currycraver Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Hi I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their thoughts or policies regarding charrging for sessions for snow days. We are in a private run building with high costs. The pre school is in a tiny road which is like sheet ice as it is not gritted.Should we be charging for sessions or not.If we do not charge we will not be able to pay the wages and other bills. Any thoughts gratefully received. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Hi, presumably you get NEG for those children who are funded? Our authority I think (hope) pays for one off closures. We pay staff for first 48 hours (we're a voluntary run charity group) and we refund any parents who pay fees. It only seems fair to me. It's not their fault that we can't open and we shouldn't penalise either staff or parents. We have a contingency in our reserve fund which should help us cover these costs. Do you have an emergency closure policy in place? I'll attach ours as it might help: Emergency_Closure_Policy___amended_version_without_names.doc Emergency_Closure_Policy___amended_version_without_names.doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narnia Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 I think if it really means you wouldn't be able to pay the wages, then you still charge. I have been lucky enough to stay open, though we only had three children today who got through...........I'm in the same dilemma: if we don't charge the others, we would be unable to pay rent, bills wages etc. Perhaps you could put out a letter explaining the situation........and ask the parents to understand that you don't like having to charge, but unfortunately, no money=no wages=no staff= no setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diesel10 Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Hi We are a charity committee pre-school and we opened today. My staff were not happy about it, although I have to walk the furthest. My thoughts are if you open, you can charge if you close you need to refund. We only had 5 children in, they had fun though. It would be interesting to know at what point the LA will ask for the grant money back. Its very difficult if they shut all the surrounding schools. No refunds for us today, but tomorrow may be more difficult if it freezes over night. Also, one member of staff asked who is liable if she is injured because I made her come out????? and a member of staff tomorrow can't walk because of her asthma. Do I pay her still if she dosn't come in ??? (although we don't pay sick pay) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumperrabbit Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 We are a charity committee run village hall setting. We were closed today, fee paying children will be refunded and staff will NOT get paid, No fees = No wages. I always ask the staff if they want to risk going in, if the majority say no then that's it they realise they won't get paid. We are lucky that our village hall will not charge us rent as we haven't used the hall, and we've never been asked for NEG funding back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
currycraver Posted January 6, 2010 Author Share Posted January 6, 2010 Thank you everyone. It is such a difficult subject but your thoughts will help me decide what I should do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 We are a charity committee run village hall setting. We were closed today, fee paying children will be refunded and staff will NOT get paid, No fees = No wages. I always ask the staff if they want to risk going in, if the majority say no then that's it they realise they won't get paid. We are lucky that our village hall will not charge us rent as we haven't used the hall, and we've never been asked for NEG funding back. Hi, No fees = no wages BUT you will have Funding can you not pay the staff? Even if it wasn't part of their usual amount? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbat Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Hi, No fees = no wages BUT you will have Funding can you not pay the staff? Even if it wasn't part of their usual amount? This is what we have now decided to do, we had to close yesterday so we have offered parents to send their child for another session that has a space and the staff will be paid minimum wage no matter what they earned before - unfortunately that means it's only me who loses money lol we opened today though even though all the schools in the area were closed, we thought we might have 5 or 6 turn up and we got 14, we had a lovely morning playing out in the blizzard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buttercup Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 we had inset day monday. open Tuesday then closed afternoon session and closed rest of week. I have intended on refunding parents and paying staff as normal. We can probably manage this week but not sure if it continues. We have really been caught off guard. I did get staff in on Friday and we caught up with paperwork. Never been so organsied. If weather stays like this I am going to open monday even though paths and roads still quite dangerous. My only dilemma at the moment we are forcast more snow. Whatever we do wont please everyone. Buttercup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplewednesday1 Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8442851.stm Hello, as a private owner I am sympathetic to all the above views - no fees = no wages. However, we found this info on the bbc website (Not very good at links but I expect there'll be a brainbox along in a bit!). This info from a legal source says you can't stop wages unless there's a clause in contracts that says that this is what will happen... I don't have such a clause for my staff so I'll be taking annual leave days from staff and asking staff to take work home instead of having release time for planning and record keeping. Don't get into trouble!! keep warm! pw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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