Nursery charging for bank holidays

[Anniessong]

Just found out nursery charges for bank holidays on a day that child would usually attend. They close on bank holidays so we couldn’t use the day if we wanted to. Do other nurseries do this? Feel very cross about it but is it fair?

Absolutely this

What you might want to check your contract for, if you haven’t already done so, is what you have signed up to re: Christmas opening hours. Our nursery closes “only” on the bank hols across the festive period however a lot (probably most) of my friends are with nurseries who close for up to 2 weeks in the same period.

@coffeecupsandwaxmelts we've got the cheapest childcare in the area and one of the cheapest in the country from what I see here so I don't mind them pulling back the costs from the day rate.

If I was paying close to £100 a day like lots of posters here I'd be a bit more concerned

Mine does but they calculate monthly fees by multiplying the number of days attended x 52 and diving by 12, which I prefer to a monthly invoice that could fluctuate depending on how the days fall. So usually you don’t ‘feel’ the hit quite as much. Though I appreciate its hard going in a month with 3 BH Mondays!

They should factor the cost of staff bank holidays into their overall headcount costs and set the fees accordingly. Directly impacting parents who use the facility on Mondays is a lazy and unfair approach.

This. I'd be really surprised if it was legally enforceable to charge for days when they do not provide a service - just because something is in a contract, doesn't mean that they are allowed to do it.

We pay 50 weeks fees over the year, to account for closures. Some years they’ve closed more than the 2 weeks, some not.

No but they work out their day rate to cover bank holidays.

So you can either pay directly like I do, or pay indirectly like you do.

It annoys me that it's "standard practice" and everyone just accepts it.

I can deal with no child care for a day costing me £100 if its one bank holiday in a month but this month with 3 is actually really grating on me.

Yes our nursery is the same. I wasn't thrilled when I found out either!

Do you think the staff shouldn’t be paid for bank holidays?

If they didn’t charge you, it would be worked into the day rate instead, as PP have said

This. I'd be really surprised if it was legally enforceable to charge for days when they do not provide a service - just because something is in a contract, doesn't mean that they are allowed to do it.

Of course they are. You charge your services on a bank holiday even if you get the day off.

If it wasn't legally enforceable, do you really think thousands of businesses all over the country would do it?

Childminders, nurseries, after-school clubs, holiday clubs, doggy daycares - loads of places charge for Bank Holidays even when they're not open - because they still have to pay their staff regardless.

Yes, they could factor the cost into their day rate, but then you'd get people who purposefully don't send their children on Mondays to save money complaining too!

Ours don’t.

Ours do, which pains me as I've reluctantly had to book my daughter in on a Monday due to things changing in work and for May I'm basically paying for 5 Mondays and she's only in for 2 of them.

It’s fairly standard, though not universal. It allows the nursery to make it look like their day rate is lower than it really is.

Ours does as well. I find it pretty annoying. It should be included in their over all costs.

Of course staff get paid for BHs, I got paid. I work in the office, but we have plenty of staff on sites right now. We didn't charge the clients a days wages on the site, because they weren't there!

Just because it's 'standard' doesn't really make it right. I can't think of any other service I'd pay for when I'm not attending.

Yes, I think businesses will often try and do things that aren't legal if they think they'll get away with it. It often isn't until someone kicks up a fuss that they have to stop it.

I did a bit of Googling and it turns out that the Competition and Markets Authority did an investigation during covid - article here: https://www.childcare.co.uk/information/cma-faq

Highlights from this:
"If a childcare provider contract states that parents should pay even if services can't be provided then such a clause is likely to deemed unfair and unenforceable even if the parent has signed the contract."

"What about bank holidays?The CMA has stated that if a childcare provider can't provide services, through no fault of the parent, then usually it isn't reasonable to charge. If you have a fixed weekly or monthly charging structure then parents might be agreeable to the same rate being charged even if the week or month contains one or more bank holidays when you are closed. However, if the parent refuses to pay for a bank holiday due to you being closed then it is unlikely you could force the parent to pay."

Yup. £300 lost this month for nothing.

But that would at least mean that the everyone would share the hit equally instead of parent of children who attend on Mondays taking all the hit and those who attend only for example Wed-Fri taking very little of the hit.

I agree with this.

I work for a service based company where we charge our clients by the hour. We're shut on bank holiday Mondays, so there is no client work and consequently no income generated on those days.

We still pay our staff for bank holidays, so the costs are built in to our overall chargeout rates.