Nursery Closed but they want me to pay

[Bobsmrs]

A few weeks ago the baby room at my nursery was forced to close for a day because of staff sickness. My husband, who is self employed lost a days work.

That day had already been paid for but I was expecting it to be refunded with this months fees. It hasn't been.

Is it unreasonable to expect not to have to pay for a day when they were unable to provide the service for which I am paying? Especially as we are down on my husband's earnings that day as well?

I would push for a days refund. Do you have any terms and conditions from then that says they don't refund in these circumstances ?

This is strange, we had to close the whole nursery for 2 days due to a rather nasty sickness bug, and then a deep clean. We did not charge for these days and tried to accomadate the working parents as best we could (we space in the children's centre so that working parents had emergency care). We were advised by the local authority that we could not charge the parents that did not use the nursery, and i felt it was bad for parent/ nursery relations. I'd stand firm, and maybe talk to your LA.

Depends what it says in your contract. Most nurseries would use agency staff if they had such a staffing crisis.
I would ask the nursery why they have not given you a refund. They might back down if enough parents complain. Also ask them about their contigency plans in case it happens again. They could have bank staff that they call on at short notice, or use agency cover or even join age groups together and the manager could have stepped in (most managers are not included in numbers)