Will nurseries shut?! Do we still have to pay?!

[Khtchkn]

My son is due to start nursery on 30th March. I really hope the highlighted red “exceptional circumstances” include coronavirus as an example! as I have been made redundant and I know that a lot of ppl would struggle to pay full time fees if they had no work! Luckily my son will go twice a week but I’m thinking to push his start date (would lose deposit) to May or June given the current situation .

I work in a nursery. The latest we've been told is that if we're forced to close, staff will be paid as normal. Our nursery is none profit making so there are no reserves to fall back on. Parents will be charged as normal. If I was a parent I would be pissed off, but the business can not take the hit so I don't know what else could happen. Self employed parents will feel it the most I guess because they themselves won't be getting paid if they're not working. Shit situation all round.

As a childminder I have told parents I will be charging full fees as normal if I am forced to close as I am not sick. Sadly I can not take the hit financially and will have to close my business if parents don’t pay. I will not be holding a space for any parent that choose not to pay and if they don’t want to pay then they will have to give notice but will still need to pay full fees for the full notice period.

I can see a lot of childminders and nursery shut after any forced closures as most parents will refuse to pay as either they can’t or in some cases don’t see why should pay for a service they are not getting.

Would you like there to be childcare available when all This is over and everything gets back to normal? If you would like good quality, experienced staff working in strong settings, I think if you can afford to pay, you should be paying. If you are struggling to put food on the table, that’s completely different, but if you are able, please pay your childcare bill as normal.

Nurseries and childminders are already struggling financially without covid making things even harder for the sector. (I don’t want to have to go into the funding debacle again, but the government generally treats early years pretty badly and most settings are close to breaking).

Thank you. I have postponed my sons start date to mid May and they said I won’t lose his deposit or get charged any fees