Fees policy

This Fees policy aims to give clarity to parents to ensure they understand the ‘contract’ they enter into when they join our preschool. Parents will be asked at the outset how they intend to pay for their child’s sessions and asked to complete an online Preschool Agreement before they start with us. They should go to the Childcare Choices website to find out what help they can get with childcare costs. Please also see our Fees page. Parents are sent out an Update form each term which also asks them questions relating to their child’s sessions and invoicing.

While fees (other than those for non funded hours) are not mandatory, they were introduced to allow us to remain open and we work hard to keep them to a minimum. Without everyone paying the fees we would have to close due to over 10 years of chronic under-funding by the UK government. We understand there may be some confusion around costs as the government insists on calling the funded hours ‘free’, unfortunately, they are not free to us as the rate paid by local government falls way below the amount published by the DfE because the amount granted is decided by the Local Education Authority and does not cover the vast range of activities and high levels are care and education that parents seek us out for, this comes in the form of our Education, Health and Wellbeing package and Adventure Friday package. We thank you for your continued support.

It is the responsibility of the parent to access the financial support available from the government, to keep any funding codes updated and to ensure their child’s invoice is paid on time.

• Charges for waiting list, placement and enrolment helps to cover costs for paperwork and administration.

• Fees for non funded hours are detailed on our Fees page of our website. All rates are subject to annual review.

• Rate changes between age ranges 2 to 3 are effective on invoicing the half term after the child’s 3rd birthday.

Nursery Education Funding

We currently accept the following Nursery Education Funding

• 15 hours for working parents of 2 year olds

• 15 hours for families in receipt of government support for 2 year olds

• 15 hours universal funding for 3 and 4 year olds

• 15 hours extended funding for 3 and 4 year olds

Parents can share their funding between settings but claimed hours must not add up to more than their total entitlement.

All funded sessions are granted subject to availability.

Funding for working parents must be applied for by the parent with HMRC and is their sole responsibility and they must ensure their funding is kept updated and codes are valid for the requested term in order to claim these hours from preschool and avoid being charged for hours.

Invoicing

• All session fees are invoiced half termly and must be paid within 2 weeks, we have a £50 non payment charge.

• Reminders will be sent out over the 2 week payment deadline period.

• Fees continue to be payable if a child is absent, but in cases of prolonged absence, parents should consult with the managers.

If children are settling in and not attending their full session parents are still required to pay the full fee and/or claim the funding. Fees are charged from the child’s first session as staff have to be in place for them to attend. We aim for new starters to be invoiced after the first 2 weeks of having started for the term they are in, if they start within 3 weeks of the end of a half term, the fees will be added to the following half term invoice. A reminder that we rely on prompt fee payments to be able to meet our running costs, thank you for your understanding. Please see our Late or non-payment section below. Please see our Fees page for help to offset your fees and extra support.

We understand that some families may face genuine hardship in paying fees. If you think you may have difficulty paying your invoice, please get in touch with us. Please email or speak with Imogen, Chris or Nina in confidence as soon as possible.

To withdraw from preschool please give 4 weeks’ notice in writing, fees are non refundable.

We reserve the right to review fees annually.

Additional costs

Lunch club - 12-1 £10 this one hour session cannot be claimed with funded hours but is included in our all day 9-3 sessions. (Please see our Fees page for more information)

Uniform - items can be purchased e.g. polo shirts, jumpers, hats. They can be paid for by cash, card or BACS. Please reference all online payments with your child’s initials and the item bought e.g. IG uniform.

Late pick up fee - we charge parents who turn up 15 minutes late or more in increments of 15 minutes at a rate of £20 each 15 minutes to cover costs.

Ways to pay

BACS payments for fees is an online payment through the bank and very easy to do, preschool’s bank details are on the invoice, parents are asked to please quote their child’s name as reference for session fees. You will receive a receipt via email. Please be aware that we manually send out your receipts, there may be a case of you paying your invoice and not receiving a receipt straight away or you may also pay and still receive a payment reminder in which case please ignore it, we work as fast as we can bu

If paying by cash, please ensure that we receive the correct money as we cannot guarantee to return any change on the same day. If payment has been received by cash a written receipt will be issued.

You can also pay by card machine at preschool, please ask on the gate, this may have to be done at the end of the session when staff have more time. A receipt will be issued

Childcare voucher schemes, there are a number of schemes that parents can pay by, they will need a reference number for preschool, those we have registered with will have a reference number on the bottom of each invoice, if parents wish to use a different scheme please contact Imogen or Nina who will register with the company – where possible we ask that the child’s name is used as reference.

There are various tax free childcare, tax credits, universal credit schemes available to support parents. Tax free childcare will pay for 20% of your child’s fees.

It is possible for parents to pay in part with the various methods combined to the full amount.

Late or non-payment

Parents will receive regular invoice reminders.

Late payment of invoices: if your invoice has not been paid within the required 2 week period and you do not have an agreed payment plan in place, a late payment charge of £50 will be added to you invoice. You will then have 5 working days in which to clear this whole payment. If you still fail to pay we will advise that your child will no longer be able to attend their sessions at preschool from the next working day until full payment has been made.

If payment still remains outstanding following this communication, preschool will proceed down the legal route to reclaim the owed monies, this may incur charges to the parent/carer.

We aim to keep parents aware of costs for their child, if any are incurred, and to bill them accordingly and efficiently. It is however the responsibility of the parent to manage their own finances to ensure their child can continue to attend preschool. We aim to make ease of payment and time frames of expectation as clear as possible. We also aim to be sensitive to those incurring financial hardship.

Feb 25