our nursery closed two weeks a year, but our monthly bill was the same for the months these weeks fell on They have to cover holidays somehow and this was all laid out in the contract, which we all signed up to.

Yes, but they can’t demand payment for a service they’re refusing to offer.

This isn’t them closing for bank holidays, or training - Christmas Eve is a normal working day. If they want to do something nice for their staff and close early that’s fine but they have to fund it, not force parents to cover that.