Late Fees

[debstephens]

I am hopeing that those of you that work in the pre-school sector can help me.

We have several parents who are continualy arriving late at the end of a session, and although they apologise, continue to do so. We have explained that we are not insured after 3.00p.m. that staff have to maintain ratio's etc.

We are thinking of charging them for this time, but how much? How do we enforce it if parents refuse to pay?

We have a very good relationship with our parents which makes the situation in some ways harder to deal with.

Thank you in advance for any advice offered.

[Guest]

We had this problem once with just one parent who was persistently late. I was loathe to introduce a penalty charge because, like you, we had a very good relationship with parents and realised that if they were late their was a genuine reason.

So I now put into the parent info leaflet that there will be an extra charge for late pick ups and that if they do not notify us that they are going to be late we will put our uncollected child procedure into practice.

I actually got so fed up with this one parent I charged her £5 for being late-I had to keep one of my staff back as well as myself to maintain safety. She never did it again!

Linda

[hali]

we have put in our policies about charging parents £5 if they are continually late, but havnt actually had to do it yet!!!!

[Inge]

ours too is £5.00 for late collection...per child and tell tehm they are paying for the cost of the childcare...2 staff must always stay so 2 wages plus hall costs and remind them of our poor children waiting at school gates!!

it is in one of our policies and in our prospectus.

 

we do have a piece about understanding emergencies and to telephone if they are going to be late with a reason...then it is taken into consideration as to whether they are charged. (have had some lovely excuses, but the best reason was going into labour and having to get someone to collect child for them.....we seem to have a lot of bus breakdowns in this area!!!)

 

Have never had anyone refuse to pay, and once they pay they are never late again and 'word gets round' other parents who are then less likely to be late.

 

Inge

Edited February 17, 2006 by Inge

[Guest]

Yes I agree with all that has been said by everybody else. I had to also put on interest to my fees if they were not paid on time. Its amazing what 10% on a bill can do to stop people not paying. however nice they are you still have to pay wages hall fee etc. My hall fees are horrendous so every penny not collected come out of my money. Its amazing how they can afford the next packet of cigarettes or the pint on a saturday night, but the cost of some one looking after their most precious and unreplaceable thing in their lives seems to not hold much priority. Sad people are sometimes.

[Alison]

I totally agree steph !!!