Notice period

[Mummypower92]

My son has been going to his nursery for just over a year, it costs us £105 a week for two days. (I think that's expensive)

We are now eligible for the 30 hours (YAY!!) but his nursery want £105 a month for two days a week.

I wasn't happy with this arrangement so I've found a nursery which charges nothing!!

I've told his nursery that he is leaving and will be starting his new nursery start of September.

They've told me I need to pay £300 as they have a month notice period....

So I asked if it was possible if my son could do different days in the week instead of his Monday & Friday and they've told me no but still want £300 - I don't want to give them £300 if my son can't attend those days? Also, I asked if it was possible if they could charge us the amount they would of if we went ahead with the 30 hours but they said no.

Has this happened to anyone else? Do you think this is unfair?

You should have been informed about the charges connected with using the 30 hours before this point. However, it is entirely up to settings how they wish to apply the 30 hours and what it covers. They can choose to only offer 5 hours per day, and charge for any additional hours.

They also don't have to agree to change days - they may not have availability.

What does your contract say about notice periods? How much notice did you give them? If you've signed a contract which requires a month's notice, and you haven't given them that notice, then you will have to pay them the £300.

I don't think anything you've said sounds unfair.

What does the contract say about notice periods? I know that at my children's nursery it's hard to swap days as they're full on the other days so don't have capacity for an extra child.

They are not obligated to change your child’s days, and I especially wouldn’t expect them to do this just for a couple of weeks when you have given notice. They won’t charge you the reduced fee because they won’t be able to claim the funding for the 30 hours if you are moving to another nursery.

You would need to look at your original contract.

There can be lots of reasons why qualifying for the 'free' hours scheme doesn’t result in an immediate wiping out of your fees.

Not all nurseries participate in the scheme.
They may h@ve a limited number of 'free' places.
Their offer might not coincide with the times you want.
Etc.

What reason did they give you?

I don't quite understand why this suddenly came to a head such that you needed to give immediate notice. Most parents are sensible enough to plan ahead; indeed, most nurseries need the 30 hour entitlement code before the end of the preceding term in my area, so this should have been sorted out before July was out.

They are charging you £13 a day to cover some of the shortfall between what they normally charge and what the council will pay them. You on the other hand are making an additional £315 a month....Don't forget the 30 hours are only for 38 weeks a year unless you opt to stretch funding and get 22 hours free a week.

They may have decided to offer funded hours for only 2 sessions a day leaving lunch times to pay for, between 9 and 3 leaving hours outside this to be paid for....ask them how they calculate it.

As already mentioned, they can't do the notice on the funded amount, as they won't be able to claim funding for that time. You are still saving a massive amount of money by getting funded days. And that is what they are - funded, not free as advertised by the government. Are they stretching the funding, so you get a reduction all year? This may work out cheaper than a free place term time only. Do they offer extra services?

Make sure you understand the choice you have made and pay the notice agreed in your contract.

We asked about the funding in May and they left it until August to give us the breakdown of everything.

Apparently they charge due to the amount of staff they have at the nursery and because of the training courses they do. (That was the response)

It's 22 hours and spread over the year.

Actually, a lot of children have dropped out at this point as other parents are in the same position. (One of the nursery nurses told us this) the nursery has been very quiet.

I understand that some nurseries still charge fee's, it used to be voluntary fees but now compulsory.

The new nursery doesn't charge anything and it's also a private nursery.

HSMMacm

The new nursery is not a term time only nursery.

It's a private nursery which offers the 22 hours throughout the year with no extra charges! (yes that includes meals)

I am quite capable of managing my finances but thank you for your concern

itsaboojum

Your comment has come across very condescending.

Said nursery was late in giving us the break down of costs hence the immediate change of nursery hence the not so sensible, organised parent.

Wow...

No condescension intended, just finding out the background in an attempt tohelp.

I was asking in order to find out a little more information about why you were having to pay, rather than me jumping to conclusions. There’s a tendency on some message boards for some replies to rush to judgment on the basis of scant information, something I prefer to avoid.

There’s not a lot I can do about what anyone chooses to read into that.

Did you have any issues with the nursery, over care for instance.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you couldn't manage your finances. I have come across parents who didn't realise that the new setting they moved to was term time only, or didn't offer stretched funding, or didn't include meals, or whatever. You are clearly not one of these parents. It's a shame your nursery didn't make their funding policy available earlier, so you could make a decision. That may have been because their local authority didn't give them their funding figures until later in the term.

Good luck with your new setting.

You will have to pay the fees as you have only given them 1 weeks notice instead of 4
They are perfectly entitled to ask you to pay for the 3 weeks

In my area, quite a few Early Years settings can’t confirm fees, terms or 'free' hours arrangements for the new term until August.

It comes down to the fact that they are running on a knife edge (research shows about a half on the brink of going bust) because fees are too low to cover costs, and funding for 'free' hours is even lower. Many councils are cutting the rate paid for 'free' hours, despite rising costs.

Until they know how many children are signed up for what hours, they can’t work out prices, let alone how many staff to keep on or lay off. It’s a horrible situation for them when they’re just trying to do the best for all concerned. They put the information out late because that way they can keep fees as low as is reasonably possible.

For all the constant talk of "the high cost of childcare" it is remarkably cheap in comparison with almost every other part of the care/education sectors.