Payment policy

Registration, Deposit and Retainer Fees

Registration Fee

I no longer charge a registration fee for any placements, funded or private to join the setting.

Deposit

A deposit of £150 per child for all contracts, (funded or private) across the

Early Years service (excludes holiday only contracts) will be taken to secure your child's placement and is redeemable against (or refunded) at the end of your first term attended. However if you fail to attend any planned settle in sessions or you cancel or decline your placement within the first 4 weeks of our contracted start date (this is known as the 'settling in period'), then the deposit is held as a cancellation fee and is not refunded. If I should cancel our contract within the 'settling in period', then I will refund your deposit.

Holiday Only Club contracts, because this is an Ad Hoc casual zero hours contract where sessions are booked and paid for in advance then a deposit is not required to secure the space as spaces are subject to availability.

Retainer Fee

I do not charge a retainer fee to hold a space or to keep it open for you and I do not reserve spaces beyond a month. If I have a space that needs to be filled by a certain time then I will sell it as and when it becomes available. Therefore it is advised that you contact me to see if a space is available, you will be placed on a waiting list if there are no current vacancies and I will contact you as and when suitable spaces become available. If you do not wish to be placed on the waiting list so that I can keep you informed and updated on current availability then you are welcome to re enquire again in the near future should you still require childcare.

Contracted fees

You are charged and invoiced for your contracted hours as we have agreed them, you are paying for the space and not attendance. If you need to make amendments to the contract notice will need to be given in writing.

Standard Private Rates (Excludes Fully Funded places)

Please click here to see the current rates across all services

Funded Places

If your child is eligible for 15 or 30 hours funding per week
Funded Hours Rate : £0.00

Additional Hours Rate: charged as per the current 'basic private' rates for any hours above and beyond the funded hours claimed for.

for more information regarding funded places please refer to the funding policy.

Additional Rates

Hourly rate outside of contracted hours
The hourly rate outside of the contracted hours, that do not fall within the unsocial hours shown below is charged at my 'basic private' hourly rate.

Hourly Rate for Unsocial Hours - Fees outside of our normal opening hours.
Unsocial hours are between 5:30pm and 8:00am.

The hourly cost for childcare during unsocial hours is charged at

'time and a half' of my normal basic private rate.

Overnight care - Rates charged to care for children overnight.
I do not provide this service but if it is needed in an emergency situation only then you will be charged at 'double time', of my basic private hourly rate.

I do not offer occasional babysitting service.

Closure, Holidays, Sickness and Exclusions

Setting Closed

Should I close my setting due to my own, or my family members sickness, annual leave, occasional days off training or other, then there is no fee charged to parents.

The setting is closed on Bank Holidays and therefore you are not charged.

For a fully funded place (not private places), if there should be any funded hours that you have not be able to use that you are entitled to, due to my setting being closed then these funded hours will be offered back to you at another date before the term ends.

Child not attends

Should your child not attend the setting due to sickness, occasional days off medical appointments or other then the full fee is still charged for and invoiced as per your contract.

Should your child become unwell with a virus, sickness and or diarrhoea or a high temperature then you will need to follow my sickness policy and your child shall be excluded from the setting for 48 hours the full fee is still charged for at your normal contracted hours.

Charges and additional payments

Late Collection Charge
Should you be late in collecting your child from the setting,
there will be a £5.00 charge for every 30 minutes the child is late being collected from the setting. If you know that you will be either earlier or later than your agreed contracted hours to drop off or pick up your child, then I will expect to be informed of this so that we can plan our day accordingly. Late fees may still apply regardless.

Late Payment Charge
Should you be late in paying your fees
there will be a £10.00 charge for each day that the invoices have not been paid. Payments not settled within 7 days of final reminder will result in suspension of service until outstanding payments are received in full.

Group Fees, Outside Groups and Outings
When we attend outside groups, play centres and outings, for example trips to the beach or the zoo, animal park, forest school, soft play centres, music classes or other etc there will not be an extra charge to you as this is included in the private rate.

I do not charge any additional costs or fees to attend trips, visits and outings to any funded or private place.

Consumable Charges

Where consumables are provided by the setting, such as (list is not exhaustive)

wipes, nappies, hand gel, nappy rash cream, sun cream, nappy sacks, soap, cleaning materials, toilet paper, towels, blankets, bibs, etc these are included in my private rate and therefore not charged to parents as an extra consumable fee.

I do not charge any non food consumables charges to any funded or private place.

Food & Drinks

I no longer provide any food to any child on any contract type, therefore parents will need to provide all meals for their child for each day that they attend including morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack therefore as I do not provide food there is no additional charges made to invoices.

Payment frequency

Early Years contracts are invoiced monthly in arrears of childcare provided.

You will be invoiced around the 24th of each month

(a payment schedule for the year will be issued to you when you join,

so you know the exact date when you can expect your invoices to be submitted for payment). Payment is to be received into my bank account no later than the 1st of each month.

Holiday Only contracts are invoiced weekly in advance of childcare provided. Invoices go out on Fridays and payments should be settled in full prior to your child attending the setting for their first booked session of the following week.

If you have booked in any holiday sessions and paid your invoice then they are not refunded should you cancel, decline or fail to attend as these are pre booked sessions. If however you cancel a session before the invoice has been generated then there should not be a payment to settle for that canceled day, as holiday sessions are on an Ad Hoc basis.

Payment method

Payments are to be made by Bank Transfer directly into my bank account.

I do not accept cash or cheque payments.

I do accept the Government Tax Free payment scheme

I do offer Funding to eligible families.

Some eligible families may also get Universal Credits to help with their childcare costs but this does not get paid directly to me via them, you would still need to pay me the full amount owed regardless of what help you get.

Rates are reviewed annually and increases may be introduced each year on 1st April you will be given 4 weeks notice as a minimum if this should be the case.