To think nursery shouldn’t be charging me for bank holidays?

[Givemegoldensun]

Can I ask AIBU? Nursery costs just over £90 a day for an 8 month old, and they expect us to pay for bank holidays when they are not open. To me this seems unreasonable. We are talking about paying £185 for no service (Good Friday/Easter Monday). It this normal practice? I don’t want to be an asshole but we are financially stretched and I don’t think this is fair.

Yes, it happens here and yes, when I went back part-time after maternity leave I chose not to work on Mondays.

@Givemegoldensun did you sign a contract when you signed up to the nursery? It would have stated T&C about Bank Holiday payments.

I have to admit I find this frustrating. If you have a child who attends on a Monday and a Friday (as I do!) over Easter they can’t attend at all but still get charged for it.

This. Everyone moans about how lucky we are to get the free hours. Well our nursery put their rates up by just the right amount that the 15 hours from April mean we’ll end up paying the same as before 🙄

Nurseries are private businesses. If you do not like their fee structures , use another one. Or just work out the total cost for actual days used and see if that is still within your budget

There will be a ratio of 1:3 in your baby’s room. So 3x93.50 = 280.50 income per that staff member. 11 hours at minimum wage is 126. That leaves £50 per child to day for heating and lighting, rent, insurance, chef, maintenance, nursery manager, food, toys, accountant etc

They’re really not making huge profits as far as I can tell. Nursing homes however - the maths look quite different when you add up the fees and ratios.

I agree it's a rubbish system. It would be better to have a slightly higher rate overall so that the cost of the bank holidays is shared amongst all fee payers.

Oh that doesn’t even include trying to recoup the funding shortfall for the over 3s (and now 2s).

The whole system is broken.

What bit of “work out their pricing for the days they provide service.” And “wrapping them up into their total costs and working out their price from that.” makes you think I don’t expect them to cover their costs?

Do you find maths and reading comprehension difficult?

Not the same at all.

I get BH off and get paid.
The Nursery staff need to be paid.
That's how it is.

People should read their contracts.

Just because it's in the contract and it's common doesn't make it right.

My kids nursery did this and I thought it was ridiculous. Their bank holiday costs should be averaged out over the whole year with a slightly higher rate. Its just so obvious I don't get why people think its OK to charge for a service you don't deliver.

If your kid is in full time it makes little difference but mine did Mon and Wed only and it wound me up no end.

This, and so many of the other posters, particularly on the first page.

Ultimately, the Nursery need to take in £X per year to cover all costs. Yes, they could say "We don't charge you for Bank Holidays", but to do that, they will have to add a little more on to each other day, and then you end up with pithering about with different amounts each month, and ending up still paying the same amount over the year..
Personally I - and I think most families on a budget - prefer to just have 12 equal payments across the year.

private nurseries charge a huge amount in comparison to what they pay their very underpaid workers. There is limited correlation between the two. This is clearly about profit, not paying minimum wage workers. To think otherwise is incredibly naive.

I think you are the naive one. Nurseries are really struggling in my LA. They can't get staff. Nursery after Nursery after Nursery has closed in the last few months. I know it is a HUGE part of a young family's budget, but I also know that the majority of Nurseries are walking a tightrope financially. The Government funding just doesn't cover the costs.

We pay for all bank holidays and closure days… ie all weekdays in a calendar year.

I don’t particularly enjoy paying it (and also having to take a day off work) but they do still have to pay their staff 🤷‍♀️

The issue isn’t simply monthly v. pay as you go. It’s full week v. partial week.

Since BHs don’t fall evenly over the weekdays, nurseries who don’t have have different rates for each day of the week to account for it are screwing over their clients on Mondays (in particular) to the benefit of their clients on other week days.

I think this is unreasonable and in a way is more unfair to some people. Bank holidays and other holidays for those who work in a nursery are a legal requirement and so the costs should be spread across the daily charge.

Those who can have flexible working arrangements or share days off between parents may not need as many days a week as those in some jobs. People may not start at nursery all at the same time of year, and there are more bank holidays between March and May than most of the rest of the year.

It's not as if bank holidays (introduced in the 1860s) and leave entitlements (1930s) are something new.

Nurseries are regulated and so a fairer charging policy could be required.

This is standard for pretty much every nursery, the rest of us have to put up with it

It’s frustrating but standard for nurseries.
they also charge when your child is sick/ they close for teacher training/ special holidays.

We basically have to like it or lump it.

It doesn't seem very fair that the parents whose children go on Mondays have to cover the burden of the costs. The parents of tues-thursday children won't have this problem!

Completely normal. Ours charged the same each month but was closed back holidays and between Christmas and New Year, like most.

I know it's falling when you're paying so much, but try not to think of it as a daily cost or you'll go mad with how often DC is off sick.

It is galling isn't it OP. Standard though.

I personally think all parents should be paying a contribute towards bank holiday costs in the regular fees. Otherwise a Monday-only parent is getting much less service than a Tuesday-only parent.

It's like how Royal Mail charges everyone the same for a stamp, even though some Mail travels 1 mile, and some Mail is collected from the outer Hebrides and travels to the other end of the country. Same charge for all, because everyone is contributing to the overall running cost of the service.

Ok I'll take it very slowly for you ...
If Nursery charge £9.60 an hour government scheme pays £4.75 an hour shortfall is £4.85 an hour £145.50 a week on 30 hours so to stand still and cover current costs new hourly rate has to be £24.50 and you want it now to additionally cover 8 bank holidays a year because funding isn't paid for those 8 days so an additional 80 hours a year needs to come from somewhere so that's another £37 going on your bill a week meaning unfunded 10 hours will now cost you in the region of £282 a week before funding that would have brought you almost 30 hours ......but the government rules don't allow settings to directly charge the difference in funding so most settings don't actually charge that amount and are now taking less for the same work with added costs for inflation. They then don't get anything for bank holidays but still pay labour and overheads.
Until now only 3 plus got funding but come September virtually 100 % of children will get some of it so the ability to get the loss back diminishes by every time the parent gains.
Why do you think nurseries and childminders are shutting?

None of that suggests it’s reasonable for nurseries to pass the costs of bank holidays from clients who don’t use Mondays to those who do. The government’s chronic underfunding of nursery places is only made worse by nurseries hiding it in this fashion and subsidizing those places with their direct paying clients.

Bu Jannier, that assumes every child who attends is funded and they aren’t. (As you know) it is only children who are three and over. I realise this is changing in the near future but right now the majority of children are paid for so to speak.

Your post also really misses the point that children who attend on Mondays and, to a lesser extent, Fridays, miss out in a way children who attend Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays do not. No one wants nursery workers to go without, just for it to be fair in the way it is billed. Otherwise some parents have to pay for service not received while others don’t.

With your extensive knowledge of the rules on charging top ups and your understanding of the many posts on here complaining at how much they are now being asked to pay for non funded hours what do you suggest they do because many nurseries, lawyers for industry bodies etc haven't been able to find a solution are you really saying non funded hours should now cover all bank holidays so parents charges go up 300%.
Settings are loosing money earning less than 3 years ago and next month will lose more.....they are campaigning have you joined them to ask the government to pay the going rate for childcare? That's the only way increasing hourly fees could cover bank holidays.

£92.50 a day - for how many hours ?