How do you reserve a nursery space if you don’t know if your work will let you go back part time?

[firsttimepregnanthelp]

This may be a stupid question, but I’m 26 weeks
pregnant and starting to think about nurseries. If finances allow, I’d like to take 12 months off and then go back to work 3 or 4 days a week. I need to give my employer 28 days’ notice of my intended return to work but when would I ask them to consider part time?
obvs I’d need to reserve a nursery space before then so how do I know how many days I need?

If I reserve a nursery space now should I do it for five days just in case? I’d rather not be spending money on extra days of nursery if I don’t need them though.

also I won’t know if I’ll need the nursery space when baby is 9 or 12 months as it depends how finances go when I’m off so how do I navigate this?

I reserved five days and then dropped to 3. It was the same deposit regardless of how many days you need and dropping down wasn't an issue but I never would have got extra days at the last minute!

I did the same as PP. Found a nursery that could take us for 5 days and then about 2/3 months before I was due to return to work, I asked my employer about going part-time. They agreed and I just notified nursery that I'd only need the three days and confirmed timings etc.

Always better to have more days than you need - you don't pay for anything until the month before they start anyway (minus a small deposit which is the same regardless of 1 hour or 40 hours!).

Good luck and congratulations!

@JuniorMint14 @PinkOrchardoh that’s good to know! So the nursery doesn’t make you pay for the extra days even though you reserved them?

I reserved 4 days as I was waiting to see if my my mum would have the baby on the third day.

THe nursery contract I signed actually said if I make can changes to the contract from signing until 31 days after the child has started I forfeit my deposit. My deposit was £750 for 4 days. So I ended up changing down to 3 days but couldn’t do this until a month after he started and had to pay for an extra day a week. So make sure you read the terms. My eldest nursery didn’t have this restriction but I’m surprised other nurseries wouldn’t. As they would have lots of parents reserving 5 days and then changing 2 months before they are due to start and having to fill up places last minute.

@firsttimepregnanthelp no, mine didn't. I paid a deposit up front (I think about £50 from memory) and then the first months fees were due a month in advance so just made sure I had informed them about dropping to 3 days by then. My nursery has long waiting lists so I don't think they struggle to fill extra spaces. No harm in checking with yours if you're worried!

Check with the nursery what the policy about changes. Mine just need 2 months notice to drop a day. You can also just ask for a nursery place for Mon-Thurs as hardly anyone wants Friday so it is usually easy to add that in as a day. It is abot risky though!

Thanks everyone, such a minefield!

I’d reserve the days you need. You can always drop a day. Someone will snatch it up!

Ask the nurseries before you book. My nursery was taken over by a big chain a few years ago and they have got less and less flexible with this. They only allow a booking pattern change termly now whereas before you only had to give one months notice. So I overbooked like PP are saying and then reduced the days near the time whenever I was unsure, but that wouldn't be as possible now. Well it would, but would have to potentially pay for the extra space for a whole term if you don't let them know one month prior to the start of a term.

I reserved 5 days then once I knew I reduced it. In my case I not had confirmation close to the start date so had to pay for a month of 5 days but then it dropped.