Nursery now charging for days not open

[EdPops]

My 2 x DS's attend nursery Mon–Fri and in the few years they've been there it's been policy for the nursery to charge for all bank holidays in a year even though they are closed. I've seen this topic discussed elsewhere and i know a lot of people find this policy frustrating, me included.

However we've just been told that as of April this year our nursery will also be charging for the 2 weeks they close over xmas. On top of this they're introducing 3 additional closure days across the year which we will also be charged to allow the nursery to 'provide critical training and well-being support to our staffing team'.

The letter begins by claiming 'it is common practice for nursery settings to charge for closure periods'.

So, what are your experiences with nurseries, are you charged for closure dates?

I assume there's little to be done if we still want our children to attend? Fees are approximately £70 per child per day, they're both in full-time so it's no insubstantial amount.

DD went to a university childcare setting. It closed at Christmas for two weeks and a few days at Easter as well as Bank Holidays. We were never charged for these. I'm not aware of friends paying for days when their nursery was closed.

Ours is closed between Xmas and new year, we aren't charged. We also aren't charged for bank holidays but it seems most of my friends do pay for BH so this may be an anomaly rather than the rule. I think what your nursery is proposing is quite unreasonable.

Mine have always done this. I don’t agree with it. You don’t get charged for any other se rude you don’t receive because it’s a BH. But plenty on here will tell you it’s reasonable.

I suspect the issue is, as costs rise, nurseries can’t absorb everything. So rather than pay for cover care whilst staff take leave, mandating two of the 4-5 weeks of leave and closing is more economic.

I suspect if they did not do this, something else would have to give eg hourly rate.

I pay for bank holidays and training days but not holidays. I wouldn't pay for 2 weeks holiday

Our nursery is open for 51 weeks a year. We get charged for BH and training days but not for the week they are closed at Christmas.

Can't begrudge training days, BH are a bit annoying. But it costs what it costs so I figure that if they didn't charge for the days they aren't open the daily rate would probably just go up

We are charged the same amount monthly, but the understanding is that we're being charged for the days they are open, but spread equally across all the months. So we do pay the same amount for December, but it's not the same as paying for 'closure periods'.

For obvious reasons they need to increase the money coming in. They can do this by charging for the two weeks holiday or increasing the hourly rate, you're going to pay for it either way so I wouldn't feel too put out about it. Would you prefer they up the day rate instead?

Just checked my old nursery, they charge for bank holidays and the Xmas to new year closure (1 week).

The staff will be being paid year round so that will be the rationale. It’s just a factor of the overall cost. If you don’t use all the days a week, skipping Mondays would save you at least 4 bank holiday charges.

This is what my DD nursery does.

When I looked at a few other nurseries near me they charged a monthly fee rather than weekly. So this means you pay the same amount whether the month is a leap year February or July.

Personally I don’t mind this at all. If they didn’t charge for Bank Holidays, would that mean the staff wouldn’t get paid for them?

Things like this are going to happen much more frequently unfortunately. The government funding doesn't cover the costs of each funded child's place adequately. Costs of resources, food, energy etc are going up. As is minimum wage - which the majority of nursery workers are paid. It's not sustainable.

Nurseries are closing down completely because they cannot afford to stay open. This is happening at an alarming rate. I haven't researched properly, but a quick google suggests that in the 6 months between September '21 and March '22 nearly 200 settings closed. Things are much worse a year on and there is an ongoing staff recruitment crisis to boot. So settings are frequently relying on agency staff etc to remain in ratio - this is an extra expense.

I don't know what the solution is. As a parent with a child just out of nursery I would have struggled to pay more than I needed to. But as someone who works in one I can see that the situation is untenable.

Charged for the full 52 weeks a year, including closure over Christmas. Fees are £420 a week payable in equal monthly instalments. Seems standard in the 4 nurseries in our local area, as well as the ones I know about further afield. No training days that I’m aware of though.

Charged for bank holidays and Christmas closure. 4/5 week closure over the summer isn't charged (technically a larger childminder setting not nursery). No training days. Charged bank holidays definitely normal!

We are not charged for any days they are not open. They close between Xmas and new year and are not charged. They close bank holidays and we are not charged.

We are charged for bank holidays & Christmas week whilst closed - quite a well know large nursery chain.

It depends whether it’s a small outfit or a chain. The chains tend to give higher salaries to directors giving themselves dividends/ pay family members on payroll as of f employees to reduce taxation. They never take a hit. It’s always the parents getting mugged off and the staff paid peanuts in the cases of the big chains

Our nursery fees have just gone up 8%, so maybe see if that's comparable. It's still a kick in the teeth and I'd rather see an increased daily rate than feel I was paying for days I couldn't use, but it might even out.

Have just done a quick calculation - £70x52x5 is about the same as £75x48x5 (allowing two weeks closure, 8 bank holidays and 3 training days)

So I suspect if they didn’t charge these days, your day rate would go up about £5.

We were charged for 365 days in the creche that we used but once they starting school we were not charged for school holiday if they did not attend the creche during the school closure

I'm charged for BHs but not the christmas break

I wouldn't be happy with this either OP especially at £70 per child per day

Part of the reason my twins are on term time only contracts with their childminder is because with my eldest I became really resentful of paying her childminder at the time for 52 weeks of the year and then between my annual leave and her holidays probably only getting about 40 weeks of care!

Our Nursery bills for 50 weeks, then divides by 12 for a regular monthly amount. This allows for the 1 week Xmas closure and 1 week 'holiday'' for the child per year.

I don’t like it but we are charged for five days a week, 52 weeks of the year and divided equally over 12 months. For part timers, it calculated accordingly