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.

It's changing on the 1st of April so it applies to 7 of the 8 bank holidays this year....so it is very relevant as it will include 2 for all children's babies getting it in September.
Parents could choose not to work on a Monday if it really bothered them....but then like the ones not working Mondays now they won't get the bank holidays paid either. If you work 5 days a week paying directly as it falls or spreading over a year financially means you're paying the same. Instead of being jealous people need to be grateful they are saving so much in childcare and your nursery is paying for 30% of your savings.

Nursery is open from 7.30 to 6.30- but baby is tiny, so we put her in from 10 till 4, just what we can do to work in between. This is standard price in the part of London we live in.

You may find a childminder is cheaper because they don't always charge a day rate.

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.

That's not the case, as of course huge numbers of children don't start Nursery until their funding kicks in.
Plus there are lots of children that get 2 yr funding.
So the children who are paid for by parents, are not in the majority at all.

A nursery is not a charity

This is why I don't do nurseries or work on Mondays

I agree with you but it was the same when my now grown up children were in nursery. That's why when I only did 4 days I chose Tuesday to Friday. I can't think of any other business that charges for services not provided. And it's really poor maths, as people like me take advantage over people paying for Mondays they can't use. No idea why they can't just build it into their fees on the days they are open like practically every other business.

Nursery fees can be really annoying. Our nursery pro ratas over 12 months but because my son started in December we had to pay a full month's fees despite him only attending gor two weeks (as they are shut for two weeks over Christmas). Don't worry, you're not paying for it, they said. It will even out over the year. Except it wont because he won't be going to nursery until December in his last year but June, so in actual fact we still have to pay. I asked what happens if we withdraw him in Jan, will you give us the two weeks extra payment back then? Crickets.

If they want to charge you for things in this way fine, just be transparent about it so parents can decide whether or not they want to go with that nursery. It's the deception that annoys me.

I've never known a nursery charge. My local nursery is £48 per day and doesn't charge for bank hols. As far as I'm aware none of the nursery's in my area do.

It's normal practice but YANBU it shouldn't be. Paying staff for the bank holidays should be spread out over the whole year rather than paid for by parents who use nursery on Mondays

It’s normal and as everyone says where you pay monthly it’s just averaged out over the year. We pay the same monthly - regardless if they’re closed for 2.5 weeks for Xmas or open almost every day. I suppose in your case they make it fairer if a kid isn’t usually in nursery on Mondays and/ Fridays (I assume those families don’t have to pay)

I have joined nurseries in that campaign, yes. I’ve signed a couple of petitions and written to my MP.

The underfunding is shocking and unreasonable. Still doesn’t make it reasonable for nurseries to charge parents who only use Mondays the same amount for less service than the parents who only use Wednesdays. And that’s the crux of it. Of course funded hours don’t cover the days you aren’t open. And neither should parents. Who on earth wants to pay for something they don’t get? The cost of Bank Holiday pay, just like the cost of all the other holiday you have to give to staff and the cost of other ongoing overheads should be considered as a cost of the service actually provided, not some phantom service that isn’t.

But your saying apportion it to the hourly cost you can't do that if the hourly cost is held down by government policy so what is the answer.

Funded hours aren’t free hours: we all know this. And funded hours might be coming in from April of this year for younger children but I’ve certainly been paying for bank holidays since my son started which was 2021!

@NewName24 perhaps it is area/nursery dependent but certainly the baby and toddler rooms are full where my child attends.

The fact that the funded hours are not enough does not give childcare settings carte blanche to indulge in practices that are unfair. I know some nurseries offer a day in lieu on a different day of the week which is one possibility.

If it was a matter of the government policy holding down the hourly cost nurseries wouldn’t be able to charge Monday parents a greater rate than Wednesday parents. Which is what happens if parents are charged for closed Bank Holidays as though their child attends.

That’s not what’s happening. Nurseries are complicit with the government in obfuscating how parents are subsidizing the funded hours. It’s unreasonable and somewhat deceitful. I appreciate that probably feels unfair but nurseries have been in on this with the government from the start, though it seems to serve everyone poorly (except the government who get to claim they’re providing more than they are).

My nursery does this too, I'm afraid we have no choice but to pay it as annoying as it is

My nursery have a really good system. Everyone pays for the bank holidays they are contracted for (apart from Christmas when they are closed). Part time families get the day off in lieu that you can then use at another time. Full time families then get a refund in month. I think they do it like this as the invoice systems a bit simple. We like it - it means we get a spare day that we can use without having to pay for it. Good for days off and appointments etc.

This in spades. The nurseries have brain washed parents into accepting this.

Do you think the part time worker who works Tue - Fri in the nursery isn't recompensed because they don't get a BH on a Monday? They get the benefit pro-rated because it's not fair to treat part time workers less favourably than full time workers. Who pays for their wages? The Monday parents?

Totally normal round our area to pay for Bh just like it’s totally normal to receive full pay yourself for not being in work

Government underfunding does not excuse a poor charging policy.

Agree OP - I loose around £600 per year (probs more now as I made that calculation with my eldest and my fees have gone up 20% since then for youngest).

but we can’t change it.

Yes, l do think UK childcare is way too expensive, but l lay that criticism at the government’s door.

The majority of people get paid for bank holidays, and those that don’t arguably should! That includes nursery staff, hence the charge.

They used to do this at my nursery but I never worked a Monday so it didn’t seem so bad. It probably isn’t particularly fair especially if you don’t do many days and work a Monday. However, it’s pretty standard. Ours did however do a week of closure at Christmas that it didn’t charge parents for so a couple of the bank holidays were always covered off in that.

Me. I'm a Childminder and don't charge for bank holidays as I'm closed.

id also say the bank holidays didn’t really register for me compared to sickness. I once made the mistake of adding up all the times I’d paid for nursery and couldn’t use it due to illness…. I think for your own happiness you just have to view it as paying for a place and that is your monthly cost otherwise you’ll drive yourself mad.