Nursery charging for days they are closed

[FrazzyAndFrumpled]

DS’ nursery have put their fees up from January, to £58 per day. At the same time, they are introducing a new way to pay, by averaging the cost over the year and diving by 12. However, they have calculated the average amount based on 52 weeks, despite them being closed for 1 week over the Christmas/New Year period. Surely they can’t charge childcare for days they aren’t open?!

Yep, they charge you because they're holding your place. It's crap but it's fairly universal.

I think it makes more sense to think of it the other way. They calculate that they need to charge x per year to keep afloat

They can charge you less (x/52)
per week for 52 weeks - but you feel pissed off they are charging you for Christmas

OR charge you more (x/51) for 51 weeks.

But you pay the same per year either way

Ours times by 51 and divides by 12 to account for xmas week.one of the reasons ds doesn't go on a monday is because we didn't want to pay for 5 days which we wouldn't use.

The nursery we used to use was actually 2 childminders working together. We didn’t pay for the times they were shut. They were self employed. I’m self employed and noone pays me during holidays either 😳

So you would rather the daily charge was £59 and you thought it was over 51 weeks, even though it amounts to the same?

Is there likely to be a difference in the amount you are going to pay though? All that’s going to happen if they bill you for 102 sessions is that they’re not going to be 102 sessions at £58, they’ll be 102 slightly more expensive sessions.

The nursery my daughters go to doesn't charge for the days they are closed, 2 at Christmas and 2 at New Year. They even refunded some of the sessions I paid when my youngest was in hospital. Private nurseries in Scotland are having a tough time though with the intros of longer funded hours, so a lot of children move to Local Authority nursery's when funding kicks in. Will get even worse when children get 1140 hours.

What SimilarMinimar has explained.

Most parents / customers prefer to pay the same each month as it is easier for budgeting. Ultimately you will need to pay the same over the year, so if you don't pay for this closure, then you will be paying a bit more for all the other 11 months. The owners will have worked out how much the daily or weekly charge is, based on their annual costs. They don't 'not pay' their staff because the staff have to take some of their holiday this month. They don't get a rebate from the water company or the mortgage company or the insurances or their council tax charges. The people that charge them for staff to do their food hygiene training and first aid training and special needs training and safeguarding training charge the same for a member of staff to attend the course whether the setting is open over Christmas weeks or not.

Out of 20+ nurseries we looked at this was the case in most. The others had a higher daily fee, charged for bank holidays but not the week off at Christmas, which meant they were the same monthly as the ones charging for 52 weeks.

We found one where they do neither of those things. We get charged a (low) daily fee and charged for every day they are open that month. This month (December) we have paid for 15 days.

It's a bloody fantastic nursery and some of the others have made changes since it opened as a result of how popular it is.

Ours is closed Christmas week - we pay for 51 weeks a year, including the non-Christmas bank holidays.

So you would rather the daily charge was £59 and you thought it was over 51 weeks, even though it amounts to the same?

Yes, I would prefer that, it would ease the sense of injustice!

I just checked the contract and it does (of course) say that the week they are closed & bank holidays must be paid for. So that’s that.

Still feels unfair.

I'd prefer an even split over the year. Some places have a higher daily fee to compensate.

You don’t have to agree to it OP. You can take your custom elsewhere. Cleaners could do it too if they had a contract that you signed agreeing to it. Then again, their customers could vote with their feet. Just like you can.

My nursery doesn’t charge for the days they are closed

The nursery I work at (independent) doesn’t charge for Christmas closure (we close after Christmas Eve and reopen first working day of January) and we don’t charge for bank holidays. Our day rate is a notch higher to cover it.
When I worked for one the big nationwide chains, they charged for everything.

We don’t refund illness or holidays - we also don’t refund closure due to extreme weather (and to be frank it’s snows here every 5 years so it hardly ever comes into play). The nursery can’t afford too.

We also don’t allow people to reduce hours temporarily, for example parents dropping sessions to one day a week before going on holiday is a classic trick - feel free, you have to give 4 weeks notice to do so but you cannot increase them again for 7 weeks - by which time they may have been taken by another child.

We charge at the start of the month for the month. So each month is different. Some parents have asked for it to be evenly spread but to be frank the maths gets to complicated. We have the 15 and 30 hour funding and only allow this in term time - it’s Cant be spread across the year. We bill for what you have that month so your days are put together, funded sessions deducted, bank holidays or closure decucted and there the bill.

The cost of everything in life is calculated to cover all costs. Pay for less days and the cost of a day is higher.

What you have said is extremely common OP. I’m finding this interesting though because we are yet again reviewing all costs and procedures ready for the new financial year and what you have said is common thought.

We used a private nursery in Scotland. Closed for 2 weeks over Christmas and Hogmanay. Our bill was a daily rate, charged for 50 weeks of the year, divided by 12. The nursery was always open on bank holidays. The daily rate wasn't higher AFAIK and the staff were paid a decent wage (contributed to the length of time most staff stayed with the team). An absolutely fantastic nursery. Children are 12 and 8 now and I still think fondly of the nursery.