What woud you think if your nursery asked you to pay a small voluntary fee to subside another child's place?

[milliec]

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Comeovenner - priavte sector ? Ther are very few nusreries attched to state schools, as we all know, nowadays thats why the Early years Grant was introduced which does n't cover the whole session so poeple still have to pay.

the fees can be quite alot even at our playgroup, parents have little choice other than keep their preschooler at home.

No nappyaddict the person in question didn't have her holiday paid for nor did she win it - she was taking the piss ! Thst why I would be very carefil about people caliming hardshoip and being asked as a parent o sub them . Down to the nursery to sort it .

If it was a registered non profit organization yes - is it? Probably not. I'm on the board of a pre-school/nursery here and we offer scholarships(assisted places). But that money is taken out of the fees already paid. To be honest my opinion is that is how it should be done.

agree with lapin. a one off for a strictly controlled fund would be OK.

I'm probably being very harsh, but nursery owners have to make a living too (and yes some are in it for the profit only) but some nice ones are in it for the children but do have to keep a home for themselves.

Therefore if parents cant pay, then they ought to find a cheaper means??

I don't think Asda says you can pay half if you can't afford your shopping...

No, I'm sorry but I would not pay to subsidise another child. If the nursery are not willing to help these parents then I dont think it should be down to other parents tbh....

Tricky one.....my church has a small, not for profit pre-school serving a very disadvantaged community. I make a monthly payment to them which pays 1/4 of the fees for a 2.5 year old little girl whose family is going through complete dire straits at the moment ( Dad died, Mum struggling, older sibling has medical condition meaning Mum has to be on call to administer meds and can therefore not work).

3 other people are funding the rest between them. Once she leaves the setting I will continue to contribute to a 'hardship' fund.

I think you need to be clear about a few things:

1. Is this a full day care setting? If so are the parents not all working parents hence requiring full day care.

1. Why don't the nursery set up a charitable foundation whereby people can gift aid their contributions? How will donations be recorded and auditted?

1. If it's a profit making organisation why do they not offer a certain number of subsidised/free places?

1. As a contributor it's important to me that the allocation of places is undertaken in a fair and equitable way. We have an admissions policy and a panel that meets once a term. (Earlier if needed)

I would feel obliged to contribute even though I have 2 children in nursery, one that I pay for 3.5 hours a day mon to fri and one 4 yr old who I just pay 1 hour a day (2.5 hours a day free from age of 3)
Money is really tight in the BKBK house at the moment and we are just managing at the moment until this time next year when DD will go for free, apart from the extra hour.
I would really find it dificult to refuse to contribute, especially if they asked me in person instead of in a letter/newsletter and would probably volunteer a small amount even though we are skint.

Is this a nursery for pre-schoolers? If not, then why is it necessary for the children to be there? If so, then fees should be covered by the EYEG- if a nursery is reg'd to accept these then it must provide a 2.5 hour session for the EYEG if parents request - it's illegal to insist that only 3 hour sessions are available and parents must pay a top-up fee (I'm pretty sure it is anyway).

There are other ways of getting fees paid - at my pre-school we have 2 children who are attending before thei 3rd birthday because of social needs - we have their fees paid by the Parochial Church Commission - parishes often have funds set aside for things such as this.

Sorry I would not be happy at paying. When I couldn;t afford the fees when DD2 came along they dodn't go and it was such a lovley nursery DD1 really blossomed there.

Most parents Iknew at the nursery were only just about able to cover the costs for their own children, if the nursery want to do something for this other child then they should do it, not expect the other parents to chip in. And although it was voluntary a lot of people would have felt obliged whether they could afford it or not

Prufrock - you are right about the 2.5hr and the 3hr not be complusory to attedn. the parent in question only now sends her child in for the 2.5hrs so misses the first half hour of the session. Howvere if all parents did that there would not be enough money to cover expenditure i.e staff wages , hall hire etc etc .

there is no reason why the person inquestion with the Op could do this if it is a sessional nursery.

If this is a day care nursery providing cover 8am to 6pm and the child is there becuse the parent works then the parent may ahve to have a re think about work/childacre balance like so many of us have had to do .

If they were genuine hardship cases, they would go to social services and/or health visiting service for a referal. That's what these services are there for (amongst other things)! At my dd previous nursery, five of the children were funded by social services/LEA. I didn't know which children and to be honest, I didn't care and don't want to know. The nursery never thought to ask other parents to subsidise these 5 children, probably because they already knew the answer!

i don't think it was right she asked you directly. it would have been more appropiate to send out a newsletter then those that didn't want to/couldn't afford to could just ignore it and those that wanted to contribute could enquire about it and find out what they had to do.

I wouldn't agree to this. I'd prefer my DDs to go to nursery but we can't afford it, a nanny works out cheaper ATM. We all have choices, even if some more limited than others.

I wouldn't, personally. If you can't afford a nursery you find a cheaper childcare facility.

My DD goes to a private (ie profit making) nursery so that obviously colours my thinking. Perhaps it would be different if it was a different sort of facility.

I wouldnt be happy. For the reasons described above. There are alternative options - it's not an automatic right to be able to send your child to the nursery of your choice whether you can afford it or not. When my younger two were at day nursery, I had a period of around 10 months when I was working on a freelance basis, and I couldn't afford the nursery fees. So I pulled them out and found a CM who was able to be flexible. It wouldnt have occurred to me to expect other parents to subsidize my kids's places.

I wouldnt pay it either, if you cant afford a place then you shoudnt expect other people to pay.

I would not do this. If this was introduced at the nursery I use I think it would be very unpopular.

It's a good idea on paper but may cause problems in practice. I wouldn't mind paying say an extra £5.00 a week into a "pool" if I could stop it at any time. This is hypothetical as I don't have children in Nursery. How would parent qualify for the subsidy and for how long? Contributors may feel they have a right to agree who deserves the funds etc and it could get messy.

I work in a charity run pre-school and parents go off on holidays and expect places to be kept open without actually paying a retainer or fees. There's not a lot of profit in Nurseries these days and unfortunately they rely on goodwill gestures from staff and parents which only goes so far imho before resentment rears its ugly head.

I don't think I would mind. However - only if the nursery is run not for profit

I wouldn't the nursery is there to make a profit why should you give them more of your money to do that
there is help available our nursery has a poster up about financial help available to families on low income to enable them to have a place there

Suppose a child goes to your nursery and the mother dies. The father cannot afford to psy nursery fees etc...how unsettling for the child to have to move out of the nursery.

I guess the other (sneaky) way would be to put up fees.

If a child attended my nursery and the mum died and the father could not afford the nursery fee, I would arrange for a CAF to be carried out, ask the health visitor to ensure that the father was applying and receiving all the relevant benefits and, if necessary, ask for social services to help out. There's also various other hardship grants available to cover nursery fees.

To be honest, if a child's mother just died, I don't think the child would give a stuff about nursery.

I think the nursery should fund it - if its for a short while.
They could do sponsored things at nursery, term fairs held at the weekend, make raffles, bring and buy book stalls, etc like schools do, to raise extra funding.