to wonder why nursery's charge for bank holidays

[captaincake]

Just wondering really because it comes up a fair bit at the toddler groups etc. I do understand that they still have their costs but around here every nursery you contact tries to get you to sign up for a Monday and Friday. Sometimes they will say if you start on a Monday and Friday then they will change the days after a period of time. This is because everyone flatly refuses those, especially Mondays, because they don't want to have to pay when they're shut all the time. So many times I've heard oh yes we looked around there but i'm not sending him/her because they only had monday/friday. I wonder if they didn't charge when they were shut, or opened, that so many more people would take those days that they would cover the bank holidays anyway. I left work now but when I was I couldn't do a monday because I still had to work bank holidays, so if I did that every bank holiday I would have to unsettle DC with different childcare that I probably wouldn't be able to find anyway, and pay twice when I wouldn't have been getting paid any extra.

The reason Monday's and Friday's are usually available is because many people have one or the other one off as part of a 3 or 4 day week. Every single one of my mummy friends (20 of them) work this pattern. I don't work so send my children Monday, weds, fri. They love the quiet days as they get to do extra messy art act activities. I really don't think the bank holiday thing is the main reason Mondays and Fridays are less busy.

Charging me for four days (minimum) per year when you will not provide a service is definitely greedy.

I don't give a shit how lazy your accounts person is. Hire someone who can do basic maths and split your holidays costs fairly between your customers.

I pay £60 per day in childcare costs.

If £240 is a "small amount" that's not worth bothering about, then don't charge me.

I have plenty of use for £240 that I'm paying for nothing.

When I needed more childcare it would have been £450 per annum I was being ripped off for.

Fuck that.

Too fucking right bathtime, lets me sure those looking after our children are always being paid less than the guy/ gal serving us at the checkout, or anywhere else, fuck it, most of use pay our builders/cleaners/architects/ oven cleaners more per hour.

Nurseries and childminders subsidise childcare!

Yep, locally I'm paid £2.80 per hour from the government for looking after your child. (3ys old 'free' care' ) My rates are £6 per hour.

Do you get paid bank holidays? who pays for that? the taxpayer? Customers buying your services/goods?

Paying b/h might remind you the people looking after your children while you work are paid shit and deserve a fucking holiday.

Don't like it? look after your own children.

Obviously i am talking about a small sample of people i know but not one person i've spoken to doesn't use a monday because of work pattern. In fact the only mum i do know who used full time nursery as she worked and therefore used a monday. her DC was the ONLY child in the baby room on mondays Guess i projected that more generally than i should.

I do look after my own child i don't use a nursery and am quite happy to pay for quality care if i did. I'm questionning if it would be better to do it a different way i thought i had made it quite clear the money should be covered. And yeah when people get paid bank holidays its normally not only by the customers who do their shopping on a Monday. Maybe if you don't like the 'free care' you offer you should get a different job.

So it's fine for parents who don't get the bank holidays to pay for those who do?

My term-time only parents would consider it unfair they have to cover charges for those who get the bank holiday off.

There's always going to be someone who is disadvantaged because all parents' hours and working arrangements are different.

if you don't like a nursery's policies, then don't use them and find an alternative.

ClaraBorne your attitude stinks!

For budgeting purposes, I'd rather the money stay the same month in, month out.
I also think you'd need to pay for extra admin on months with bank holidays in to sort out all the invoices rather than just the ones where people have joined /left/added in extra days.

But, yes a discount for Monday only sessions sounds sensible.

But since Mondays and Fridays are also the most likely days for staff to want holidays or part time work reduced, maybe they are happy to have less kids on these days, as it means the staff can also work 4 day weeks with mons /fris off, or have long weekends???

Goodness bathrime, what a level of vitriol.

Didn't you agree with my post showing how spreading the cost across everyone leaves you very unlikely to actually save 3X£60 per year?

I sympathise with Clara to the extent that the government hourly rate notoriously doesn't cover costs. Even if Clara quit childminding to do something else, the same applies to all providers.

Don't agree with her last couple of sentences but hey, she used fewer Swearie words than Bathtime!

Didn't you agree with my post showing how spreading the cost across everyone leaves you very unlikely to actually save 3X£60 per year?

I don't care about that.

I care about being charged for four days per year for a service that I don't receive.

Your made up, speculative figures are of no interest, really.

The reality is that I am being asked to pay £240 per year for nothing.

That's not OK with me.

The fact that I might have to pay higher fees if the nursery sorted out their fee structre properly is irrelevant.

It's not my job as a client to pay for their staff's 4+ bank holiday Mondays per year.

LOL at "vitriol" over a hypothetical situation I'm not even in 😂

Do you get paid bank holidays?

No. I work for myself. Working out a fair fee structure is really very straightforward.

I do enjoy the idea that I should pitch for jobs and tell them they will have to pay me on days I don't feel like working.

who pays for that? the taxpayer? Customers buying your services/goods?

Nobody. Sole traders don't get any paid holidays.

Don't like it? Get a salaried job instead of being a childminder.

Paying b/h might remind you the people looking after your children while you work are paid shit and deserve a fucking holiday.

The people who look after my children are paid very well. But they are smart enough to charge clients a standard fee that build time off into the rate.

I care about being charged for four days per year for a service that I don't receive.

The reality is that I am being asked to pay £240 per year for nothing.

But presumably you aren't charging extra overall. If they didn't charge you for those four days, they would increase their rate for the days you do use so that you paid £240 more per year for those. Because their costs are exactly the same whichever way they do it.

All they are doing by charging for bank holidays is ensuring your outgoings are more regular, instead of charging you more for periods when there are more days.

It's like having a monthly salary: do you complain because some months have more working days than other ones, and you don't get paid any more?

All they are doing by charging for bank holidays is ensuring your outgoings are more regular

Whether they spread my fee so that it is a fixed monthly amount or charge me per day has nothing to do with whether I get charged for four full bank holidays every year just because Monday is one of the days my children attend.

I don't have much of a preference between a flat monthly fee or one that varies due to the number of days. Sums are not that hard for me to do.

I have a strong preference for not covering such a high percentage of a business's costs related to bank holidays just because I want my children cared for on a Monday.

If they can charge me a flat fee, they can charge everyone a fee that includes all staff holidays.

Monday is also the day staff are most likely to call in sick. Should I pay a higher rate for staff sick pay too?

"Your made up, speculative figures are of no interest, really."

£50 is approx what my nursery charged a day. It was open every week apart from the period between Xmas and new year. It was closed on bank holidays.

Yes, as a former contractor, my day rate reflected the fact that no one paid me holidays, sick pay or bank holidays - so all clients paid a higher day rate on that basis.

So...what was wrong with my figures? Care to suggest some different ones?

It's a con.

They should just factor in the costs of BH in the service, I feel they are double charging.

Do you have 3 or 4 year olds, BathtimeFunkster?
Are you claiming the free entitlement?
Will you be claiming the full 30 hours?

Well, regardless of whether you are or not, you'll be paying for it.
Bank holidays are a drop in the ocean - you should complain about something that really is grossly unfair to parents and providers alike and is costing far more than your measly bank holidays!

Actually, the only time I have ever had a parent complain in all these years was a company director on a 3 figure salary. She didn't get her bank holidays paid either, but she was quick enough to take up that free entitlement for her kids at my expense

what was wrong with my figures?

They were totally made up.

They assumed that the bank holidays were not already being charged for in the original fee, which is quite an assumption - that a business wouldn't include staff holiday entitlement on their original calculation of fees.

I agree with PP that it is double charging.

They also didn't include any assessment of what the fictional market would bear in terms of price increases.

Care to suggest some different ones?

Not really. I actually have fees of my own to calculate.

It's for a job that falls over 3 bank holiday. So I'm going to charge my full fee for 3 days where I do no work. I'm sure my client will be thrilled

I don't remember nurseries doing this when my children went years ago and I don't think it is fair or reasonable for any business to charge when they are not open and providing a service.
They obviously only do this so that they can make their true daily rate seem cheaper than it is actually is, so it is a bit of a con. Other businesses wouldn't get away with this kind of hidden charge as many of their customers would vote with their feet and use another business once they found out. It is difficult to do this with nurseries as people don't like to move their children once they are settled. I think some nurseries really take advantage of this fact.

Because I get paid for bank holidays too? And annual leave? In fact I get paid the same every month, whether it's February or July.

Lucky you HeadDreamer. Many people don't have that luxury.

Because I get paid for bank holidays too? And annual leave? In fact I get paid the same every month, whether it's February or July.

None of those things are true of me.

I'm quite happy for companies I do business with to split their costs across the year.

But I am not happy to be charged for services that are not provided.

If a nursery closes on bank holidays, then I don't want to pay their full day rate for those days.

I particularly don't want to be charged extra because I happen to send my children to nursery on Mondays.

The nursery's staff costs should be built into their fees.

The idea of saying "you have to pay for four extra days of nursery every year purely because you use our services on a Monday" is just crazy.

Nothing to do with lucky. That's how the nursery charges me. We pay the same every month. Surely it should be lower in Dec when the nursery closes for a week? Why complain about the 4 Mondays and not the Dec week between Christmas and new year?

Of course the charge should be lower if the nursery is closed for a week.

Do they charge you a full fee for the year that includes paying for a week they are not open?

Or do they work out your annual costs for the days they provide a service and then split it 12 ways?

One is reasonable. The other is a pisstake.