Late Policy And Late Fees

[Rosaboo]

What do you do if children are picked up late from your setting? We have had two occasions this week where children have been picked up over an hour later after the pre school has closed.

 

It cost us in staff costs and hall hire and today the situation nearly meant that we nearly had trouble picking up our own children.

 

We really need to implement a policy quickly as to deter any other occasions arising and would appreciate knowing what other settings do.

 

Thanks in advance

[eyfs1966]

Oh my goodness...I was moaning today about a parent who is consistently 15 mins late...feel quite lucky in comparison. That said, late is late and a late fee policy should be introduced. I am about to write to all our parents, reminding them of the core hours and that any child left outside these hours will incur a fee penalty. I suggest you do the same!!

[Guest]

we charge a late pick up fee, we never use to but parents kept being late, it has worked as parents are on time now and if they are going to be late they ask another parent to pick there child up and phone the pre-school to let them know

[diesel10]

We have just introduced a £5 per 15 min late fee. Not had to use it yet!

[Scarlettangel]

We have a late fee of five pounds per every five minutes late!

 

This is for after school club which should finish at 6pm and staff are paid till 6pm so any late pick ups have implications cost wise.

Just this week we had a child picked up at 6.25pm and Mum was shocked at the TWENTY FIVE POUNDS charge she will have to pay and is arguing about it.

I have thought long and hard but think she should feel lucky that her child was safe when she did not live up to the responsibility of picking up her child on time.

This late fee has been used on several occasions but it has stopped one serial late picker upper! I cannot have one rule for one and a different rule for another can I?!!

 

In nursery too, parents are charged when children are picked up late. If it's morning nursery they are charged per hour or part hour and in an afternoon they are sent to after school club and have to pay the minimum fee there.

 

On one occasion a child wasn't just late being picked up, no one came and no one could be contacted and the police were called!

 

I think some parents fail to take into account anyone's needs except for their own. Picking up late should be faced head on I think!Good luck!

Edited June 15, 2011 by Scarlettangel

[Guest]

Did the parent contact you? Was there a "good" reason?

 

I would be very tempted to write to the parents and let them know how much their lateness had cost.

 

And you need a policy asap. Many settings charge a late fee.

[Rosaboo]

Our uncollected child policy states we can recover staff costs and associated costs and we intend to, if only to deter any other episodes.

 

Today the parent did get in touch but when she should have been picking up and she was 5 miles away waiting for AA. It was only after 30 mins this she accepted that her Car was going nowhere and phoned relatives to come and pick child up which then took another 45 minutes for anyone to arrive.

 

We are thinking that we will charge after 10 mins late & we are closed, £1 per minute late as our lease finishes 15 minutes after the end of the session and we also need to pack away as we are based in a community hall. We are going to inform all parents tomorrow.

 

It feels harsh but I want it to be enough of a deterrent that lateness like this does not happen and parents are encouraged to have a back up plan.

[Devondaisy]

I have to be honest, I would be more sympathetic for a one off like a car breakdown, although I would have thought most people would make alternative arrangements to have their child collected straight away. I get more annoyed at the persistent late pick-ups, with no apology. We had one child collected 15 minutes late this week whose parents are not the best time-keepers anyway, but I was shocked when the older sister told us she had had to remind dad to collect her little sister as he had forgotten all about her! Now I have forgotten many things in my time, but seriously....!

[Fredbear]

Yes i have to say i am a little bit of a soft touch with this, especially if the reason appears legitimate, however parent/carers do have to understand the impact this may have on your provision, and it really is very rare at ours, so i suppose we are fortunate.

The only time i get aggrieved is when a parent does not apologise for their lateness.

[Scarlettangel]

One of my serial late picker uppers was a Dad in nursery and as we were on the third child from the family and I truly had heard EVERY excuse there was to hear (and most of them without an apology) I actually lost my temper one day

 

(I know VERY unprofessional of me)

 

I told him in no uncertain terms that whatever else was going on his responsibility was to be there for his child at the end of the session, not the man about the washing machine/ front door/ council blah blah blah.

I really shouted.

No excuses even though it was the 4th day in a row he was late.

 

The next day a member of staff who was coming to work at that time (a cleaner) told me she had heard me shout and how surprised she was and I was telling her how awful I felt and I was even thinking I really should apologise and then she tells me:

"Oh I wouldn't bother. He wasnt late coming up from town like he said, he was chatting outside school gates having a smoke!!!!!!"

 

I appreciate there will be a time when something happens that a parent has no control over and they are late. I myself have 2 children and once in their playgroup/nursery/ school life I was late picking up because of an accident blocking the road and a detor. I couldnt have felt more guilty when I got there 15 mins late..... and before the time of mobiles to let anyone know where we were!!

 

Our late charge has helped at the end of the after school club day for sure.

[finleysmaid]

i nag them on the phone first! they get a phone call after 10 minutes waiting and i will ring anyone on the emergency list until i get an answer....parents tend to be better when granny has had a go at them for picking up their darlings late ...would def charge if they were an hour late and no excuse for not calling...even the aa man has a mobile!!!

[Inge]

we had a policy of £5.00 per 15 mins... and had a form to complete every time a child was collected late to be signed by the staff and person collecting... we used this after 10 mins ..

 

the form had things on it like child name, who was supposed to collect, which staff were present, had we received any call to say they would be late, after 10 mins we made a phone call.. so this was noted, who we spoke to (or not) and their response, any other calls we made at 5 min intervals, which were noted.. then on collection there was a space to put a reason/explanation, and at bottom a time of collection, and bold a statement that late collection incurs a cost to the setting and staff and as stated in our late collection policy a fee of £xxx was due at the next session the child attends.. and signature blocks.. all present signed.. First time they had a warniong second they had to pay.. once was usaully enough.. if it was a long time then we missed the warning..

 

we did this for any parent we had to call at the 10 minute point... if they wanted a copy we did give them one as we were able to make one on site..(if not we would have said said they could have one the next session they attended. )

 

It really stopped the regular late collectors... we did sometimes make some decisions to waiver the fee for the occasional real emergency for those who were not persistently late usually..

 

think the amount you charge has to be one which will make the parents really not think of it as a fee to pay and they will get the extra childcare.. for our area the charge was right for another more may be appropriate...

Edited June 16, 2011 by Inge

[Melba]

We once had a parent call us from the car accident she had just been in to say she would be a late! It was bad enough that she had to be cut out of the car. After that there doesn't seem to be many good excuses for not phoning at least!