petition to stop nursery fees charges during bank holidays

[Laitan]

Please kindly sign below petition. We should not pay for services not recived.

chng.it/TwBF48b5KX

OP

The costs are calculated annually and then pro rated. If nurseries were going to charge just for the services they provide then you would be looking at itemised billing and that soon gets to the point where the nursery has to employ someone just to do the billing, who's wage has to be covered.

It's a bit like saying, 'my child only attends in the summer so I should pay less because the heating isn't on' or, 'my child was potty trained at 2 so I should pay less because o one is changing a nappy'.

Then you get to, well my child never plays with toy X so I should get a refund'.

Would you prefer they put your fees up to compensate for this?

Laitan Fri 07-Feb-20 14:18:56
I am proposing that nurseries are run as a business and employers should pay nursery workers for bank holidays as part of the nursery running costs, not by charging parents. It is simply not fair because for instance contract workers do not earn over bank holiday but have to pay for child care services that have not been provided.

Thats just it , they are running as a business ! They still have costs during holidays , of course another way of doing it is just to charge more for the days it is opening

Simply put ...Business A has set costs per year , wages , rent , rates , repairs . and every other day to day cost , they will need to allow for funds for and future long term expenses , and of course profit
Divide this by 365 days a year , or how many days they wish to charge for , and then divide by number of children

Bank Holidays (Or equivalent time off in lieu) is part of the statutory minimum holiday allowance...

It would be much fairer if the cost of staffing bank holidays were included in the overall running cost rather than falling disproportionately on part time workers who haven't been able to choose their working days...

Nursery funding is definitely a completely separate problem

I do feel sorry for all those parents who only do Mondays. Spring comes and every other Monday nursery is shut.

“ Spring comes and every other Monday nursery is shut.”

Not quite sure where you get that. There are 8 bank holidays in England and Wales and they include New Years Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

So only 4 Mondays a year, one of which has been changed to a Friday this year.

www.gov.uk/bank-holidays

I think you can quickly see that charging exactly the same for a child attending Monday and Friday as for a child attending Wednesday and Thursday might feel unfair.

I'm with the OP. If you are part time and work Tuesday to Thursday you won't be paying for sessions not used like someone paying Mon-Wed. Not every job acknowledges bank holidays, as you will know if working in care or healthcare or even jobs like mine where you are self employed and cram work in wherever you can. So not every one gets to choose the days they work, so it's a policy which does affect some people more than others for no fault of their own.

“ I think you can quickly see that charging exactly the same for a child attending Monday and Friday as for a child attending Wednesday and Thursday might feel unfair.”

And what about parents who are on term-time contracts, often already charged at a higher rate? Fair for them to have to pay for someone else’s day off?

Someone is always going to lose out. That’s why you choose the provider that best suits your circumstances if it matters to you.

Very unfair to demand that all settings fit in with what works best for you and to hell with everyone else!

All that will happen is they will charge more on other days if the year.

Nurseries need to pay their staff on bank holidays so they need to charge customers for that cost.

I know this thread is old but honestly am shocked at the illogical commemts. The OP is completely correct. No business should charge for a service it is not providing. The argument about paying staff is a nonsense. All staff are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holidays whatever days they take them. The fact that the nursery enforces all staff to take 8 days of their allowance on bank holidays makes no difference. Paying staff holidays is just part of business staff costs. So all they need to do is look at overall costs and work out fees accordingly for the days they are actually open. For a £50 a day nursery this would work out at about £1.50 per day extra on fees to keep their turnover the same. This is MUCH fairer as everyone is only paying for a service they get. Why should a person who attends Mondays and Fridays only, pay an extra £400 a year for absolutely nothing compared to a person who attends Wednesday and Thursday who doesnt suffer this charge at all. It is such an obvious solution but nurseries fail to do it by banding about this ridiculous argument about paying staff on bank holidays. It needs to be banned as a practice. It is nothing to do with funding arrangements