Pre school claiming back fees for missed sessions for funded child...can anyone help?

[Berrie]

We were summoned to Preschool this morning and told that the LEA had withdrawn ds's funding because of missed sessions and gave us a bill for £240. I rang the LEA and they knew nothing about it. They said that the Preschool might be claiming it back to repay the LEA as a pre emptive measure for the next time they are audited.
I'm not happy that she lied top us and I'm not happy that we were given no warning. Obviously if I had known, I would have withdrawn him from the sessions we were missing most regularly.
Does anyone have any experience of this or know what our rights are?

Good ideas thanks.

Ds starts school in September and I have already withdrawn dd from September over a previous problem regarding safety and ds'speanut allergy. I can't help feeling she is trying to have the last word on the whole thing.

I asked for my ds to be booked in for a funded session on a certain day each week, but not actually attend every week. The manager told me she couldn't do it as they would be defrauding the LEA. If your child doesn't attend regularly (ie almost all sessions) then you need to pay for the irregular sessions yourself.

Probably, I accept that it is wrong for him to have missed so many sessions and that she has a buisness to run. If I had been given the opportunity to do something about it then I would have.

I don't know why she calls it Ofsted rate...I guess it is the LEA rate.

She has trouble filling the preschool sessions. If she had mentioned it before now, I would have stopped those sessions and she would have lost the funding and not filled the place...this way, right at the end of the academic year, she's had the money.

I wouldn't pay. It's completely unreasonable. And she lied to you.

Thanks MsDem...was beginning to feel like a thief.

I know who I think is stealing...

And if they were going to do this they should have told you this was a possibility when your son started missing sessions. I have never heard of anything like this happening, ever.

As someone on our pre-school committee if this was not covered in the contract (this sort of situation has just been included in the contract btw) and we the school had failed to raise it earlier in the term then I would accept it as being our problem.

How many weeks are they left? quick send him to all sessions!

I think she is trying to pull a fast one as she is clearly aware of the situation and has chosen not to mention it sooner.

Franny, I asked the same thing, and received the same answer.

I was also in a meeting recently with some high up people in the Nursery Education Funding world in our area, and they confirmed that nurseries are audited and will be brought to account if they are claiming for sessions which are not being regularly attended by the child.

yes, she should have told you Berrie

2 weeks to go but only 4 sessions left, one party and one presentation event.

It sounds like the pre-school woman is trying to pull a fast one, or has at the least been very disingenuous.

Do you have a copy of the contract? It sounds like something that should have been made crystal clear to you at the offset (onset?).

I'm sure if you'd have been aware of the fact that you would have to fund the missed sessions then you would either have reduced the number of sessions booked or budgeted for it and had an ongoing dialogue with the nursery regarding the issue.

It seems very unfair to ask for a lump sum with no warning and no indication that such a demand was a possibility.

She opened the meeting by saying do you remember we talked about the problem of Henry's absenses. I said no and she said yes we mentioned it when we had that discussion about his peanut allergy...well that never happened but I can't prove it!

I write to the woman and state that she has never metioned anything about his absences before etc etc etc Read your contract carefully. If it states nothing in the contract then you are in a much stronger condition because you can state clearly what the contract does and does not state IYSWIm

we have to pay for sessions here whether we use them or not. i'm a bit confused tbh. you only pay your nursery for the days he actually attends rather than for the places you have booked?
blimey.
how can that make any business sense at all? the budget would be shot to pieces and the nursery would never be able to work out many staff they needed! i've never heard of it. we take dd2 out regularly, sometimes with warning, sometimes not, but i always pay the full amount, and the lea always pays nursery grant.
it does sound as though a lack of communication in both directions has caused the problem. spend a morning making phone calls to the lea and it will all be resolved. i suspect you may end up paying for the sessions you booked but did not use though.

No Romy, Berrie does not pay for the pre-school as all 3 year olds are entitled to 5 sessions a week free from the government. However because her dc has been absent for too many sessions the LEA (who pays the pre-school) are asking for their money back so the pre-school is recouping that from Berrie.

However in my opinion, Berrie should have been made aware way before this point that this would be the case.

oh sorry - thought it was with top up fees in addition like here.

in that case - v tricky! we have to sign in advance termly to say how many sessions per week we will use. that's the bit the LEA use to fund their chunk. do you lot have to do the same thing?