nicky9233 Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 I run a lovely rural pre school with mostly 3 year olds at the moment. The committee have just decided that we need to start charging a top up for those parents using the EYEE grant to bring each child's fees to the same level (fees are £5.50 ph but we get £3.60 for funded so adding £1.90 top up). I obviously have some upset parents saying that they can't afford the top up. What to do????? Thanks in advance for help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlesparklesnursery Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 we can't charge anything to our funded children. We used to charge admin fee that has stopped too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lsp Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 (edited) We are not allowed to charge any top-up fees on top of the FREE entitlement. You really need to check with your local authority. We can charge anything for any additional hours but not the 15 funded hours. Edited September 27, 2015 by lsp 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicky9233 Posted September 27, 2015 Author Share Posted September 27, 2015 Thanks I didn't even think to check with LA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 You could ask for voluntary contributions from your parents, but really you can't "chase" them for it, it does have to be voluntary - I am surprised really that your committee are unaware that they cannot charge anything to do with the 15 hours. You could open for extra hours which you can charge for, some of our local pre-schools open half an hour extra first thing in the morning and charge for that but it mustn't be a condition of the children attending that they must do that half an hour. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicky9233 Posted September 27, 2015 Author Share Posted September 27, 2015 Thanks Panders, I'm a new manager and they are mostly new committee so it's tough going at the moment! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 NO ONE is allowed to make a charge for the 15 hours. It doesnt matter what LA you are in this is part of the national scheme. The fifteen hours have to be free at point of delivery. Of course the fact that it is slowly bankrupting us all is irrelevant! Our fees are 0.90p more than our funding and a few years ago we decided to open for an additional 30 minutes each day and charge for that. We do have some funded parents who only do four days and dont pay anything extra but the majority do pay. To be honest its the one thing that keeps us going. If all our children were to do just the funded hours we would probably close within a year. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafa Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Quite agree Lynedd55, the fact we cannot top up is exactly what will put most of us out of business, what with all the increasing costs. Maybe this is where we should lobby our MPs. If the govenment wont raise our funding then we must be allowed to do so ourselves or the flagship 15 free hours childcare will become 0 free hours - as we wont be around to supply it! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 I run a lovely rural pre school with mostly 3 year olds at the moment. The committee have just decided that we need to start charging a top up for those parents using the EYEE grant to bring each child's fees to the same level (fees are £5.50 ph but we get £3.60 for funded so adding £1.90 top up). I obviously have some upset parents saying that they can't afford the top up. What to do????? Thanks in advance for help I think your question has been answered - so I just wanted to say hi and welcome to the forum :1b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicky9233 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 Thanks everyone, not good news at all for our small rural pre school Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 can you extend your hours beyond 3 hours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicky9233 Posted September 29, 2015 Author Share Posted September 29, 2015 We are open 2 afternoons a week until 3.00 and these are full pay sessions, unfortunately we only have 5 children over the 2 days that use these though ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts