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.

No she hasn't, she answered saying she doesn't

Difference is you have the option of driving or going to the gym. In this scenario you don't have the option to use the childcare you've paid for. And often have to pay for another lot on top as you need to work

Exactly. I do not understand why this is the customer's cost to bear. It never affected us as we didn't use or need childcare at that stage, but as employers we pay our staff for bank holidays and that is part of the cost of employing staff.

Interestingly my friend who works in a nursery doesn't get paid for bank holidays. She either loses a days pay or is forced to take it as annual leave.

I financial model as part of my job so yes I’m more than capable of doing the “math” thanks for asking. Given that cash management will be very important to a nursery, rolling up chances into prices over a 12 month period/cycle to account for specific dates in a completely different cycle will become quite difficult for them to do. Managing it this way aligns their cash in and their cash out far better/cleaner (by cash I mean payments, it’s a turn of phrase in cash you can’t figure it out). They most likely have basic bookkeeping services and someone simply doing their accounts so won’t have a full cash management approach. Happy to build you an excel model explaining it if that helps.

Agree. It’s ridiculous. My childminder does not charge for days she isn’t working,

Usually these nurseys are owned by very wealthy people. In an ideal world the owners would pay out of thier considerable profits .Even though it would cost them a lot. I expect they make a large enough profit to afford to pay even half.. I understand your rant/vent. Unfortunately, it is what it is.

It works differently for us as we work weekends so it only adds up to 4 weeks in our line of work. Basically the same thing though. But we don't get bank holidays off as it's a normal day for us, so just the 4 weeks. Or 28 days.

If we're not scheduled to work a bank Holiday and have that day off, we won't get paid for that day. Our business is still open though so bank holidays are not included in our leave entitlement.

I would assume the fee calculation would include holiday pay for staff built in. If a child is off sick you still have to pay presumably. Does the nursery keep to school holidays? If this is so, then there shouldn't be any charge while the nursery is closed. It depends entirely on how the nursery holidays are structured. I must be a little odd because I would expect a day nursery to open on bank holidays, especially if I had to work myself. Close for three days at Christmas, but otherwise, staff get paid as in any other job where staff have to work [normally double time pay ] on bank holidays.

Every nursary owner I know puts their 3 DCs (always 3) through private education from age 4.

Just saying

I feel you!!!! Mine are Monday and Friday as well, but we don't pay for the bank holidays thank god as I totally see where you're coming from. When does your full funding kick in? Could you change your days temporarily until it does?

Do you work 7 days a week then? Or 5 days, some of which are weekends?

Exactly you pay more than £5 per hour but the government doesn't so how are settings supposed to pay all bills including bank holidays if they don't charge especially come September when more than 90% of their business is funded hours from 9 months old to 4 years? Even though funded rate is higher for younger children the ratio is more adults to children so higher costs to match.

No one’s suggesting they don’t charge, @jannier . I don’t mind businesses making profits. You are complaining about something totally different to be honest - it isn’t relevant to this particular discussion.

How many do you know? Must be a rich area everyone I know in my area has used their own money to prop up the nursery and will be closing before September

But if they don't charge bank holidays....8 a year including Christmas.....how are they going to pay the wage for their staff who by law must get paid? How are they paying the 8 days rent and tax?

I suppose the nursery assumes that parents are off and being paid, so what’s the difference with a nursery doing the same and still paying the staff. Those parents are no more financially worse off

However, it’s rubbish if the parent isn’t off, and needs to not only pay the nursery bill but also pay for a different form of childcare

If the nurseries want to charge for bank holidays, they should be open. It really is as simple as that. Not everyone gets bank holidays off. Patently absurd to charge for a service you are not providing.

They should just increase the weekly fees to factor in 8 bank holidays and charge you less during a week when there's a bank Holiday but more on all other weeks. Then you'd be happy but be paying the same overall?

There must be at least twenty posts by now explaining exactly how they could do this without charging the parents of the children who attend on a day bank holidays fall (so Mondays usually) for a day they aren’t attending.

It varies. Some days I can work 10 consecutive days before I have a day off, so yes that would mean working a full 7 days+

That doesn't happen very often though. We are mostly scheduled to work 5/6 days before a day off. This includes weekends.

All ignoring the fact that when all children get 30 hours funding you can't just put up rates and bank holidays are not paid by funding but staff must be paid. When funding is short paid anyway and top up charges not allowed.

Jannier, I’m not ignoring it. If you want to start a thread on it I will support you. I am sure it is all kinds of wrong. It doesn’t mean it’s right to only charge some parents for it, though. And while I have no wish to police threads I’d appreciate it if you did start your own thread about this issue as I absolutely hate getting sucked into silly arguments on here.

@bouncinround I've already asked but cannot see you have answered.

Do you work BH's or do you get them off?

Pretending this was somehow forced on nurseries by the government is disingenuous at best.

This was common practice long before funded hours came in. If it hadn’t been the funding may have been slightly higher as the average charge for a day would have been higher.