Private Nursery fees

As far as I'm aware we pay full fees regardless of sickness or planned holidays. Our nursery however doesn't have an incubation period for HF&M so children are allowed to go in so long as they are well enough in themselves. It is very annoying for parents as the kids catch the bugs from nursery then are too unwell or aren't allowed to attend 🙄 I guess every nursery have their own policies on these things xx

We’ve always paid when my daughter is off (holiday or sickness). It’s about £76 a day now regardless (it was £126 per day before funding hours). Our costs are divided across the whole year (not just term term) so that’s why the price is what it is. Their costs are done based on the amount of enrolled children and running costs across the whole year.

We’ve always paid if sick, or on holiday (eldest used to attend a nursery). It’s the same with my childminder too, if my daughter is sick or on holiday we pay, but if the childminder is off sick or on holiday we don’t pay.

Our nursery is the same if they don’t go in for whatever reason even sickness we still pay. I have a 3 and 1 year old in nursery so it’s double whammy sometimes! However my son was able to go in when he had hf&m as long as he was well. It’s annoying but, I guess it’s a business and if the whole class is off and they don’t charge then they will be at a loss. And likely be not turning a profit in the long run so nursery’s would close! Though what’s most frustrating is that not only as parents as we at a loss because of the fees we also have to look after a poorly child and potentially a loss of earnings ourselves! Something needs to change

We pay no matter what the reason is. I don’t think it’s as easy as making it up another day because obviously they have to ‘schedule’ kids in and plan staff etc I don’t agree with having to pay bank holidays(which we have too) but for sickness I understand why we pay

We’ve also always paid for sickness or if we have took them out for holidays. We also pay over Christmas and the 2 weeks that the nursery is shut. Ours is £65 a day for 2 children.x

I think because staffing, if your child is off they can’t tell a member of staff to take the day off unpaid so regardless of your child being in or off they still have to pay their staff. You’re basically paying to secure your child’s space in the nursery :)

I have always paid when my daughter was off sick and i used to get a discount if she was off for the whole week on planned holiday but we don't anymore because of the funded hours, the funded hours do not cover the full cost to the nursery. For our nursery it was like £7.17 for every £8.50 so they are making a loss on funded children, they charge a consumable fee to cover some of the loss but if they also didn't charge when a child is ill then they definitely would be losing money and have to close.

We don’t pay bank holidays but we do pay if children on holiday or sick. They can’t just fill our children’s spots last minute so it makes sense they still need to charge. I’m not sure why some nurseries are charging for bank holidays because they aren’t open then so that doesn’t make sense to me 😳

I think the thought process behind it is that the payment ‘holds their place’ as such - can’t think of the right phrase! But say you didn’t pay for those days, they’d have an empty space and they couldn’t fill which would then mean they’re down money to pay staff and costs etc. I do think it’s very normal for nurseries to do this, all of the ones I know/have worked in do this. However having to pay it can be very frustrating! 🥲