To think it’s actually really unfair to be charged for bank holidays at nursery?

[bouncinround]

And no, I’m not going to complain about it because I don’t want anyone to think I begrudge the staff a day off. I don’t. But I do resent paying for a service I’m not receiving.

I think you’re probably being unreasonably attacked here, as actually the point you are really making is slightly different from how you worded it. The question is not whether or not it’s unfair to be charged for bank holidays (as others have pointed out, staff need to be paid and it has to come from somewhere); you question really is: is it not unfair that the parents of children who attend on Mondays (and some Fridays) have to pay while those who attend on other days do not? Can it not be run equitably? The answer to that is absolutely it is and you should write to the Nursery provider and ask why they cannot spread the cost of bank holidays and charge all parents appropriately.

Because sometimes adults need time away from their children- and equally children often need some time away from their parents!
Often people send children to grandparents or relatives for a day or so to have a break, or manage to get around to those house hold chores and DIY projects that never seem to happen with kids around.
my partner and I have taken leave on a few occasions when our child is in nursery. It’s great. We’ve mostly just got on with household jobs and admin that’s been piling up, but we’ve also had a day here and there to do things just us.
Looking after ourselves and our house and our relationship is just as vital to our child’s wellbeing as time with them.
Suggesting that parents who might want to do things separately are some how bad parents and shouldn’t have had children is both rather odd and just a tad horrid.

This!

which I’ve noted the OP has failed to answer 🤔

Oh, and suggesting that the only sort of ‘fun time’ is ‘family fun time’ is not only rather regressive but it would mean that all families would have to be one child families…

No, they have answered. They’re not saying staff shouldn’t be paid for bank holidays, they are saying that the cost of bank holidays shouldn’t fall only on the shoulders of parents with children attending on Mondays. (Their original post wasn’t worded amazingly well).

It really annoyed me that we still had to pay for my daughter’s nursery when it was closed, especially when it closed for two weeks randomly in the summer. I see the logic though and they’d get the money out of us some way though. It’s also not like you can pay less for insurance or the gym (for example) if you end up not driving or working out for a day.

Yes EVERYONE paid for those holidays. This has been explained multiple times throughout the post.

The op is complaining as ONLY Monday parents are having to pay for bank holidays as that's their child's day to attend. it's not split evenly between everyone, even though they are the only ones missing out on childcare the BH's when the nursery is closed.

So essentially, Monday children are missing up to 8 days of childcare even though they are paying for the same amount as everyone else.

Why is this so hard for so many people to comprehend on here.

If you care to read the op's replied properly, you will see that she has indeed answered this question. 🤦‍♀️

You don't begrudge the staff their paid holiday entitlement OP, so really what you're unhappy about is that you're specifically billed for a BH? The alternative is to not charge for a bank holiday and instead increase the daily rate to cover holiday pay for the staff. If you're not objecting to them being paid then surely it's irrelevant how it's broken down and invoiced?

RTFT... smh

Ooooh, I've never been told off on MN before. Are you feeling all important now?

It’s not telling you off, but come on. If you just walked into a conversation without listening to a word that had been said previously and someone said ‘Anna’s just said that’ it would be a fair point!

My issue was always that I've never had to pay for a service on days that the service provider isn't open. However, child care is the only service that this doesn't apply to for some stupid reason.

Yes the staff should be paid for BHs, out of the overall fees received and not charge their customers for days they aren't open.

By evening out all the actual open days across payments.
So in a month with one bank holiday there might be 21 open days.
All parents pay 1/21 of the running costs per child for each day they book.
All staff get 1/31 of the month's pay per day.

I work in a term time, committee run, not for profit setting, we don't get paid for bank holidays.
No idea if the parents get charged for bank holidays tho.

I don't understand this, for Bank Holidays I HAVE to take it as annual leave, so I'm paid but it's out of my leave entitlement. Surely that's a better way to do it?

In the UK?
You are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave per year (pro rata for part time) this includes bank holidays, so some people get it broken down onto 4 weeks annual leave plus 8 days bank holiday.
Others just get it rolled up into one lump of 5.6 weeks.

Companies are of course allowed to give above the statutory minimum. But they cannot give less.

Well that's not entirely true. I get 28 leave days and no bank holidays. This is in the private sector.

Every job I've ever had has been the same. We used to get paid time and a half on a bank Holiday but that's a thing of the past now.

28 days leave is 5.6 weeks.

That is exactly what I have just said.

Some employers state it differently (eg break out the bank holidays), but it still has to add up to the same.

Just to edit - maybe it's the way I have worded it.

What I mean is it doesn't have to be the actual bank holidays, but it has to add up to the same amount.

I totally get it. If I sent my kids to nursery every Tuesday. I would pay for 52 days childcare and recieve 52 days childcare.

but if my child went to nursery every Monday; I’d pay for 52 days childcare and only recieve 48 days childcare

Edited to add into my post above

How would they raise prices to cover it if the government had come along and cut the prices by 25% and said you can only increase prices on chocolate and alcohol but if the customer wants to they can add their own to the shopping bag for free and you deliver it ....essentially nurseries are now not allowed to charge extra for anything needed to provide the eyes and and extras must be voluntary and they can't insist on additional hours.

Most nurseries are in crisis not making huge profits if the government pay £5 per hour per child how can there be a huge profit when you look at staffing ratios, additional staff, rent, electricity, food costs, consumable costs etc. ?

@jannier i definitely pay more than that.

Nursery costs for my two children for two days a week are nearly £1000 a month, that’s with funded hours.

I don’t begrudge the nursery staff a penny. But that’s not where it’s going. And I don’t object to a business making a profit, but it needs to be a fair profit.

Anyway, it isn’t really relevant to this particular bugbear TBH.

I was never charged for bank holidays, not all nurseries do. I would have been annoyed too tbh.