Fix your fees!!

[Simona]

This is very interesting!
Came up on twitter so very much public knowledge and advertising!

January open day - 23rd January 2016 | Asquith Nurseries

[k1rstie]

Interesting that they are advertising to fix the fees. They put their rates up each January, but say they will not put their fees up until September 2016 rather than January 2017.

Many childminders do something similar - 'I have not put my fees up for X amount of years!'

[Simona]

Very very clever marketing!
I spent a bit of time working out how they could do this....they have taken account of everything until Sept 2017...the magic date!

Very good too that parents are told very clearly 'fees are reviewed every year'...excellent as far as I can see.

[bunyip]

Not sure how the parent saves money on a "half price deposit" since they get the deposit back anyway.

Free settling-in visits. Well who'd've thought of that one? Perhaps about 50,000 CMs for a start. And the nursery may expect the parent to stay during settling visits.....................which makes it more like a mum and toddler group really.

Perhaps the one thing CMs could learn from this is the emphasis on parents setting up a monthly direct debit. No more "oh, I just forgot to make the bank transfer." They can only not pay by making a purposeful effort to cancel the direct debit, which would look rather obvious, eh?

[Simona]

Depends which way you look at it maybe.
I think we can safely say that 50,000 cms do not review their fees annually!

[blue bear]

I've always fixed my fees, it works really well. Families stay on the same rate until they change their contract then they go on my latest hourly rate. I keep children for years and have stable contracts as they know if they change their hours then the fee will go up. It works well for me.

[tess1981]

I've always fixed my fees, it works really well. Families stay on the same rate until they change their contract then they go on my latest hourly rate. I keep children for years and have stable contracts as they know if they change their hours then the fee will go up. It works well for me.

Love it!!!

[SYLVIA]

I've always fixed my fees, it works really well. Families stay on the same rate until they change their contract then they go on my latest hourly rate. I keep children for years and have stable contracts as they know if they change their hours then the fee will go up. It works well for me.

I do similar to this. Usually stay the same till the become schoolies. Then they go up.

[Simona]

Very interesting Blue bear...thank you for your reply but not very sure what is a stable contract?

I have heard of that 'type' of fee fixing ...unfortunately some parents were not keen on paying more than others ...so they appeared not happy and did not work for them

What I have said is this nursery chain is doing very 'clever marketing'....a bit like the 15 hours of childcare being 'marketed' by the govt as being free ....when in fact it is not at all....it has worked and we know the rest!

I know that many cms are very reluctant to have a regular review' of their fees...totally their choice of course
A bit like the govt rarely review the free entitlement...it may backfire?

Anyway...I hope it will trigger reflection on sustainability...I am off to London OBC where I know exactly where to get some more answers on this

Thanks everyone!

[blue bear]

Very interesting Blue bear...thank you for your reply but not very sure what is a stable contract?

Thanks everyone!

I meant they don't keep dropping hours or days, swapping things around to save a few pennies when granny is around etc. Which inquire common round here.

[Simona]

I meant they don't keep dropping hours or days, swapping things around to save a few pennies when granny is around etc. Which inquire common round here.

Great...thanks for your reply