Is the nursery system fair?

[Bathams]

Me and my wife work full time and have 2 boys at nursery. I think the system is unfair because, unlike schools, there are no terms, no holidays. Any time off for sickness or holidays still has to be paid for and at £90 per day per child, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, this is not cheap. It would be so much easier for the little ones to have time off, like the older children, and would also make it easier on hard working parents to be relieved from paying nursery fees for a few weeks each year, making the costs of holidays more affordable. I always remember the government saying many years back that you will always be better off working. This is clearly not the case if you have young children, unless for have a very highly paid profession. The free child care which is being phased in, is great for new parents. But is also a bit misleading for those in full time. For example, nurseries charge a morning session, typically 7.30 to 13.00, and an afternoon session 13.00 to 18.00. So, if you are eligible for 15 hours free childcare, this equates to about 1.5 days, and not 2 days, for those full time working parents. Switching to part time work might be an option for some parents but unfortunately not for us as my wife is working her way through a trainee nursing associate program which is a full time commitment.

I'm not in the UK, but at my children's nursery we sign a contract at the start of the school year and at the beginning we say what hours we want and how many weeks of holiday we want to take. The total number of hours we expect to need is then charged as a flat rate each month. We have to give a couple of weeks' notice if we want to take holiday. If we take more holiday than we initially said we would, we don't get reimbursed the difference. In June they notify us of how many days we've taken and if we haven't taken the amount of holiday we said we would, we either have to take it in June or they charge us for those hours (because they are hours where we said we wouldn't need childcare and haven't paid for it but used it anyway).

Are you for real?
In a few years you'll be complaining about the non existent childcare in the school holidays.

Some great responses, and points of view, thank you. Interesting to see the different options available to parents in different locations. It’s not just about the money. Eg is the nursery system fair to the children as well as the parents? If an under 3 year old is doing a 50 hour week at nursery, you would think they should be deserving of a few weeks off each year - but maybe some parents can’t afford to take them out of nursery while still having to pay the fees. Consider a 50 hour week compared to older children at school who only do 32.5 hours a week, and they get 13 weeks off each year.

It's a bit misleading to say that parents can't afford to take their children out of nursery. Nothing is stopping you taking annual leave and keeping them at home, going to the park etc. If you choose to send them so you don't 'waste' your money, then that's your decision.

Nursery is so much easier than school from a childcare point of view, when you need to cover 13 weeks holiday plus inset days and early finishes. Plus holidays in term time are much cheaper, so many people still take their children out of term time only nurseries for a holiday, leading to even longer holidays to cover.

If you take your child out for a holiday, they can't pay the staff any less for looking after less children, so they would lose money if you didn't pay, so they would just put the overall prices up. I get that it's annoying but you just have to roll with it. Costs do reduce once they are school age.

Not being able to afford it doesn’t come into it. If you are paying the fees anyway then obviously you can afford those fees irrespective of whether the child is utilising them or not

Nursery and school are very different. Nurseries are set up for children to be there long hours with naps, breaks, downtime and playtime. School is shorter more intense days and a lot of kids are shattered starting it.
No reason you can't take children out to spend time with you whether or not you actually go away. There's plenty of cheap options if you want a cheap break.

You're comparing apples and pears. The only way you'd be able to implement the system you suggest is increasing the day rate.

Eg is the nursery system fair to the children as well as the parents?
You're still talking about this mythical "nursery system". There are many different types of nurseries and they will set their own rules. If you don't like the rules at your particular nursery then consider asking them to implement an annual leave system like lots of nurseries do have.

No point moaning about it on here as if your experience is universal.

A childminder might suit you better because they would close for a few weeks every year for their annual leave.

Nursery is about choosing what they do and don’t do, school is learning/work. A child is only in nursery 50 hours a week if a parent sends them 50 hours, a school child may well also do 50 hours if they are in before and after clubs, or 32 hours if parents are around to collect and drop off. There’s nothing stopping you taking some weeks off with your child, you are paying regardless but you don’t have to send them in

There isn't one system, you need to look around more. You don't even need to pick nursery, go with a childminder or nanny and choose arrange your own schedule with them. Once I had school age kids I chose a nursery that did a 38 week contract since I was taking school holidays off anyway so I only paid for term time. It meant that I got nursery completely free once they turned 3 years old too.

The money saved by going abroad out with term time more than covers a couple of weeks of nursery. No doubt this will feel unfair when you have kids at school.

You are likely to find unfairness anywhere if you look hard enough for it. You aren't going to enjoy parenting if you are always upset the model isn't designed for exactly your circumstances.

Let this go, your suggested system is worse and impractical. If it really bothers you, find different childcare.

Some nurseries do give a holiday allowance but this is likely to be reflected in higher fees. When your child is on holiday, the nursery cannot lay off a staff member unpaid until they return. It just wouldn't work.

Nursery is not the same as school though. They’re mostly playing and doing similar things to what they would be doing if they were at home.