Kicked out?!

[Sarah12hge]

Hi all, desperately looking for advice.
my son attends a nationwide nursery provider. They’ve recently introduced additional fees for extras. I challenged them with the amount as I felt it was extortionate and did not match the care he was given. Basically we had to pay £200 for a month when he does 2.5 days, term time only. This was a jump from £50 we were paying for meals. He’s in preschool so receives the 30 hours.

The local manager has advised that I need to look for another nursery as he is no longer welcome basically? In my last email I said I felt the charges were unclear and steep for what he receives and I was considering contacting the local council for advice. Can they do this? Can they kick him out because I challenged the fees? Thanks all, very stressed!

Brilliant, well done OP.

What is always apparent on these type of threads is that people don't question these things enough.

You are showing your ignorance here.
Nurseries can call themselves what they want.
If they want to call themselves a Pre-school, they can.
If they want to call themselves a Nursery school, they can.
If they want to call themselves Day care, they can.
If they want to call themselves a Kindergarten they can.
If they want to call themselves Bright Buttons or Happy Feet, they can.

There are plenty of places that are called 'Pre-school' that take children who are not yet in their pre-school year. There are also plenty of places that talk about their 'pre-school' room, which they also move dc up to once they turn 3.

There are schools that have a 'Nursery Class' and many of them also take 2 yr olds, let alone 3 yr olds who aren't in the year before they start school.

The local manager has advised that I need to look for another nursery as he is no longer welcome basically?

So, this isn’t the case now?

Apparently not. They basically said it was an error in their calculations after he had switched days (something which I didn’t think was relevant). Feel a bit sad that he was pushed out so easily (when there is no waiting list) but he loves it there, my issue hasn’t been with any of the staff in the actual nursery and I don’t have the capacity to find somewhere new.

No one likes to be challenged and since you have questioned the increase as anyone would want to openly be able to do so. Good on you for questioning the increase.
Then told to go elsewhere...seriously.
I fail to understand why.
Whatever they are running no way would I be staying because unless you have had other issues with the place they will be having some attitude towards you and your child.
Some are run like a buisness,with ridgid ways & rules, some are run like a decent caring centre that go the extra mile and are always fully booked up..
They should be able to adapt to all types of parents as well.

The issue is it won't 'add up'. Because they can't charge you for the hours because of the legislation. But the government funding isn't covering the hours. So unless they 'overcharge' for the extra they can't run.

My nursery charges £2.50 an hour to use free hours - for food, wipes, nappies, suncream etc. You can choose to provide your own instead of paying it, which would obviously be cheaper. It doesn't cost £20 a day for food and consumables. But they've been clear that if everyone opts out they close because the funding isn't enough.

Exactly.

Sounds about right. We pay £70/ month for 12 hours preschool. Plus extra for forest school, which is off site. And run with smaller ratios of children to staff.

I think you need to understand what it is first, it is not up to you what you think is justified or not it doesn't work that way

That's not correct inorder to take funding each setting must sign the LA funding agreement which sets out the terms that they need to comply with to offer funding it is clear funding does not cover consumables like food and nappies the setting can charge for these but parents must be able to opt out providing their own or taking child out for meals. Effectively we now have a system where the government are controlling an element of every childcare business saying what they will pay etc. They have cut individuals incomes .

@jannier you are right, but I imagine if nurseries surveyed their customers to ask if everyone would prefer to (a) keep paying a top up, however that was disguised as eg consumables or (b) for the nursery to drop out of the funded hours scheme altogther, I imagine they would choose (a)!

Of course most would but not all we're also audited and have to show clarity to customers. Not everyone chooses to pay.