Nursery worries

[LoAlexi]

My maternity leave is ending next week and my 11 month old son is starting at a nursery on Feb 4th for 3 days a week so I can return to work but I'm already having worries about the nursery I've chosen.
Firstly they forgot to add me to the funding list and by the time I picked up on it and flagged it to them they told me it was too late to add me to the list and therefore I won't receive any government funding until April, leaving me to pay the nursery fees in full until then, this means I'll be working just to pay the nursery fees for two months and as a single parent this is a huge burden.
Secondly I contacted them to find out when his 3 introductory sessions before his proper start date would be and they again told me they had forgotten to book these in and that they would try to fit him in, no apology for either mess up, just "oops I don't know how that happened"
It could be that they're just not great at the admin side of things but it doesn't fill me with confidence, what would you do in this situation? Give them the benefit of the doubt or change nurseries?

Honestly, if I were you I'd be looking at alternatives. If they can't organise their admin related to new clients, which arguably as a business should be a priority, I wouldn't have much confidence in them. I wouldn't panic and cancel his place there as you could be left in a mess, but checking out other options might be sensible.

I think you might need to look elsewhere - their behaviour would not instil me with confidence.

Surely the nursery can add your son as a late starter. It does mean they may have to wait longer to be paid but it is possible. When did you apply for the code as this may be what’s hampering you claiming funding?

Have you got your funding code for this term? You may have missed head count day but they (or another nursery) should be able to add you on from Feb half term if your code is valid rather than you needing to wait til after Easter. If you didn't get a funding code in time then it will be different.

If you already got your funding code before the end of December, call your local authority funding team and ask if you can get funding for this term - they should speak to the nursery for you.