Nursery is swindling money?

Nursery is swindling money?

by: Marta Gillner - 09-02-12 16:33

Is this nursery swindling money?

Hello,

I'm writing to get some advice. I've got this situation which I'd like to describe shortly, please share your opinion.

I came back to UK after being away at the end of last year. My daughters just turned 3 and I started to search for a nursery for them. As I wanted them to start attending asap I have choosen the nursery as close as possible to our place and where there were still places available.

At that time I was looking for a proper job and waiting for my working tax credit allowance. My income was to low to pay for the nursery sessions and I wanted to go for the free 15 hours a week which every child above 3 is entitled to.

The nursery owner, seeing I'm new to the topic, informed she cannot provide the 15 hours for free. In her opinion the government doesn't pay enough to cover her expenses so she calculated that she can provide only 9 hours for free. She let me know this is possible only for one month as in future she would like to receive some payment so my daughters can join whole session (morning session takes... 5 hours). So my girls went there in January for only 9 hours a week instead of 15 so I didn't have to pay but they where late every day and had to leave before lunch.

Again, when asked how much do I have to pay to top up the amount of hours for a complete session I was informed it's ca. 12 Pounds for each child daily (to get morning session of 5 hours, or more than that if we want longer session). Just to remind: we are still talking about 3 days a week only.

Finally I've got an invoice for January at the end of that month for 250 Pounds which I do owe the nursery for care provided for whole, short day session, from 8-3, when my daughters attended only from 9-12!

I've got this invoice together with invoice for February, February sessions appeared to be twice as expensive as in January!

The owner wrote also a letter where she was asked by myself to describe how much do I need to pay and how many hours are granted. In this letter she says she receives only 50 Pounds a week for a child. When calculated it appeared she's asking for ca. 10 Pounds for any additional hour when you can clearly see on her prices list an hour of session is ca. 5 Pounds.

I decided not to go there any more as I feel cheated by this care provider. Although there's one month notice I do not want my daughters to attend this nursery any more. My daughters haven't attended even a day in Feb. I've found another nursery where I have been clearly informed about prices and that 15 free hours are what we will get for sure.

If I'm not right please let me know, is this normal?

Hope to hear from you soon.

by: Sally

It doesn't sound right to me either! 

You can contact Ofsted or your local authority (Family Services) and report or make them aware of the situation. 

by: playpal

A couple of questions - just to clarify.

1) Are we talking about one daughter or two daughters?

2) When exactly is/are their birthday?

If they were three before 31st Dec then they are certainly entitled to 15 hours of free childcare per week and if you are not being offered this then you need to report the nursery as they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it!

by: Marta Gillner

Thank you for quick responses,

my answers:

1) We're talking about two daughters (twins)

2) They were born 11/11/2008 so before 31 of Dec

I will consider taking action and writing a report so this will not happen to anyone else.

by: Kempe

I though that the education minister made it very clear that top ups are outlawed as the gov want free i.e. parents don't pay anything childcare, and the minister made clear that a top up is not free.

Of course any private nursery is free to opt out of the scheme if the pay does not cover the cost as it must be economical viable.

by: kaz (the first one!)

Just a thought, did you register your daughters and sign their funding forms before the LA headcount day?  We had a child start with us 2 days after headcounts and although he was already three, we were not able to claim any funding for him but still had an obligation to offer some free hours. Our county operates a 'win some, lose some' policy with funding. If a child leaves mid term we don't pay it back.

by: Maestro

Ofsted won't be bothered about fees, you need citizens advice or trading standards. The local authority are point of call for the nursery education funding.

I honestly can't understand what your post says. If your child attended for 9-12 only and you've been charged £250 then you need to ask the nursery to explain rather than posting here.

by: heatherl

In a word YES

I own and run 2 nurseries in 2 different authorities

The rules are very clear - it is the sessions that have to be free the sessions are not related to an amount of moneyyou have 15 hours available and 15 hours it has to be

So if you want just 15 hours and nothing else these have to be totally free

However if you are there at meal times you could be charged for meals and this is accepted and within the rules, but if you want to supply your own food you can do this at no charge

You should not be asked to provide a registration fee or anything else in this vein.

A previous poster is correct Ofsted will not be interested

So do go direct to the Authpority involved and speak to their Early Years funding team and be prepared to name names and give them full information as the 2 authorities I work with take a dim view of this practice

I trust this helps

by: Katsie

This is shocking that the nursery has decided to offer free hours equal to the value of the funding that they receive... 15 hours free = exactly that... 15 hours free. No deposit/ no top up/ no hiddien fees or they are in breach of the regulations.

It's not the first place I have heard that is doing this, but I can't believe that is is still missed by the LA's when doing checks each year. They are certainly very thorough with us and we have received a green RAG rating for the last 2 years they have been scoring like this.

To the parent, you should inform OfSTED, the local authority and also the nursery. OfSTED certyainly will be interested in how they work with parents but as stated above, the LA will be the ones that come down hard.

I just don't get why people flout the rules... It's stealing and I hope they have to pay every penny back./

RE: RE: Nursery is swindling money? - 16-02-12 07:56

by: Carol Cooper

Marta you need to inform Early Year immediately this nursery is breaking the code of practice and needs to be stopped!

You can only charge 'top up fees' for any time the child is in the nursery in additional to the 15  free hours, obviously full fees if they come in the school holidays.