Nursery cutting hours

[Lize90]

Heya ,can a nursery cut hours to my child because of short staff? I’ve just received an email with her half days timing instead of full day.Can they do that ?

It'll depend on your contract - but it's very likely, yes. They can't have more children than the legal limits, and if they've not managed to find any temp staff, they don't really have an option.

How much notice have they given? You might be able to call them and negotiate a bit.

We have the 15 hour funding contract. They say after the half term they gonna sort it out.

If they don't have the legal ratios then they cannot take excess of children.

I'd imagine they can - what's the alternative, not having the number of staff they're legally required to have for the number of children? That's clearly not an option, so they'll have to reduce the number of children.

I see… it’s just hard when you have to go to work . They thought this was strange when I told them.

What is the alternative? Breaking ratio set to maintain safety?

Obviously not an option but it’s very difficult for working parents to fit around this out of the blue.

OP many nurseries have to manage this by drafting in temps and/or bank staff but they may be struggling to afford it. Ours have scrapped all half days recently and it’s full days only. I guess there were some children who only went a half day leaving a place empty in the afternoons or whatever that they couldn’t fill.

There’s a huge recruitment crisis in the private childcare sector and temps cost a lot of money.

Our old nursery actually closed down as a result of not being able to afford to keep running and offer all the ‘free’ government hours. If I were you I’d have one eye on an alternative nursery if they do fold.

Friend does bank work as a qualified childcare worker and she said she is getting booked out less and less these days as nurseries don't want to pay out.
Legally they have to have the required number of relevant qualified staff and if they don't, they cannot open.
If you're stuck for childcare look on the bubble app. My colleagues use it a lot for adhoc childcare emergencies.

There’s not much else they can do if they don’t have the staff. A nursery near me closed the baby room with zero notice - literally turned parents away as they arrived that morning - because they just could not provide the legal minimum of staff.

I see… it’s just hard when you have to go to work .

Oh I completely get that, it must be a total nightmare! But I'd assume it's also the last thing the nursery wants - parents will leave if they can't get reliable childcare (and if they worry that this is a sign the nursery may close completely soon), which will then worsen the nursery's finances.

I’m just guessing but perhaps they thought if you’re just using the funded hours and no more that you were using it purely for education and not childcare?

Just wondering if it was why they were surprised you mentioned work, not saying it’s right or wrong.