Notice Periods For Children Leaving

[karenlatoy]

I'm interested to know if anyone from a committee run preschool has a policy stating a notice period for children leaving part way through a term.

 

I have been looking after the setting's finances since 2004 and never had a problem with this before but this term, I have had two funded children leave suddenly, without notice at half term. I had claimed 174 hours for each of these children for the spring term and now have to transfer half of it to other providers. We cannot fill the spaces until after Easter so we are more than £600 out of pocket. It's probably too late to do anything about it now but we need to do something to protect ourselves in the future.The Council have advised that we need to get parents to sign an agreement about notice when they first join us. Does anyone have any experience of this or suggestions?

 

Karen

[HappyMaz]

I wasn't a committee run group, but I always insisted on at least half a term's notice, but in reality there is little you can do to protect yourself from loss of income when a parent withdraws their child at short notice, especially since now the EYSFF has come along and (in our LA) 'outlawed' the taking of deposits for children who are in receipt of funding.

 

Once the child is funded, I made it clear in my registration forms and on invoices that if a child was withdrawn at short notice I would reserve the right to charge them for every session at the full published fees if I had to return the funding to the LA.

 

If you are going to have this kind of sanction in place you need a clear idea of how you're going to deal with people who don't comply. The ultimate method will probably involve going to the small claims court, which is probably cost effective for a debt of £300 per family, especially if the task will probably be done by a committee member and not a paid member of staff!

[Inge]

Question is what will you do it they leave and no notice and refuse to pay.. will it be worth trying to enforce the policy/agreement and the length of time it could take to do so..

 

Our money had to go back to the LA who then paid the new setting,

 

there was a time when it was up to the setting if they paid the new one.. LA did not enforce anyone to do so , but then they never paid for new starters mid term and we lost money taking children and getting no payment - this is why they did not make the money be paid to the other setting.

 

We found there really was little comeback if a parent removed a child at short notice or mid term, took a while to get the funds if we ever did via small claims, and the time it took to do it was not always worth it..

 

At this time of year we always had someone to fill the place immediately so was not an issue.

[Rea]

I think our policy says we require 4 weeks notice but I'm sure its never been adhered to, but that will be because we dont have to give any funding to the next setting the child goes to. Birmingham have said we can keep it or pass it on as a professional courtesy. I think we all keep it knowing we'll never get it given by another setting. :huh:

[korkycat]

Our LEA has introduced an agreement that parents sign to receive funding that parents will pay setting fees if they leave before headcount day and to get funding to follow them to another setting they have to give us 4 weeks notice. Don't know how it will work in practice - up to now we kept funding until half term and couldn't claim for extra funding ( for new child or extra sessions)

until then. We had been told that we could apply for special cases but I've never tried.

 

korkycat