To charge for nursery hours

[donna porter]

Hi,
I have a child starting with me soon . I will be collecting her from nursery at 11.30 and then her mummy will lift her at 2. Mummy assumed I would be charging her for 9-2 but I don't know if I should? I want to be fair but I don't want to do myself out of money either. What do you all think?

[moggy]

Hi,
I have a child starting with me soon . I will be collecting her from nursery at 11.30 and then her mummy will lift her at 2. Mummy assumed I would be charging her for 9-2 but I don't know if I should? I want to be fair but I don't want to do myself out of money either. What do you all think?

Is the nursery closed in school hols and child coming to you from 9am then?
Are you the nursery's main contact- ie: if they have to suddenly close, or child is upset and needs collecting, or nursery closed for inset day, is that you who will need to be available to go and have the child?
If 'yes' to either of these then I would charge from 9am as I need to be available, can't fill that space.

If you have absolutely no responsibility for the 9-11.30 hours and will NEVER have the child in those hours, not even in holidays, it could be seen as too much to ask for payment for those hours...
BUT to be contracted to just 2.5 hrs a day is not much work for the effort you have to put in, and is blocking you from taking another child in that place, practically you'll not be able to fill those 9-11.30am hours. You are losing money. So it would be fair to say you have a 'MINIMUM hours policy', say '5 hours a day', which means they pay for the 5 hours even though they only use 2.5hr.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Just sent this to a parent about collecting from nursery as I charge for the place and not the time and gave a couple of options. Remember you are a business

Until E goes to school you are paying for the place rather than the time used. Therefore there are a couple of options:

1. Carry on as you are with the rate as per current contract and the hours are booked for E, including all Teacher Training Days and holidays.

2. We can take on a funded child to fill the morning spaces but you will need to bring E here for 12.00 as that is when the space would be free. We cannot guarantee that there will be a space before 12.00 in holidays and Teacher Training Days.

[donna porter]

Thanks moggy! When you put it like that it makes sense :-)

[wee_elf]

I think you should charge the parent as you are not going to be able to fill those hours otherwise, you could always give a small discount if you are feeling generous!