Guest Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Hi there This is my first post so here goes. Do any of you have children that do 3 different days a week to fit in around shift work? e.g. one week monday, tuesday wednesday following week its shifted a day so tuesday, wednesday, thursday and so on. Have any of you come across this? How is it managed/ charged? Do you charged for a full week as effectively they are taking a full time place, or would you charged for 3 full days a week, even though it could full for 2 days over the weekend? I don't immediately want to say to this family that we can't help them without exploring all possible avenues. Any thoughts greatly received Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 As we could not fill the space on the other days we had to charge for the full week . We could not afford to effectively lose the income for the days we could not fill because we could not guarantee the hours. Most decided to put them in for the full week and not remove them for the days they were not at work.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lsp Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Yep we would charge for whole week to guarantee space available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Welcome Reddrick and congratulations on making your first post :1b Agree with others would have to charge for a full week...... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 We are quite a unique setting in that we offer shift patterns to about 30 families. We only charge for the sessions they do on a week to week basis. It isn't easy, but it sets us apart from other local settings and parents like our flexibility. We also charge by the hour, and break that hour down into 15 minutes! Fridays are spent sorting rotas for the following week as some parents don't know their hours until then, which is tricky, but most have a set pattern, although that could be fortnightly, 3 weekly or monthly so no week is ever the same! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargrower Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Wow, Laura, what a task that must be sorting out staffing and invoicing! It's fantastic that you can offer it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Good to see it can work for some if you have enough who swap their patterns , but with only one or sometimes 2 you do end up losing income by not being able to fill the hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumperrabbit Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 We do but it's only for 1 child and we run where ever possible with 1 staff over ratio (and that's why we're always short of money!!) so it's never a problem - I wouldn't get my family if we charged for the full week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Hi thank you ever so much for your feedback. We pride ourselves on being flexible however I'm not sure whether I could be *that* flexible. Come September we will be doubling in size so i can imagine that we will have spaces however one of the children is 6 months so whilst it maybe ok now, this time next year or the year after maybe a real problem. Laura that's fantastic what you offer, but I don't think I could cope with the extra work in sorting that out!! I also wonder if it becomes known that we do this it may encourage others our way and I don't know whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing. The area we are in means we have 85% of our children funded only. It would be nice to have someone pay for 3 days! Maybe we will try and charge them a full week and see what their reaction is?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 (edited) It's certainly a job! I'm spending the evening doing the registers for next week, I then pass to my sister (we run the nursery together), who counts the numbers and does the staffing. We have just started using a new management software program and the developers are looking at the grid we use and are going to try to replicate it for us to save the counting as it took 4 hours this week! I'm lucky that we have flexible staff and bank staff that come in as and when. If you do charge for the whole week, you could always say to them that on the days they don't push you over ratio you wouldn't charge them as you wouldn't need to get an extra staff member in? or perhaps half fees? Edited June 24, 2015 by laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 That really is a lot of work, but what a fantastic dedicated service you offer! We have decided that we are going to charge them for 3 full days a week- we generally run 1 person over so we could cover it, and they will have to let me know in advance which days they require. The weeks when they only require 1 session will be up to them if they want their child to come in or not! If I am back here in a year asking whether it would be ethical to terminate a contract you know if didn't work out! Many thanks all :1b First real post!! Yay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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