Nurseries axing half days

[TaylorBrown]

Can nurseries just axe half days and put a 2 full day minimum in place? How much notice should parents recieve about this? I am in scotland.

If it's a private nursery then yes they can.

What ever the notice period is for you to end the contract. Ie if you don't like it you can leave instead of agreeing to it.

They can pretty much do what they want.

They should give you whatever notice is in your contract.

It is a private nursery but has government funding. The funding has already been sent away for that nursery now so will probably struggle to get a place at a new nursery with funding.

Settings are allowed to choose how they offer the funding. Unfortunately the government force settings to come up with convoluted rules to get around poor rates being paid.

Funding is termly so yes this term will be paid for bit from end August / September when the new term starts, you will have a fresh start available.

When are they changing things?

Hi, yes the nursery can do this, but would need to give you notice following their contracts e.g. 4 weeks. No nurseries or childminders locally to me offer half days anymore and have huge waiting lists due to the new funding the government has brought in.

They have to make the funding work for them as it does not cover the cost of childcare, staff wages, etc

Yes, ours doesn’t offer half days and the one I’m temping in has just pulled half days too. They gave four weeks notice to the parents though. They just couldn’t make the numbers add up with half days, because it depends on another child doing the opposite half to make up a day’s fees.

You’ll get posters saying that private nurseries are a money racket with the mangers all driving around in fancy cars, and maybe some are, but not the ones I know of, they are struggling.

The term is almost over so surely they're talking about next term anyway by the time they factor in a notice period

Private nurseries don’t have terms.

Funding is still applied for, paid in, and divided up by terms. It's administered by local authorities and the government offer funding during term time only (38 weeks). It is up to settings if they choose to stretch this equally over the whole year.

@FanofLeaves of course they do with regard to the funding, the same as everyone else. I don't suppose there are any nurseries out there that get special treatment as the councils pay it out in terms

Our nursery offers half days and I always wonder how it’s viable. Surely most people want mornings and it’s hard to match up the two places

It will start September. This is my childs 2nd nursery in 2 years so I will feel really bad to move her considering how much she loves it and shes just settled in, so I guess I will need to pay the extra..600quid a month just like that. I will also be using some full days as there's no point on paying and not using them.

Funding can be stretched to cover non term-time attendance. It means fewer hours of funding each week, but over more than the basic 38 weeks school terms.

Plus my local authority pays settings either monthly or termly. It's up to the setting to choose.

It can you're correct (I'm a provider) but the point was that the OP was concerned about funding already paid out and I'd mentioned that it would be a new term so it wouldn't matter. That was the point I'd made. She's now mentioned it's from September so she could move without losing funding already paid.