Nursery attached to private school not accepting childcare vouchers

[spottedandstriped]

I would like some advice please. The nursery I would like my little boy to go to is lovely, however, they don't take childcare vouchers - I would really like to be able to pay for my little boys nursery and reception year with the vouchers (given it saves a huge amount of money!) They are a bit old fashioned - can I have some tips please as to how I should go about trying to persuade them to accept the vouchers to help us parents?

Many thanks

Have you spoken to the bursar?

It may just be they are a little wary of the admin. I can't believe you are the only one wanting this. Can you speak to any other parents to see if they want to use them too.

DD's private nursery takes them and is happy to take them for the first two terms of reception (DD turns 5 then and is no longer eligible to use them for fees)

The nursery attached to my dd's private school is stopping accepting nursery vouchers from September due to finding the scheme increasingly unaffordable from the school's point of view.

Spottedandstriped - i think its down to the funding issues already stated, If the grant is less then they charge they cannot charge to make up the difference, and the extra paperwork etc is a pain to be honest. No harm in asking but unless the issues with funding are addressed I would think more and more parents are going to find themselved in this situation

I can't believe that this is the case, when I contacted my nursery originally they looked into it and they didn't have a problem with it. To be honest, they were grateful because they managed to receive payment on time and they saw it as more guaranteed, as it came out of my wages before I got them so to speak.

Why not get your childcare voucher provider to contact them? I did this, and seeing as they didn't have to do very much and the provider really knew all of the benefits, they managed to help me out.

Do you know who your provider is? My company uses this Childcare Vouchers provider, and they were happy to do it for me. Hopefully your company is the same but if not contact the one you use, I'm sure they would want people to use their vouchers so they might help you out. I think it's a good suggestion too that other parents might want them so try seeing if you can rally any support?

Good luck,

Mary x

Definitely contact your provider and get them to "sell" to the school - it is in the provider's interest to get them to take them, after all.

dribbleface - I think you are thinking of the early years funding, which is a complete PITA for the school as they have to bill in a certain way, etc, etc in order comply with the government requirements. Childcare vouchers shouldn't be loads of extra admin at all - they are just another means of accepting payments.

One thing to note - even after the DC turn 5, vouchers can still be used for after school care, holiday clubs, etc.

Speaking on behalf of a committee run pre-school we see absolutely no difference between a parent who pays with Nursery Vouchers (the salary sacrifice scheme) and a fee-paying parent who pays any other way.

In reality it's slightly less work for me as Treasurer as the fees get paid directly into our bank account rather than me wandering round and paying in cheques or cash. There is no fee taken off for admin so we get the full amount paid into the bank account as a BACS transfer. Wish more parents would pay that way :o)

not only extra admin (esp if other parents want to use different voucher schemes) - but they would also have to register for the whole EYFS thing which involves additional inspections