Nursery penalty

[Ymjoy]

Hi, all lovely mum “, may I get some advice.

I’ve been charged £30 for 30 mins from my daughter’s nursery last week as i cannot pick up my daughter on time due to my meeting overran. I have informed the nursery half hour before the pick up time. This is the third time that I can’t pick up my daughter on time but I never been charged any penalty like this, previously I have been charged £5 per hour. The nursery never notify me about this charge (£1@min), what I can do now?

Thanks.

What does your contract with the nursery say?

It's £10 for every 5 minutes late around here.

nothing

clearly they have a three strikes and you’re fined

it will be in your contract op

they have had enough

Is this after their closing time? Half an hour is quite a lot and would mean 2 members of staff have to remain on site so I don't think its unreasonable. Perhaps ask them for a copy of the policies on this so you can be clear in the future and let your employer know you need to leave on time.

It will be in the contact you signed.
Late fees are high to stop you being late. They don’t care about your meeting overrunning, and letting them know you are going to be late doesn’t help them with staff who are due to finish at a set time.

You need to get there on time, then it won’t happen again.

I imagine it will have been in the contract you signed- they have been flexible first two times but they have to have 2 members of staff stay after their closure time. You need to arrange someone else to collect on time or be there on time. What if they had to pick their own children/family up?

1. Pay the fee
2. Be on time in future

I think most nurseries charge a fine for being late. £5 for a first offence and £1 per min after that sounds fair to me. They want to stop parents taking the piss and being late. I’m not saying that you are a piss taker but having fines will focus some people’s minds on the time.

I think that you need to suck it up because you were in the wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I hope that the worker who had to stay behind is paid for the extra time that they had to stay and that their contracted hours didn’t end at nursery closing time.

This is normal. They need to make the penalty high because they REALLY don't want you doing this and don't want you to just think you can take the hit and use them as emergency childcare whenever.

Nursery staff aren't paid enough to have their leaving times disrupted due to late parents.

It's usually £1 a minute to stop you being late when they have had enough

You had 2 strikes and third being fined

To hopefully stop you doing it again

Telling them you are going to be late makes no difference

They have to have 2 staff minimum
To stay to cover your child.

Which costs the nursery

This will all be in your contract that you read and signed

Do you have someone else who can do pickup when you're working late?

Really the "etiquette" is to try and get to nursery 15min before closing time (eg 5.45) if you can. That gives staff time to tell you about dc's day, and finish cleaning etc. My understanding is that they're only paid up till closing time, so they have to get all the cleaning and locking up done by 6 (or whenever closing time is).

If you're in a meeting that's likely to overrun, you've just got to be firm and speak up "I'll have to leave at 5.15". Your colleagues won't respect you any less for this

The nursery staff will most likely incur late fees from there own childs nursery as you being late makes them late. so you being late not only messes with staffs timetable but also there personal life it's your responsibility to make sure someone if not you picks up your child on time

I late for 8-10 mins at the first and second time and because of the traffic jam. And the pick up time is at 2pm. Thus nursery has adjusted their school fee two times this year, my daughter has an extra 8 hours per week, in last September, I need to pay £154, in June I have to pay £233, so I doubt that I’ve been overcharged.

so you’re not going to bother looking at your contract op

ok

it doesn’t matter what time pick up is. If you’re late you pay the late fee. It doesn’t matter if nursery is still open, you may have put them out of ratio (especially if children arrive to do the afternoon session). Some people work half days but couldn’t leave until you arrived. I was late to my friends wedding rehearsal (I was bridesmaid) because I’d worked the morning and was supposed to leave at 1pm. A parent was an hour late and I couldn’t leave. They thought it was fine because we were still open so staff were still there.

so being late has all happened in very short space of time

would i be right in think she’s only just joined?

you were late

they are only unreasonably if this was
not in the contract

but i’d wager…. it definitely is

They've had enough.... good on them.

You were late so of course they are able to charge. Their rates should be in your contract

You're just going to have to suck it up and pay the fine I'm afraid. Nurseries fine late parents as a deterrent.
I worked in a nursery for years, the amount of times I was late to pick up my own child from school because parents were late was ridiculous. Most didn't even seem to care, they act as though we live there and they can just pick up when they please 😂

You keep being late you've had a fine suck it up and don't be late again.

We charge for late pick up, whether that is at 12o'clock or 6 o'clock because nurseries run tight ratios so if over we have to have staff stay. I think all nurseries will charge, especially if it is a regular occurrence. We might let off parents who are never usually late because we know it isn't likely to be a recurring thing.

A parent turned up 15mins late tonight, this impacted my evening as I then got home nearly half hour late by time we'd locked up etc and I'd driven home.

what I can do now?

pay up.
apologise.
turn up on time in the future

You apologise (tbh you don't sound apologetic at all and just expect the nursery to suck it up) and you pay the fine. You hope they don't terminate your place for repeated offences!