I have a dilemma

[atmkids]

Sorry this could be a long one! Basically, I have 3 under 5's every morning, one of which is a shift worker so comes on different days each week. Because of this I charge parents a minimum of 3 days a week so if she only comes twice in a week I charge her for 3 days. Yesterday I had an enquiry for another under 5 but told them sorry I'm full, however when we got talking and she realised that one of my mindees isn't here every day she asked if she could bring her lo on the other days (hope that makes sense).

That's all fine and she's coming to have a chat tomorrow but my dilemma is, is it ok to still charge the other parent for the third day on weeks that she only comes twice. If I don't charge I'll lose out as the original mindee comes for 8 hrs a day including before and after nursery so is worth £24 a day, whereas the new lo will only be worth £9 for 3 hrs. So if I don't charge the other parent then I lose out financially as well as having an extra child but is it morally wrong to be paid for the same day twice? Phew, sorry for going on but I'd be grateful for your opinion. :panic:

[tinkerbelle]

i would still be inclined to charge them as you are keeping the full day open bar from a few hours

[uf353432]

I don't think you can charge for the same hours twice, because by doing so you are telling the 1st parent you are available when clearly you are not.

what you could do though is charge the 1st parent for the hours the 2nd parent does not use - therefore you are not charging for the same hours twice - but are not loosing out financially.

[sweets]

you can only charge for the day if the place can be used for the child i think. one way round it would be to get a variation so you can have 4.

[madasahatter]

There are various factors to take into consideration - How will the new parent deal with having varying days, especially as which days you are available will be dictated by your existing parents. How much advance notice are you given of the shift patterns? What would happen if your original parent was only working 2 days one week but decided to use the extra day she had paid for to go Xmas shopping/dentist/get a toyboy (well you never know how people fill their spare time LOL).

Personally I would offer the new parent 2 days initially (variable according to existing child's shifts) then after a month or so you can apply for a variation on a continuity of care basis. That way you can continue charging the original mindee for 3 days and once the variation was passed you can up the hours of the new child.

[atmkids]

Thanks for your good advice everyone. Got parent no.2 coming round this evening.