Nursery charging extra for early pick up?

[Northtosouth]

I’ve recently put my DS’s name down at a local nursery to start when he is 1 for 2 days a week. The nursery day is 8.00am - 600pm which I understand is needed for parents working however I’m able to either drop off later or pick my child up earlier than this but the nursery want to charge me extra for this.
Am I missing something here? What is the added cost involved? Is this normal practice at a nursery?

That's weird, are you sure you've understood correctly (or they've understood you correctly)? Have you asked them why? Could it be that they go on outings e.g. to the library or something, and if a child is going to be collected a staff member has to stay behind with them? Or maybe when they stay till 6 they're charged extra 'for tea' and actually their funding model relies on all kids taking that.
I guess at the end of the day you need to compare to other settings' total fees for the hours you want.

You must have got this wrong OP. No way would they add on money for dropping off later or picking up earlier unless your child is working in there!

No that’s not normal. Both of my DCs were in nursery full day 8.30-6pm but realistically they were there 9-4.30 as I could usually pick up earlier. Obviously I paid for a full day but was never charged extra for an earlier pick up. Handover took about 3 minutes (he’s fine, ate well and bumped his head) so that surely can’t be an excuse to charge you more!

Yeah that is not normal at all! Always picked mine up at 5pm and never charged extra. Would make me very suspicious of them!

Not normal at all! Plus as an aside you have an absolute right to get your children back, whether you pay or not! LOL. At my nursery if the kids are at the playground etc you need to go collect your child there and they will tell tou where.

Is there some box ticking exercise/legislation that means if your child isn't actually in the nursery for a few hours at the beginning and end of the day they cant legally claim government funding/subsidy so you have to make up the difference?

What's an early pick-up?

So if the hours are 8-6 and you pick up at 4.59 is that considered early but 5 wouldn't be?

Crazy idea - I'd tell them to get lost and find a different nursery or childminder.

This would be a red flag to me. I would wonder why they are do keen to ensure parents don't arrive without them expecting it.

I doublecheck again, surely this can't be right. Never heard of such a thing

I did think maybe it’s to discourage it as if every parent was doing that there would be a constant stream of people coming and going.

Maybe we’ve got our wire’s crossed, I spoke to them on the phone and then she emailed costs. Which was £76 per day, 8-6pm. Then the email said flexible arrival and departure times can be arranged to suit your individual needs at an additional fee.
Unless she means I could potentially pay for a half day plus a bit extra if I was picking up at 3 for example. But there was no cost sent for a half day and I didn’t mention it half days on the phone.

I will clarify with them, I just didn’t want to reply questioning it if it was normal but sounds like it isn’t.

Yes I’d message and just clarify it definitely sounds like it’s £76 for 8-6 up to you when collect which is normal.
I think they probably do offer bespoke sessions and pricing too, email would be better saying contact us re pricing. eg they might do 8-4.

@Northtosouth I would interpret that as flexible hours outside the normal nursery hours incurring an additional charge. So for example, if your commute meant you have to leave your children at 7:30am, this would cost extra, even if you pick them up before the 6pm closing time.

This is perfectly normal. I had to do it with my kids, as 8 am was too late for me to drop off. The nursery agreed I could drop off at 7:30 but I had to pay double time for that extra 30 mins.

I wouldn't interpret the email you had as meaning you'll be charged more unless you arrive at 8am on the dot and depart at 6pm!

I did think maybe it’s to discourage it as if every parent was doing that there would be a constant stream of people coming and going.

This is how it works in literally every other nursery setting though.

Then the email said flexible arrival and departure times can be arranged to suit your individual needs at an additional fee.

Right so this just means outside of those hours. As in if you need 6:30pm or an early drop off then they will work with you to facilitate this for additional fees.

Unless she means I could potentially pay for a half day plus a bit extra if I was picking up at 3 for example.

No you pay for 8-6 as a minimum, but you pick up and drop off when suits you. Usually you need to pre-warn if it is after a certain time or earlier than a certain time as it will disrupt their schedule so they like to know ahead of time. It is normal for kids to be picked up at varying times between 4 and 6.

This will mean 7.30am and 6.30pm. They will not change your fee because you decide to pick DC up halfway through the day. Apart from being an admin nightmare, it would be impossible for them to budget.

What are they hiding?

Nothing, think OP has got the wrong end of the stick.

I think the additional fee is if you want to drop off or pick up out with 8-6

I would find a different nursery, definitely not usual practise in my experience. People work different hours, it’s madness to charge you more than a full day for picking them up early.

How much do they want to charge you for picking up early?

Funny, I came across a nursery today who wanted time of drop off and collection. Then next to that was late fees. I am assuming they will charge you if you're later than the time you said you would pick up even though you have paid for a full day (til 7pm)

You should find a nursery that does ‘short days’ like 9:30 start 4:30 pickup

From your updated post I would assume the flexible early/late pick up and drop off was if someone needed a 7.30 drop off and after 6pm pick up. My sons old nursery was 8-5.30 BUT you could pay extra to drop off at 7.30 or pick up at 6pm - which involved extra staff etc. we dropped off any time after 8am and picked up any time from 3.30-5.15 - just depended on the day and who was picking up - no extra charge for that :)

I'm wondering if this nursery runs a strict schedule so they have an arrival session then a departure session where the kids get dressed and ready to go home. I guess if you wanted to come later or leave earlier they'd argue they would need a staff member to do a one to one to achieve this. They may actually mean they can open earlier or stay later for an additional fee. Hope you get some clarification on this!

So after all the outrage they actually mean outside of normal hours 😀

After that update, it sounds very much to me that it is £76 for 8am-6pm and different pricing would apply if you wanted outside of these hours eg earlier drop off/later pick up.
We paid for 3 full days which were 8-6. I usually dropped off at 8 but collected by 5:30pm latest