Is your private nursery closing from Friday?

[Canyoutellilikrchocolate]

I know council run ones are closing. What are the private ones doing? Not got hold of mine yet

If everyone gives notice, it's very likely there will be no nursery to go back too. We are fortunate to only need it until September

Ours is still open and will close when instructed to do so. From Monday they are running a holiday club for older children.

Your nursery cannot open unless they are providing care for vulnerable children or the children of key workers.

They are not private businesses - they are regulated by Ofsted, which is a public body. The government has said that all schools and nurseries must close, end of. If they open in defiance of this, they will lose their registration.

Ours closed on Tuesday - it’s on a university campus which is also closing.

No fees whilst it’s shut down, but I’m a LP reliant on childcare. Luckily I can WFH but DS is going to get a raw deal for the next however long, whilst I juggle work and looking after him

Ours will be closing from Friday, they said they're obliged so I'm surprised that others say theirs is staying open!
And we are liable for the fees for the duration... I think they'll refuse to have us back if we don't.

DDs has emailed today closing except for key workers. They are going to email again tomorrow with further information. I'd like to know:
How I can support my toddler DD in her development without interaction from her peers
If I have to give notice, as I can't afford to pay the monthly fees due to no income, do I need to pay a deposit to sign up again?
Will my withdrawal of DD mean staff lose their jobs (in which case I could ask my parents if they could pay 4/5 months fees)

I don't want the nursery to go out of business obviously but I can't afford to pay if If I am not earning. It's an independent forest school type and DD loves it.

And then there is the issue of the childcare element of WTC which I receive. I will not qualify if I'm not earning and the contribution I received really helped pay toward it. But I could potentially need to pay for nursery each month in order to keep her space. Maybe that's for a separate thread though.

I think the PM said private nurseries were encouraged to close but do not have to do so. As many look after chidlren whose parents are in key jobs I suspect it would not be that hard to make a case that most of the children are in that category even if the law changed and forced them not to take children of someone who is not a key worker. Even schools are not closing as they are forced to take children of key workers remember.

I doubt the army will be coming round forcing a nursery go send home bobby aged 2 because his mother is an advertising agency member of staff rather than Jimmy aged 1 whose mother is a doctor or food van driver.

Mine has updated saying they may just be open for the children of essential workers
(As yet undefined). But they don't know for sure yet. I'm lucky that I'm a teacher so should be off, although I may also be required to look after the (older) children of essential workers (does that make me an essential worker? 😉) so we'll see.

@Sleeplessnights1234 same chain, just checked our terms and Conditions. I've not had the bill for April yet, dh says he doesn't think we should pay but I'm worried about the staff and the nursery closing down as we will need it for a few years yet! Such difficult times.

Yes my private one is closing. No word about fees yet though

@EYProvider my son's nursery is private and have specifically said as they are not included in the government's instructions they will remain open until told otherwise.

We haven’t heard anything from ours yet. It’s a private nursery but I’m expecting them to close.

I'd love to be able to pay them a grand a month to not look after my children but DH's job is looking shaky so we need to save money where we can.

@caffeinefix - I own a nursery. I’ve been sent guidance tonight stating that we have to close to everyone except vulnerable children and the children of key workers.

From what I can gather, the local authority will decide on Monday how those children will be cared for/at what setting. Not all settings will remain open; the children will be grouped together in one or two settings that do.

Unfortunately, no private nursery has a choice in whether or not they can remain open in a public heath emergency. I don’t know whether you are in Scotland or Wales, where the messages have not been clear throughout today. However, I have been sent the guidance by my local authority and told unequivocally that we must close.

Private nursery closing , think we will have to pay still and I will have to take unpaid leave so will have to pull out

Scotland here. Our private nursery staying open, and taking some school kids. This was their fb post about 7pm. DD and I are in isolation anyway, but I wouldn’t be sending her.

And no fees to be paid if they close. Not a massive nursery, there’s only 2 of them

School and nursery both closing.

@EYProvider where in the country are you? Where has this info come from?

I'm not sure if my sons one will close. I'm not sure what to do if it is still open to all children. None of us have symptoms or have been in contact with anyone who has. He loves going and I'd hate not sending him in while he can still go, especially if they do have to close in the not too distant future. But at the same time I feel bad for the staff. Now I'm thinking would or could one less child make a difference within the setting? I'm a SAHM so keeping him off will have no impact on me at all. Therefore should I keep him off? If it will help the staff and other children who need to be there then I'll gladly do so:

Ours has closed and charging 50% fees

They specifically mentioned all early years settings and private schools. I'm pretty sure you will find that the government guidance is for them to close (even if you/they haven't realised yet).

The whole point is to do more social distancing and try to stop this virus spreading, so it wouldn't really work if loads of private settings are still open.

The number of kids circulating would still be vastly reduced - I run an ASC and holiday club (we have even less of an idea of where we stand than nurseries btw, nobody is telling us shit!) and we've worked out that in the fairly well off areas we serve demand for ASC is about 25-30% of school places. Based on our current survey of parents, about 1/2 need childcare during school closures. So that's a huge reduction.

I'd expect the nursery maths to be similar, there will be large number of children to be out anyway so it might be about 1/2 of private nursery attending kids, and maybe 15% of primary age school kids if they let places stay open.

I work in a nursery. Currently the plan is to open on Monday but only for key workers children- that is yet to be defined. We believe that we ourselves are classed as key workers, due to the fact that we enable other key workers to continue working. Therefore our own children can still attend school/ childcare- but need that to be confirmed.

@twinnywinny14 - I’m in London.

Happy to provide childcare for key workers actually but don’t have any children of key workers at the nursery.

Hopefully we will able to volunteer services for this.