Children Being Collected Late!

[Guest]

This is happening quite a bit at the moment.......there is a charge for late collection but it's not a large amount of money so I think parents choose to use it as an option!!!!

 

I have searched on here because I know that this has been discussed before but can't find it......how much do you charge for late collection??

 

Today for example.....the session finished at 3.00pm a little boy was left waiting, I usually give the parents 15 mins anyway so after no show I rang the mobile number we had but no-one answered. Still waiting.......3.30 no show...have been calling the mobile during this time. Eventually Dad turns up at 3.50pm to collect his son...when I tell him he should have been here at 3.00 he said he didn't realise the time!!!!!!

 

Our policy states that when a child is collected late without a phone call to let us know, staff take the child around to the school where they are then in the care of the headteacher.......headteacher informs me that I need to contact social services to let them know what we are doing. Does anyone else do this?

 

I take some of the blame really because I only had one mobile number, so have asked for more contact numbers.

Anyway, what I would like to know is how much do you charge for late collections?

I'm going to review our policy and change it

[Inge]

£5.00 per 15 mins.. payments start after 5 mins late!! even if they call to let us know they are still expected to pay...

 

we give one warning .. but they sign a form every time they collect late with details like time due to collect, what we did, time of calls made and to which numbers, time of parent collecting, any charges due... and staff present... seems to work.., signing to say time they actually collected the child makes them very aware of it.

 

Inge

[Susan]

Dont blame yourself. You had a contact number.

[Rea]

Ours used to say that after half an hour and after trying all numbers avaiable we would contact social services and the police. We also explained why, staff have children, shared hall etc.

 

But I recall reading on here I think that SS might not be that quick to respond.

[diesel10]

Hi

 

All our staff need to collect their own children and with 2 having to stay with an uncollected child this is really inconvenient. Fortunately, it has not happened yet but I think Inge had some good ideas.

 

Thanks

[Shiny]

Mrsb, is this the thread you were thinking of???!! HERE

[Guest]

Hi there,

 

I was advised atmjy child protection meeting that after 45 minutes we have a duty to call Social Services. I've done it once and I would do it again - after all, mum may have had an accident or something and that child needs to be in a safe place with professionals who know how to talk to children who may be visiting a poorly mum in hospital. This is also the example I give to parents too!

 

Don't let them walk over you - parents really must be responsible for their own children!

 

Good luck

[orchardday]

Hi there

We charge £10 for every 5 minutes that the parents are late. I started this 6 months ago and the repeat offenders seem to have learnt a lesson. After all 10 minutes works out at £20 pounds. Last month we only had 1 late parent. I then split the money between the two members of staff who had to stay behind so they get £5 for 5 mins each. I also charge at that rate for any children dropped in early.

Good luck

[Shiny]

I then split the money between the two members of staff who had to stay behind so they get £5 for 5 mins each.

Don't suppose you have any jobs going do you??!! I would volunteer to stay with the stragglers!!!

[Guest]

Update: Have changed the late collection charge to 5.00 for being 10 mins late then anything after that goes up by 10.00 in 15 min blocks. So if a parent collect their child at 3.15 instead of 3.00 they will be charged 15.00! Worked so far....have explained to some that it's not to make money but a deterent (SP?)

[bubblejack]

I think that some parents just don't take responsibility. I am absolutely baffled how some parents are constantly late and even more baffled how some forget that they even have a child.

When I phoned the first parent I asked her if she had got confused because child stays later on a another day but she said "No I actually didn't think anything I just FORGET her" The second parent was asked to bring child at 10.30 for leavers concert on a day that they don't normally attend. Parent brought child at 9.00, so as i had a space i let child stay, but parent forgot to come and watch and collect child afterwards !!!!!!!!!

[Running Bunny]

I used to work in a nursery that was about an hour on the train from London, so had quite a few commuter parents. We had 5 minutes leniency (sp) then £5 for every 10minutes, parents had to sign and the policy also stated that nursery clock was taken as the correct time (you can imagine parents changing their watches before coming into nursery!) It seemed to work really well and if the parents phoned to say that there was a traffic/train problem, we checked it out and then managers discretion was to add it or not to their next bill.

 

We had one mum who rang up at 5.30 saying that she was still in London, but having a wonderful day with her daughther so would be at nursery by about 7pm and after all, the hours worth of late charge was worth it!!

[Lyanne]

Update: Have changed the late collection charge to 5.00 for being 10 mins late then anything after that goes up by 10.00 in 15 min blocks. So if a parent collect their child at 3.15 instead of 3.00 they will be charged 15.00! Worked so far....have explained to some that it's not to make money but a deterent (SP?)

 

They just don't seen to get it - the odds are we won't get any benefit from it. If I have to get a taxi to get my son from school because I've left late, that's it gone, or I might have to pay my childminder for having him longer & hope she understands when I phone her & not charge me extra for late pick up.