Nuseries taking registration fee but not confirming places until 3 months before - is this normal

[grouphug]

I need a place for September for 3 days a week, so was organised and put in my form early and paid the registration fee of £50. I phoned to get an update and they said they won't be confirming places until May, it is the best nursery in the city so I knew it would be oversubscribed but it seems late? I need to know now so I can plan so I am now registering with my second choice and another £50. In therory I might have to register with a 3rd so that is £150 and might still not get a place in any. Is this normal? What should I do? How many should I register with? Anyone else had this? I get the impression my first choice has not intention of offering me a place as they are full but are still taking registration fees, surely this is illegal?

No idea about this but it seems a rather shocking way to behave - I presume if they don't honour your place you will get your money back? (After they have made several months' interest on it ). If not then that is the pits

grouphug, lots of nurseries do this and i have no idea why. We do not ask for a registration fee until we can offer a place and then its a deposit really so it comes off first months fees. In my expereince they should be able to offer firm places at least 6 months before unless they are offering cancellations at short notice.

Ring around a few more nurseries, i bet not all off them ask for registration fees, there are 5 in a 3 mile radius of my nursery and 2 do not ask for such fees.

Hope you get it sorted.

Most of the private nurseries in my area (in north London) take a registration fee of between £25-£50 which is non-refundable but 'holds your place' on a waiting list. I think it's outrageous, but seems to be fairly common practice.

I'm north London too and this is common and annoying - but having said that I don't know of anyone who paid the fee and didn't get a place. And tbh £50 is a drop in the ocean compared to London nursery fees (I pay £800 a month for 2 1/2 days)

I have some sympathy with their position because in practice it must be difficult to know exactly how numbers/staff will work out in 6 months time - you have no idea how many babies will leave or want to join in the meantime. And they have to charge something to stop people putting their names down on the offchance they may want a place, when they really have very little intention of actually using it, which will obviously mess up their planning.

Normally if they can't offer you a place you get the £50 back - although of course if you choose to register elsewhere you will lose the £50 on the second nursery if you don't take the place up.

This is very common practice in SW London where I am. We paid a £30 fee to be put on the "list", which was deducted from the first month's fees when my daughter started.

Although we didn't find out officially she had a place until about 2 months before her start date, the nursery manager was able to give me a good indication that it was likely she would get a place. Maybe you could speak to the nursery manager, explain your concerns and see if she can give you an idea of the likelihood of getting a place (even if she tell you how many children are ahead on the list)?

For the reasons theyoungvisiter explained, I can understand why they do it. But I would hope it is only used in areas where there genuinely is high demand and waiting lists are required (rather than just an extra revenue raising activity for the nursery).

thanks for your feedback, I can understand but I think they should say according to our records we have no space left for when you want but if you pay £50 you will be put on a list and you would be fourth on the list for example. in the ofsted reports there is a section the nursery will get scored on for providing information to parents I think the whole admissions procedure should be included in that too what do you think? I might start a campain?

but GH they can't possibly know whether they will be full or not - it's not like a school where everyone puts their child in the September they turn 5 and they move up year by year until they leave age 11.

Think about the variables - firstly you want a place in 6 months time. They have no way of knowing how many vacancies they will have at that point - the turnover is generally pretty high as people usually take their babies out if they go on maternity leave, and lots of people will put their babies into local authority nurseries age 2 as they are cheaper, and the notice period is generally only 1 month. So they are not in a position to have a good idea about vacancies until a couple of months before.

Secondly supposing they have a place but you only want it from August. In the meantime another baby turns up ready to start in Feb. A childminder will charge a retainer to keep the place open for you but a nursery doesn't do that, they fill the place and trust to luck that another place will open up for your kid.

Thirdly half the people on the list will put their names down and never take up a place.

There is no way they can look into a crystal ball and say "in 6 months time we will have 12 places, and you are number 13 on the list".

But I agree talk to the manager - they can probably give you an idea about how over or under subscribed they are and whereabouts on the list you are. Bear in mind, too, that nurseries often like to give the impression of being more oversubscribed than they are to encourage you to put your name down in good time. I was lead to believe that DS's nursery was very over subscribed, and then at the last minute I found I needed an extra day a week. They fitted him it at 1 week's notice!

But don't stress too much - as I said before, I know literally dozens of parents with kids at nurseries in N London and I don't know of a single instance where they paid a deposit and didn't get offered a place. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Thanks theyoungvisiter I will be more positive I'm just getting so stressed as I have looked at a few nurseries and this one is the only one I like I cried after the others and I guess if I knew she had a place I could rest my anxiety. I suppose I just don't want to leave her anywhere and I want to stay at home with her sob sob.

Worth bearing in mind that just becasue your last on the list it shouldn't mean you will necessarily be the last to get offered a place as the space may be for a 6mth old or 18mth old on specific days of the week and the people above you might not fit that criteria. You cuoldn't offer places strictly on a first come first served basis as then you would have no control over number in individual age group and wouldn't be able to staff it. its very confusing to explain but they should know what spaces are being moved up over the next 6 mths so if they are filled it sounds like waiting for a cancellation.

I have had my DS' name down on a waiting list for the nursery of my choice for over a year now. They have just charged me a £50 deposit for a place in the summer. They won't be confirming start dates for a while yet, but woulnd't be charging me to stay on the waiting list if there wasn't definitely a place.

I think it's extremely unlikely that the nursery will be charging you if they dind't have a place for your DC. I would speak to them about it.

This practice is completely normal.

If the nurseries didn't charge a deposit for putting children on a waiting list, some parents would put their children on every nursery waiting list going, thus making the lists completely meaningless.