IF private nurseries shut down?

[Undecided91]

So yet another Q about Corona! What IF private nurseries start closing? Are we supposed to still pay upftont fees? My son goes to nursery and if he cant go I cant work so potentially I wont be paid but then would I pay the nursery regardless? How would this supposed to work? i.e. it cost around 70% of my wage to pay the nursery but if we dont pay - we lose our place. I am so confused and scared tbh...

Lots of child related stuff will go out of business. I work for a kids sport provider ( we give lessons to kids after school) if we have to cancel a months worth of lessons & refund my boss will have to close the business, there’s not enough profit in our business to have the funds to cover this kind of thing

I’ll pay anyway as I can afford to (as fees are quite low) & should get paid if I’m not able to go to work. It’s a tough one though for parents whose fees are coming to hundreds of pounds a month. I’d caution against pulling a child out and rejoining when they reopen as I’ve a couple of teacher friends who did this over the holidays and the nursery made damn sure there wasn’t place for the child to go back to.

It's an awful situation. I'm a childminder and again, my insurance won't cover a closure for this.

My contact says no fees when I'm closed so I'm going to have to fold the business if I have to close for more than 2 weeks. Then I will look for a new job when it's over because I can't have this uncertainty.

So sorry to hear that glen, I really feel for you,

I just dont see how its possible to close schools, nurseries and childminders simultaeniously.

It will close businesses and increase debts massively for a lot of people. People could lose their homes and businesses for this.

I think a reasonable measure is if any cases are in your nursery, close, deep clean and take every childs temperature every day twice a day.

Any illness - home for testing.

That would surely stop the spread a bit? Without plunging people into unemployment and poverty?

Hopefully the government won’t close down childcare settings. I think if they do the economy will collapse.

Frankly I’d rather take my chances with the coronavirus.

You need a nanny.

I ‘need’ a lot of things that I can’t afford.

🙄

Yeah me too and i say that as someone with athsma.

Id take illness over poverty any day.

Feeding my child and keeping a roof over his head is my #1 priority

Our nursery doesn't charge for holidays so I wouldn't have thought so. But they still have to pay staff so that could mean them going bust. I would home that the government would step in and help them out. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

Glen, as a childminder you must know the parents quite well. If it comes to it you may find the parents are willing to pay if you explain situation.

@LouQoo That is disgusting. How do they justify that?

the thing is though, they can forcibly close schools I think forcibly closing private enterprises is much more difficult (not impossible though).

Of course if any children do get the virus you would expect them to close temporarily.

I suppose really if the government shuts down nurseries, parents should still pay fees but then claim back from them. After all, it won’t be the fault of the nurseries or their decision to close.

Maybe they will do this in the form of a tax incentive or similar.

Frazzled2207 Ofsted rules dictate how we behave in certain situations, notifying them and public health of serious illness/incident etc. They'd just cancel your registration if you refused to comply.

If this happens the Govt should step in to deal with insurance companies that won’t pay out

@Frazzled2207 - Nurseries and independent schools are regulated by Ofsted, who can close them down at any time.

They would just suspend registrations if it came to it.

@nancy75 - Exactly!

I am so furious with the insurance companies. How dare they take my money for all these years and then refuse to pay out when something like this happens.

That’s theft in my book.

EYprovider, they get away with it with everything - Always quick enough to take our money, it really should be stamped down on

This would break us financially- I’d have to stop work, wouldn’t be paid. I genuinely don’t know how we’d pay the fees to be honest.

@LouQoo that doesn’t seem very fair as the nursery would be making a profit whilst their staff struggle? That’s really harsh
@PlugholePencil would you not have to pay your notice period anyway by which time this could have calmed down?
@Glenthebattleostrich I’m in the same position. It’s not ideal. On the other side if schools close & we don’t where will all the school kids go? I’m going to stand firm & not take any as it will be crazy!

I think one of the things this virus has highlighted is just how fragile the economy is, and how much it is reliant upon childcare. My ds is in a private nursery. If I have to pay £900 a month to keep his place, and keep him home with me, that is going to cause serious problems. Yet at the same time staff from his nursery shouldn't go unpaid if the government requires them to close.

What I'd like to see is some kind of financial support, whereby if nurseries are forced to close, their basic costs including salaries, property costs etc are covered by Gov't. Fees suspended or reduced, and places held open as things were the day they closed. If insurance companies wont pay out then the government must step in, otherwise we are going to lose thousands of childcare places as companies close or go bankrupt.

The nursery my son goes to you have to pay e.g. if you are on holiday and the child is sick or if you can't get there due to bad weather. However if they decide to close the nursery due to bad weather we don't pay. I'd presume that this would be the case for the coronavirus - if they decide to shut we wouldn't pay. Now I am questioning this! I'd not be happy to pay full fees, but while it would be an inconvienience we'd manage. Grossly unfair to people on the breadline though!

@nancy75 - The guy from Morton Michel actually had the brass neck to say to me, ‘We can’t pay nurseries for this because then we’d go bankrupt’.

Hang on - isn’t that the gamble you take when you provide someone with an insurance policy? Isn’t it why they basically pay you vast sums of money for doing precisely nothing for years on end?

Apparently not.

@EYProvider I expect insurance companies will get away with a lot in this scenario. I expect that’s why travel hasn’t been banned

@katmarie - That’s exactly what’s needed, but it will require parents to demand this of the government.

They never take any notice of nurseries.