Parent reducing days

[cupcake22]

I have a little one who is with me 4 days a week. The mum is now expecting number 2. She in formed me that when she is on maternity leave she will be dropping down to 2 days. There was no consultation she just told me that is what she is doing. This will have an impact on my finances. Do I take the little one & then when another full timer comes along then give her notice or do I tell her that i cant do just 2 days & hope that i get a new mindee.
She is being very vague about it so I not really sure of her intentions. I feel that i could keep the mindee for the time being because if i do have to give notice the mum will be home anyway.
any ideas as to what i should do

Thanks

Cupcake22

[alwaysright]

i've had this happen to me when a parent was on maternity leave, she also reduced from 4 to 2 days, they were vague but i questioned them as to what they intended to do, they said they intended to go back to four days and i'd have the baby 4 days as well, so like a mug i kept the places, so in total 6 days a week, 4 for the baby+2 the two extra that had been reduced,iyswim, and the mum went back to work when the baby was a year old, so i had held the places for over a year with no retainer, then after about 3 months of them being back they sold their house and ******** off.......i wasnt happy, so now i wont hold a place for anyone, i would ask mum what she intends to do and let her know you are happy to do that but if someone should come along wanting the other two days then you would have to let them go unless she wants to pay a retainer

[Pipsqueak]

I have a little one who is with me 4 days a week. The mum is now expecting number 2. She in formed me that when she is on maternity leave she will be dropping down to 2 days. There was no consultation she just told me that is what she is doing. This will have an impact on my finances. Do I take the little one & then when another full timer comes along then give her notice or do I tell her that i cant do just 2 days & hope that i get a new mindee.
She is being very vague about it so I not really sure of her intentions. I feel that i could keep the mindee for the time being because if i do have to give notice the mum will be home anyway.
any ideas as to what i should do

Thanks

Cupcake22

She has a choice - she can either

pay a retainer for those two days so that they are guaranteed spaces for when she wants them. if she uses them at any point she pays the 'top up' for the additional hours

OR

she lets them go and runs the risk of not having the spaces available for when she wants....
you may also have to shuffle the hours/days to accomodate full time work as necessary

her choice... end of

[Mouse]

I have a mum on maternity leave at the moment. She is desperate to keep the place for current mindee and the baby, but couldn't afford to continue paying the full a mount while she's not working. She said she would find a way though if she had to pay. She understood that I couldn't hold the places for no money.
We're both very fortunate in that I have been able to take on a temporary child to fill the days she has cut down on. I don't lose any money and current mindee's mum can pay less, but still keep the space for them both

I had another mum last year who went on maternity leave & I offered to let her cut down to one day a week (it fitted in with me wanting a day off to study), but she said she couldn't afford it. I explained that I couldn't keep the place for 2 children, so she had to take her chances. I filled her child's place straight away, so now when she is ready to go back to work, she has asked if I can have her 2 children and I've had to say no. I feel bad about it as I know she wanted them both to come to me and I would have loved to have them back, but that was the chance she took

I think you need to get your mum in for a chat and find out exactly what her plans are.

[Mummits]

I had a Mum do the same to me. It is very annoying - more so in this case as she was one of my nicer parents and I would have expected better manners but sometimes people are thoughtless.

I wrote back to say " I have considered your request to vary the terms of our contract and have decided that I will be willing to reduce X's hours of attendance with effect from xx/xx/xxxx as you propose. From that date he/she will attend....(days and hours) and new monthly fees will be £XXX. Please sign and date one copy of this letter to confirm your agreement to these new terms and retain one for your records.

The fact that I charge more per hour for part timers helps to soften the blow if parents do reduce hours.

However, accepting the reduction in hours in this case was in the knowledge that this particular little one would be starting school in a few months anyway, so was not ever coming back to full time, and so the length of time they would be blocking a full time place was also fairly short.

Do you know how long the maternity leave is likely to be, whether your original little one is likely to increase her hours again afterwards, and whether the mum would like you to have the new baby? If you don't know, I would be inclined to ask and say you need this information in order to make a decision on her "request".

But only you know whether the child is one who you would like to hang on to, and whether the family is easy to get on with (aside from this particular black mark). Also, given that the family will not be left in the lurch if you later decide to give notice, and also have some apparent flexibility in their own requirements, you could take a wait and see approach - i.e accept the reduced hours but keep an eye out for other mindees and be prepared to give notice or ask the first family to change their days/hours if they don't fit with a new family's requirements. If they want you to be flexible to meet their needs they should return the favor.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I had this last year and told the parent that they had to pay for what they wanted guaranteed when they came back as I would look to fill the space left vacant

They paid for 2 full days and 2 days half retainer

[The Juggler]

i had exactly same situation recently - except mum told me what she'd like to do and asked me unlike your mum

anyway I had to explain to her how the under 5 spaces worked. To be fair she just hadn't though that I could not fill the space if she wanted it back and if I did then she couldn't have it back.

I told her that if she could afford to 'keep' 3 days I woudl keep the 4th day open for her at no fee. Same as her paying a 1/2 fee for 2 days but this way I'm free to take on a temp contract if I am able to.

I would sit her down and give her the choice as Pip has said but also explain to her you can't fill that space while she s off and how much income loss that means to you. Then offer that she can pay a retainer of 1/2 fees for the 2 days (if you can afford to do that) or you will have to fill the other 2 days which means the days are not there when she wants them back.

[cupcake22]

Thank you all for your comments. i knew i could rely on you all to help me to make a decision. I will think about it over the weekend so that when the time comes to write a new contract I will have my answers & reasons ready.

Thanks

Cupcake22

[miffy]

Don't forget that mum must give you at least the amount of weeks notice in your contract before there is any change of days/hours and if you don't like what she's proposing you don't have to do it, you can just let the contract end.

It was a bit high-handed of her to tell you what you would be working when she goes on maternity leave and just assume that you would go along with it.

Miffy xx

[rickysmiths]

I have done similar things to the rest of you but it has got me thinking.

Does anyone know out of interest how a Day Nursery would deal with this issue?

[Trouble]

or she can do what my parent did an not pay and take the chance of the space being there

[kells_bells]

I have done similar things to the rest of you but it has got me thinking.

Does anyone know out of interest how a Day Nursery would deal with this issue?

Yes, parents can request a change of hours and days, if granted you pay for the days you attend, when you go back to work you request a change of hours and days again. If there's space you can have it if not tough. The only way to guarantee your days is to keep paying and using them. (I worked at a council run sure start) there's no half retainer offered just a pot luck gamble
If you drop all your days you are back to the bottom of the waiting list.