Late pick up fines

[MillieMeg]

Hi!

How much does your after school club charge you if you're late picking up your children? Our club's policy is £20 per child and an additional £2 per child with each lateness - 3 additional late pick ups = £26 etc.

I'm supportive of the need to cover staffing costs for lateness but it feels a bit disproportionate to pay the same amount regardless of whether I'm 1 minute or 30 minutes late so I wondered how other after school clubs charge?

Thanks very much!

I’ve never know any differentiate between 5 mins and 55 mins late- late is late, so you pay the fine, totally fair.

£1 per minute per child. There’s a ten minute pick up window but after that fines. You are told though and everyone in the playground warns you. Normally you make friends and if stuck they get collected by someone kind and they play at park for ten minutes or whatever.

It's not just about paying the staff. They are trying to deter you from being late at all! Staff have their own places to be, they don't want to be there for an unknown period of tome on any given day. Sort it out.

Ours is £15 per child after the club has closed. If you're late you're late it doesn't matter if it's one minute or 30 minutes you're inconveniencing the staff who have places to be.

They have twice since I've used them waived any fines when there was a huge accident and lots of children were late being collected but they also allowed children to be collected by other parents and neighbours not on the approved collection list because it was extenuating circumstances.

£20 per child. It’s not about the minutes, it’s about them trying to stop you being late. The staff have to work late to accommodate you if you’re latex they will need to be paid extra. It’s not fair to make them work late, they will have places to be too.

How often are you late and how much by? If you’re there on time surely this isn’t an issue

It's supposed to be disproportionate, you're not paying for childcare, they're trying to deter you from being late!
If it was a reasonable cost people wouldn't care so much about collecting on time.

£1 per minute
school was the cost of after school club

£25 per child if not collected at the correct time. The fine is the added to for each 15 mins (per child).

3 late picks ups and I would refuse to have the child in after school club!

Well, maybe late is late, but then there's zero incentive to hurry once you know you'll be late. If the fine is the same regardless, parents might as well go do some shopping and get their fine's worth of childcare.

Not saying this is right, just that the policy doesn't seem sound.

You do realise that social services are called and the children reported as abandoned?

I'm pretty sure if you turned up exceedingly late without good cause they would stop your child attending the club altogether. It's incredibly oversubscribed so if a parent wants to chance taking the piss then I guess they would face the consequences of that. I'm sure if they were not oversubscribed then they would apply a different policy.

After how long ? Presumably social services aren't called everytime someone is late by half an hour ?
Don't live in the UK and not using any school clubs so not entirely familiar with how this works, my point was if the fine is the same no matter how late you are people are going to stop rushing once it's clear they're going to be late.

Not sure of the time but if you were late and decided to go shopping to get your money’s worth, that would be sufficient.

Frequently late would also get your childcare contract terminated. The decent nurseries have very long waiting lists.

Just checked my old nursery contract and after 60 mins they call SS.

I think calling social services would be a last resort if they couldn’t get hold of you and didn’t know you were coming. If you call social services and say ‘I’ve got a child whose parent is 31 minutes late, but they’ll be here in 10 minutes’, it would not be a priority for SS to come and collect that child!

Both my nursery and ASC have been something like £5 per 15 minutes, and ASC say 3x in a half term and they remove the space. It’s absolutely fair though - I used to run a centre where kids were left unattended and remember sitting there til 8.30 one evening waiting for a parent who didn’t even apologise when they turned up.

Our nursery and our primary school do it by time.

There is something about SS being contacted by schools if parents are late picking up so it isn’t just after school clubs

Only if the child has actually been abandoned and the school/nursery can't get hold of any parent or emergency contact.
They don't call social services just because parents are an hour late (or if they did, it wouldn't be a social services issue).

Exactly…schools/ASC have this threat in their t&cs as a deterrent and of course in the event they couldn’t get hold of a parent they would have to call SS. But they’re not going to be doing so where they know the parent is running late and will be there in a reasonable timeframe. SS are very busy dealing with actual issues and wouldn’t have time to come and collect children unnecessarily in order to help a provider enforce their late collection policy.

Obviously.

This. It’s meant to be a deterrent so the additional fee per each time there is a late pick up makes sense.

Sounds fair to me I charged late fees as a childminder, I worked long enough hours as it was. One parent was late repeatedly so I raised late fees made no difference so I then warned if late again I would terminate the contract with no notice , 2 days later late again no reason and no apology just laughing at me and saying you know what I am like. She was not laughing when I handed her immediate notice