Your Advice Please!

[klc106]

As you may know I have just opened a pre-school.

 

I have been approached by a parent who is not happy with the pre-school her daughter attends and would like to move her to mine.

 

However, we run sessions from 9-12 and this parent works and could not pick up til about 12:20. She has offered to pay for the extra time but I am not sure whether we are 'allowed' to do this in terms of ofsted etc. It seems a shame to let her go as we are desperate fot children and she wants a session everyday and there is no where else she could take her as we are a small village and it would mean her travelling too far.

 

I did think of starting up a lunch club so that the child was not on her own for this time, but I'm not sure how successful this would be. Mum said she would send her a packed lunch to eat during the extra 20mins and she understands that we would need to start packing awat while she was still there. All our staff would still be there as they are contracted until 12:30pm and 1:30pm on 2 days a week.

 

Also, she says that for 1 day out of each month she has to work til 2:00 and so has asked if I would look after the little girl on that day until 2:30pm?

 

I really need some advice please as this is very new to me!

[klc106]

Any advice anyone? Please!

[Cait]

Hmm, it's a tricky one, isn't it. I had a similar scenario a few years back and (perhaps a bit naughtily) told the parent that her child could stay whilst we were packing up as we were all there. I didn't take payment for it and it was done 'as a friend' and she signed a disclaimer to say that she understood this.

 

However, we went on from this to operate afternoon sessions as well so her little boy stayed all day. It was certainly very worthwhile and I've never looked back. Would it be worthwhile sending out a questionnaire to your parents to see if anyone else would be interested in doing something similar?

[sharonash]

If your reegistration is 9-12 you should only take children til 12 and your insurance will only be valid in line with your registration.

A few years ago a friend of mine did a private arrangement for 15 minutes after the session had ended - the child too was staying on site while they packed up and cleaned - The parent was one she had known for many years and had 3 other siblings -there was an incident where the child fell over and hurt her arm while playing in the hall- shortly after the parent came - but had to go to hospital - this so called 'lovely friendly' parent then advised she was taking legal action against them,

My friend was so upset she thought she knew this parent and also she got into trouble with the LA and Ofsted came due to the parent complaining.

 

 

 

Extending your hours with ofsted sounds the best bet!

[mundia]

Hi klc106, good point there from sharonash, whatever you do you need to make sure you are covered.

It seems that your best option is to find out if parents would want and use a lunch club and consider officially extending your hours to cover that so that you can offer it to all who want it.

 

Regarding the once a month 2.30 pick up, I would decline this at this point, unless as Cait said you have evidence of need to open up some afternoons. You could open a can of worms up, allowing one parent this, because what if others ask you to do the same on other days?

 

It isn't ideal I know, but do you have any childminders in the area with whom you could develop a relationship who might have the space to take a child in the afternoon? Otherwise its going to be up to the mum to make her own personal arrangements (friend or family).

[narnia]

why not simply extend your opening hours registration with Ofsted? You will need to ensure your insurers know and cover the extra time too, but it seems the simplest option, that way you are already covered if other parents ask for extra time too.

[klc106]

Thanks everyone! Really good advice as always. If this parent decides to come to us I will ring ofsted and my insurance and extend my opening hours with them.