Nursery are threatening to remove my child as I questioned fees

[Girlmum1984]

My daughter turns 3 in a few weeks and we will be able to claim 30 free hours. When this happens, my consumables fee will increase from £12 a day to £29. have questioned this with management and asked for a breakdown of what this fee includes. They have listed food, nappies etc as well as a few activities (baking, PE classes, music classes). The activities listed take place twice month and so far haven’t been on the day that my child attends. All of this would never add up to £29 daily.

Unsatisfied with the response, I emailed the local council to understand how consumables fees can be issued to parents and it there were any regulations. As a result, they contacted the nursery manager and investigated. They were satisfied with the findings and basically said there are no regulations they need to follow when it comes to consumables fees and they can charge what they like. Annoying, but fine.
I have now had an official looking email from my nursery to say I have impacted the staffs mental health by making this enquiry and they are going to discuss whether our contact will be terminated as a result!
I’ve never had any issues with staff in the past and we’ve always been on friendly terms. My daughter enjoys the setting and the care they provide isn’t in question.

can they kick her out as their manager has an issue with me contacting the council about them? Thanks

YABU.

Replace that with at 2 yo self funding:
Daily charge = £75, consumables = £12
Total = £87

But at 3/4yo the government is only paying £58 a day to the nursery. So they add on the extra £17 shortfall to the consumables to stay open.

Op has every right to go to the council. The nursery have every right to terminate their contract with op in line with their t&cs. 2 things can be true at once.

The whole consumables thing is an unsatisfactory fig leaf for insufficient funding of “free” provision.

The OP absolutely had the right to go to the council. And the nursery, having had to spend hours responding to them with data etc, has every right to decide they don't want to deal with her going forwards, as you say.

Pretty sure when my DD was at nursery on funded hours that these were called top up fees and the reason given for them was very transparent. This helps so much. Consumables sounds so vague particularly when 3/4 year old often aren't wearing nappies etc. I'd pop in and apologise and emphasise the your child loves the nursery and shouldn't suffer due to the misunderstanding.

From their perspective they gave you the information, you determined it wasn't correct/satisfactory and went to the council, the council then investigated them which was a drain on their time and resources. I'm not sure about the way in which they have framed this around staff mental health, but I can see that they have marked your card because of the actions you have taken. You are, of course, within your rights to raise a query with the council, but they are equally within theirs to withdraw service provision. I think it's one of those situations where you have to weigh up the potential consequences before deciding if it is worth getting a third party involved. They've said the matter is under discussion, so you do have an opportunity now to reply and state your case.

Agree. And people acting like it's pennies. It amounts to 600 quid a month..

I agree it wasn’t on to go straight to the council.

But the excuse of “affecting staffs mental health” is clearly bollocks and insulting people people with genuine mental health difficulties.

The nursery staff need to grow a pair.

But that's not op what is asking. They're asking whether the nursery can terminate their contract. The council have investigated and found the cost is reasonable, but tbh it's all irrelevant as the answer to the op is yes. They can terminate the contract as long as they follow their t&cs. I mean there are exceptions under the unfair contract terms act, but can't see how they apply here, but op can always pay a lawyer to see if they do

They are not free hours, they are funded. They don't cover the cost of the nursery service, you can also get 20% off via tax free childcare if you qualify. So this will take it down to £23 per day. Pretty reasonable!

I would find another setting and leave quietly. You will always been known as "that" parent by the staff.

To be fair, when you initially found you've been reported to the council, you'd freak out, until you find it's only about money. I bet they were rattled. The OP needs to realise that what they are doing is making the 'free hours' payment plus consumables equal the previous payment plus consumables as explained above. Otherwise there will be no nursery, particularly with the min wage rise and NI etc.

If you don't like it, go elsewhere. But I suspect that may not be a choice.

I disagree with many posters. Not all nurseries charge over the funded hours but they usually expect the parents to provided things like nappies and wipes.

Additionally I think if following procedure impacts staffs mental health they should question their ability to maintain professionalism.

£29 a day is a staggering cost for extras but at least the nursery can now say that they have been consulted and it’s acceptable.

Yeah ok I understand that technically they can and are within their rights to do so. Just find it a bit weird the amount of posters who think she's in the wrong. No way would I hand over that amount if money without querying where it was going. I'm in Scotland but and I've never heard of such a payment anyway

How is £30 a day peanuts? That’s £600 a month if the child is full-time. It’s meant to be free!

I'd be querying it, especially as at my son's nursery when he accessed his funded hours the only extra anyone paid was £5 a day for lunch, £29 is extortionate.

@Legodaisy and times that by say 30 children and that's £18000 a month - in addition to the fees they are getting too .

For the slow of study, the government does not pay per hour what it costs to run the nursery. And those hours are only term time.

You don't think £30 a day for childcare is cheap? It's not meant to be free it's funded hours just because the government calls it free doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything.

Good for them!

I don’t think I would want my child there if this is how they act. You’re not unreasonable to question it.

I mean it's not really a technicality when it's the law. Unfortunate & unforeseen consequence possibly, but saying don't worry it'll be fine and squabbling about irrelevant details isn't going to help when it's op who'll need to get new childcare in place.

It is meant to be free. It is called “30 free hours”. It’s not called “30 discounted hours”. The government need to update all the verbiage on their website if it’s not meant to be free.