| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition 01:15 - Mar 22 with 3373 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
My 2 years olds nursery have confirmed they are closing for all but the children of key workers from this week, in line with government advice. As neither me nor my partner come under the key worker definition, he’ll need to stay home (quite rightly)
Our nursery however have written to us confirming that as they will still be opening and needing to fund running costs, they will need to charge full fees for the duration that the advice is in place. As he goes 2 days a week at a cost of £60+ per day, fees total c£500-600 a month
I am sympathetic as the partial closure is enforced and clearly they have a business to run, however at the same time am loathe to pay a substantial sum of money for a service that won’t be received. I think if it was 1 month I’d be quite happy to suck it up however all signs seem to point to this being 3 months minimum and potentially quite a bit longer
Am I being unfair if I refuse to pay? Me and my partner are both quite fortunate in that we can work from home and currently look to be unaffected work wise (both our employers have been supportive and adopted a ‘do what you can’ approach to him being at home whilst working however there is a chance things could change down the line if this is ongoing for some time. I’m also of a mindset that it would be prudent to be putting away some funds over the next few months in case something changes down the line and obviously that money will go a long way towards that
I guess I have 3 options as I see it:
- suck it up and pay, on the basis that we can afford it, it isn’t really the nursery’s fault and he’ll be able to go back at some point to an environment he enjoys and is developing well in
- refuse to pay, on the basis we’re not getting the service paid for. This will risk his place when they re-open (nursery is very popular so I assume we’ll have to find somewhere else)
- make some sort of counter offer (eg. pay half to maintain his place) on the basis we can’t justify the full cost and need to be prudent. This is quite tempting as it is presumably better for them to receive that than £0, and I don’t believe paying the full fees to be right as they must be saving on costs not having everyone in. They may also be entitled to government support under the new measures
Views? Interested to hear if anyone else is in a similar boat - not really sure what the norm is here so difficult to know if they’re taking the p*ss or not! |  |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 01:39 - Mar 22 with 2786 views | vapour_trail |
The govt need to deal with early years. That’s not a criticism they just need to get to it.
Views are irrelevant Healy, it’s where you find yourselves and your priorities. There’ll be lots of qs. Is it worth paying the cash to retain the place in the environment your little fella will feel comfortable returning to? The mental imapact on all ages is not to be underestimated. Will you and the missus actually have to dial down hours and take a financial hit to look after him?
Mine are 12 and 9 and with both of us working on crisis management last week, we felt like really poor parents . Not sustainable. It’ll be at least until sept in my view. We will need to adjust our hours. I suspect we will end up both working very late into the night and doing shifts in the day.
I doubt they’re taking the piss. I’m not sure they’ve been covered yet and may not have a full grasp in any case. Lots of moving parts in play.
Good luck. |  |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 01:50 - Mar 22 with 2775 views | jeera |
How the holy f*ck can you give someone £500 a month for not providing the service you're paying for?
That's my first question.
My second question is what is your job and how do I go about qualifying? |  |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:16 - Mar 22 with 2679 views | ElderGrizzly |
We’re in a very similar position.
Most Nurseries insurance won’t cover this pandemic, so they have little choice. Its either ask parents to pay or there will be no nursery to come back to.
And because they are open, the Governments 80% help package doesn’t apply.
Our Nursery is a small family run/owned nursery and to their credit they have been very open about the issues faced for a couple of weeks, but it does still grate that we are paying them £1100 for 4 days of nothing.
Wife’s work have said do what you can, but my work is centre with this pandemic as a matter of national security, so while a key worker i’m reluctant to send ours to Nursery due to risk of exposure.
I really feel for the nursery and Govt need to step up and help these businesses |  | | |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:27 - Mar 22 with 2660 views | bluelagos |
There aee so many horrible dilemmas out there.
You asked the question, my view would be to pay up (if I could afford it) if only as you wont want them to go bust.
But I wouldnt for a minute condem anyone who chooses not too.
Thinking aloud, by the same argument I should be putting money to my local pub. Which I would be loathe to do....On balance, fiik.
Horrible aint it. |  |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:35 - Mar 22 with 2648 views | Herbivore |
If you can afford to pay it reasonably comfortably then I'd pay it. If it's a squeeze then offer to pay half. These are tough times and everyone will take a hit of some sort at some point. |  |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:43 - Mar 22 with 2634 views | hype313 |
We're in exactly the same position, whilst we're understanding of their plight, the new government measures mean that the staff get 80% of wages, to then ask us to pay full fees when our child isn't allowed to attend seems ridiculous.
We've made the decision to hand in our notice and once this thing clears up then we will look around at others, can't see anything happening before September at the least.
The most galling thing was we got an email an hour after Boris made his statement on schools, nurseries. Had they had said we are reducing the fees by 50% in order for you to keep your place then at least that would have been something. [Post edited 22 Mar 2020 7:47]
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:49 - Mar 22 with 2623 views | ElderGrizzly |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:43 - Mar 22 by hype313 |
We're in exactly the same position, whilst we're understanding of their plight, the new government measures mean that the staff get 80% of wages, to then ask us to pay full fees when our child isn't allowed to attend seems ridiculous.
We've made the decision to hand in our notice and once this thing clears up then we will look around at others, can't see anything happening before September at the least.
The most galling thing was we got an email an hour after Boris made his statement on schools, nurseries. Had they had said we are reducing the fees by 50% in order for you to keep your place then at least that would have been something. [Post edited 22 Mar 2020 7:47]
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That’s the point though, they can’t access this 80% ‘fund’ as they are staying open and operating. | | | |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:54 - Mar 22 with 2610 views | hype313 |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:49 - Mar 22 by ElderGrizzly |
That’s the point though, they can’t access this 80% ‘fund’ as they are staying open and operating. |
But the staff are still getting SSP, I understand their plight, but for us to pay £700 a month for a service we can't use isn't ideal.
Add the fact that both myself and partner are facing taking a wage cut this week from our employers, we need all we can.
It's a horrible situation, we're all screwed in one way or another. | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:58 - Mar 22 with 2592 views | ElderGrizzly |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:54 - Mar 22 by hype313 |
But the staff are still getting SSP, I understand their plight, but for us to pay £700 a month for a service we can't use isn't ideal.
Add the fact that both myself and partner are facing taking a wage cut this week from our employers, we need all we can.
It's a horrible situation, we're all screwed in one way or another. |
Agree not ideal at all. Shows how broken the system is in Early Years care.
Our Nursery has said 40% of parents are key workers, so they have significant number coming in.
To their credit they have said they are looking to see what savings they can pass on , e.g. savings on food, nappies etc but that will be minimal compared to the main fee | | | |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 08:00 - Mar 22 with 2587 views | hype313 |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:58 - Mar 22 by ElderGrizzly |
Agree not ideal at all. Shows how broken the system is in Early Years care.
Our Nursery has said 40% of parents are key workers, so they have significant number coming in.
To their credit they have said they are looking to see what savings they can pass on , e.g. savings on food, nappies etc but that will be minimal compared to the main fee |
That's a nice touch, as I said if ours had said this is an awful situation, let's all come together to some arrangement that works for all then great, but they just hit us with full fees regardless. | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 08:00 - Mar 22 with 2585 views | Herbivore |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:43 - Mar 22 by hype313 |
We're in exactly the same position, whilst we're understanding of their plight, the new government measures mean that the staff get 80% of wages, to then ask us to pay full fees when our child isn't allowed to attend seems ridiculous.
We've made the decision to hand in our notice and once this thing clears up then we will look around at others, can't see anything happening before September at the least.
The most galling thing was we got an email an hour after Boris made his statement on schools, nurseries. Had they had said we are reducing the fees by 50% in order for you to keep your place then at least that would have been something. [Post edited 22 Mar 2020 7:47]
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They won't be getting the 80% for all of their staff, only those they would need to temporarily lay off. Due to ratios they'll still be keeping a fair number of staff on as they have to stay open. They aren't doing this out of greed. [Post edited 22 Mar 2020 8:13]
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 08:27 - Mar 22 with 2547 views | PrideOfTheEast |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:58 - Mar 22 by ElderGrizzly |
Agree not ideal at all. Shows how broken the system is in Early Years care.
Our Nursery has said 40% of parents are key workers, so they have significant number coming in.
To their credit they have said they are looking to see what savings they can pass on , e.g. savings on food, nappies etc but that will be minimal compared to the main fee |
Presumably if they’re keeping staff rather than laying them off then they will still get 80% for those impacted? For example, if 10% of staff are needed and 90% aren’t they must be able to claim the 80% for the 90%?
We send ours to nursery two days a week and they also asked us to pay. Lovely nursery and great staff so I don’t mind paying but their communication around it was disappointingly awful. I feel for the staff. Looking at the publicly available accounts, our nursery has a profit margin of approximately 20%. I therefore found the initial, marginally aggressive, keep on paying full whack mildly offensive. |  | | |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 08:31 - Mar 22 with 2542 views | Superblue95 |
Sounds a massive pisstake telling you to pay full fees even though your kid can’t go.
Offer to make a monthly donation of whatever amount you’re comfortable making if you’re worried about him losing his place |  |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 09:00 - Mar 22 with 2510 views | Herbivore |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 08:31 - Mar 22 by Superblue95 |
Sounds a massive pisstake telling you to pay full fees even though your kid can’t go.
Offer to make a monthly donation of whatever amount you’re comfortable making if you’re worried about him losing his place |
Nurseries are mostly funded by fees. What else are they meant to do? | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 09:31 - Mar 22 with 2482 views | Superblue95 |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 09:00 - Mar 22 by Herbivore |
Nurseries are mostly funded by fees. What else are they meant to do? |
I’m not saying it’s not a sh1tty situation but would seem incredibly unfair on parents to pay full cost for a service they aren’t receiving. A monthly donation of whatever parents can afford seems a fair compromise to me | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 09:34 - Mar 22 with 2472 views | Herbivore |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 09:31 - Mar 22 by Superblue95 |
I’m not saying it’s not a sh1tty situation but would seem incredibly unfair on parents to pay full cost for a service they aren’t receiving. A monthly donation of whatever parents can afford seems a fair compromise to me |
Then the nurseries potentially close completely. | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 10:45 - Mar 22 with 2439 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Cheers for all the responses. Good to know that
a) this seems to be the standard approach
and
b) I’m not a complete mug for even considering it
Food for thought | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 10:47 - Mar 22 with 2436 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 01:50 - Mar 22 by jeera |
How the holy f*ck can you give someone £500 a month for not providing the service you're paying for?
That's my first question.
My second question is what is your job and how do I go about qualifying? |
Haha, we do okay but we’re certainly not rich by any means
At the risk of sounding callous the money itself isn’t a particularly big deal - that’s a fairly standard nursery bill and already budgeted for in our income. Going forwards we will still be getting the same income so can continue to afford it - probably even more so as basically being homebound will reduce outgoings
Obviously it’s the fact that that money will be effectively disappearing into thin air that is the issues - clearly I wouldn’t usually dream of paying out £500+ a month for nothing but we live in exceptional times | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 10:50 - Mar 22 with 2428 views | factual_blue |
Our gym has closed. Our memberships have been frozen for the duration the gym has to remain closed.
As this is one of Mike Ashley's gyms, I'm both surprised and impressed.
Won't there be any govt help for nurseries? |  |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 11:05 - Mar 22 with 2408 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 07:16 - Mar 22 by ElderGrizzly |
We’re in a very similar position.
Most Nurseries insurance won’t cover this pandemic, so they have little choice. Its either ask parents to pay or there will be no nursery to come back to.
And because they are open, the Governments 80% help package doesn’t apply.
Our Nursery is a small family run/owned nursery and to their credit they have been very open about the issues faced for a couple of weeks, but it does still grate that we are paying them £1100 for 4 days of nothing.
Wife’s work have said do what you can, but my work is centre with this pandemic as a matter of national security, so while a key worker i’m reluctant to send ours to Nursery due to risk of exposure.
I really feel for the nursery and Govt need to step up and help these businesses |
Wait - £1,100 for 4 days? 
Or do you mean £1,100 a month for 4 days a week? | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 11:15 - Mar 22 with 2386 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 08:27 - Mar 22 by PrideOfTheEast |
Presumably if they’re keeping staff rather than laying them off then they will still get 80% for those impacted? For example, if 10% of staff are needed and 90% aren’t they must be able to claim the 80% for the 90%?
We send ours to nursery two days a week and they also asked us to pay. Lovely nursery and great staff so I don’t mind paying but their communication around it was disappointingly awful. I feel for the staff. Looking at the publicly available accounts, our nursery has a profit margin of approximately 20%. I therefore found the initial, marginally aggressive, keep on paying full whack mildly offensive. |
That’s a really good point actually. From a quick scan I’m struggling to find the latest accounts for our nursery but I have no doubt they’ll be running at a decent profit given they’re a long running consistently full nursery
Obviously the points about supporting them are valid but that works both ways - their costs will no doubt now be reduced and they shouldn’t be expecting to still rake in the profit either
Like others have said I think I’d have appreciated it more if they’d acknowledged it was an exceptional event and made some sort of concession on the amount - instead they are referring to their emergency closure policy which is technically true but clearly in place for a more short term closure (eg. Gas leak) rather than what is happening now
Decisions decisions | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 11:24 - Mar 22 with 2358 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 10:50 - Mar 22 by factual_blue |
Our gym has closed. Our memberships have been frozen for the duration the gym has to remain closed.
As this is one of Mike Ashley's gyms, I'm both surprised and impressed.
Won't there be any govt help for nurseries? |
I go to DW and they’ve done likewise. Gyms don’t have much choice though - people don’t have the same attachment as with things like nurseries so people would just cancel anyway. Plus their staff are f*cked either way - as base salary and hours will be pretty low and reliant on PT sessions for income | |
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 15:39 - Mar 22 with 2289 views | Vaughan8 |
In exactly the same boat. 2 days a week, over £500 A month.
Fortunately my wife works for the nhs so is classed as a key worker.
Before I realised all this "they are staying open for key workers stuff", I thought I don't mind helping them with their running costs but not the full amount over the period they are closed, even if it was £20 a day we'd usually be there etc.
Nurseries are really expensive and I don't see how they can charge the full amount. Our price is supposed to include nappies and dinners which obviously they wouldn't be providing.
Also ours have separate rooms which they can combine and save in staffing costs/heating etc.
It's hard for businesses but they need to be realistic. I think anymore than half the price is not really on. [Post edited 22 Mar 2020 15:42]
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| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 15:43 - Mar 22 with 2281 views | Vaughan8 |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 10:50 - Mar 22 by factual_blue |
Our gym has closed. Our memberships have been frozen for the duration the gym has to remain closed.
As this is one of Mike Ashley's gyms, I'm both surprised and impressed.
Won't there be any govt help for nurseries? |
Our gym has asked people if they would continue paying throughout this period and then when they are back open, get their freeze period for those months then, plus December 2020 free.
I'm guessing to spread the freeze period. | | | |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 19:42 - Mar 22 with 2238 views | ElderGrizzly |
| TWTD WWYD - Nursery Edition on 11:05 - Mar 22 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Wait - £1,100 for 4 days?
Or do you mean £1,100 a month for 4 days a week? |
Yeah the latter! | | | |
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