Terms and Conditions
- Registration Forms must be completed prior to your child being left on premises - even on visits. ALL areas of this form must be signed. It is essential for us to have contact numbers and details of all carers at ANY time during the day. The parent's written permission is required to allow staff to take the children out of the nursery for walks and outings.
- Sessions. The minimum bookings for each age group are as follows: 0-2 years - 1 full day or 2 sessions, 2-5 years - 1½ days or 3 sessions (Any child receiving Nursery Education Funding (NEG) is required to register at the nursery for a minimum of 1½ days).
- Trial Period. The nursery offers a trial period to allow you and your child to get to know the nursery and staff. A registration fee equivalent to one week's fee is payable when accepting a place at the nursery before the trial period begins. This fee is refundable off your final fee when you leave, only if the child has remained at nursery for a period of 24 full months. Please make all cheques payable to ABC Kindergarten Ltd.
- Fees
During Trial Period. Fees are to be paid weekly in advance during the trial period. This trial period will be from your official start date until the end of the first full month in attendance.
After Trial Period. Fees are to be paid monthly, in advance BY the first day of the month. Payments are made by standing order, company or childcare vouchers or NEG. Standing order forms will be issued during the trial period. The nursery is closed on all bank holidays. Bank holidays and days away from the nursery including days sick or on holiday are payable in full. ABC Kindergarten Ltd reserves the right to review the fees annually. - Outstanding Fees. Late charges will be incurred on overdue fees. Any delay in payment of fees will result in an overdue charge of £5 per day, per invoice outstanding for the first week. A letter will be issued informing you of the overdue amount, 7 days after this letter a second and final letter will be issued carrying a charge of £27.50. In this letter you will be informed that the next course of action is to send your account to debt collection to recover the outstanding amount, and your childcare will cease (see Nursery Reclaim Procedure for full details). Returned cheques or standing orders will incur a £10 charge.
- Notice Period. Your child will be free to leave the nursery at anytime during the trial period, but any money paid will be forfeited. After the trial period, one month's written notice of your intention to withdraw your child from the nursery is required or one mont's fees in lieu of notice. We also require one month's notice if you wish to reduce or increase your child's sessions.
- Late Collection Charge. As we are not registered or insured before 8am and after 6pm, we are unable to accept children into the nursery outside these times. All children and parent/carers must leave the building by 6pm. Whilst we appreciate that a parent/carer may be unavoidable delayed, it is unfair to take advantage of the staff's dedication and unfair on the child. If you are late picking up your child, a charge of £2.50 for the first 5 minutes or part of will be incurred, £5 will be charged for the next 10 minutes or part of and £10 for every subsequent 10 minutes or part of. This applies to sessions finishing at lunchtime and the end of the day. You will be asked to sign a late form and will be invoiced with your monthly payments (see Late Collection Policy). All clocks are checked once a month with the speaking clock (by dialling 123). We adhere strictly to Insurance Policies and Ofsted rules on staff ratios and therefore cannot be overridden. If a parent/carer is unable to collect their child themselves, and alternative arrangements are made, the nursery staff should be informed by the PARENT. The person collecting their child must show some suitable form of identification and have a password (please refer to Safeguarding Children Policy).
- Nursery Closure. The nursery is closed for the Christmas and New Year holiday. During this closure you are entitled to a maximum of 5 working days free for this period irrespective of when Christmas falls - which equates to 1 week of your regular childcare free. For example this means if you attend for 3 days you will receive 3 days free childcare over the Christmas period irrespective of where Christmas falls. All other days, including Bank Holidays are payable in full.
Extreme Conditions. In the event of heavy snowfall or severe weather spells, it is the parent's responsibility to check forecasts and conditions so children are collected on time. Parents will be notified if they are required to pick up early. This also applies in the case of electricity blackouts or other unavoidable extreme situations. Anyone arriving late due to severe conditions will still be incurring a Late Collection Charge which will cover staff charges. ABC Kindergarten Ltd reserves the right to close the nursery in any extreme conditions - eg: weather. In these unfortunate situations the fees are still payable. - Medication. If your child needs to take prescribed or non-prescribed medication whilst attending the nursery please inform staff. Containers/bottles must be clearly marked with the original labels and dosage instructions clearly written by the prescriber, and signed by the parent in the nursery medication book. Non-prescribed medicine (ie Calpol) can be administered in emergency at the nursery's discretion with written consent by the parent.
PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE MEDICINE IN YOUR CHILD' BAG. - Sickness. The spread of infection must be avoided, therefore if your child is obviously ill on arrival we will not be able to accept them. A child with a doubtful rash, sickness, discharge from eyes, ears or nose and diarrhoea should be kept at home for 48 hours after the last symptoms. If your child has headlice, please refrain from bringing them to nursery until ALL LICE and EGGS are eradicated. If staff suspect a child has any contagious or infectious condition such as headlice, German Measles, Chicken Pox etc parents will be asked to collect their child. All children with a contagious or infectious condition will be isolated from other children until parent's arrival and we will inform the other families in the nursery about the illness via notices. If a child becomes ill during the day the parents will be contacted to collect them. ABC Kindergarten Ltd reserves the right to refuse entry to a child on a day/weekly basis (please refer to Illness Policy and the Heath Department guidance chart "Guidance on Infection Control in Schools and other Childcare Settings").
- Accidents & Incidents. All injuries, however small, will be recorded in the Accident Book. A parent will be notified and asked to acknowledge the incident and sign the book. Every precaution will be taken to avoid accidents, but it must be remembered that children do receive knocks and bumps during play and physical development. If your child receives bumps or bruises at home please inform a member of staff and sign the Accident Book. Basic first-aid will be administered at the nursery for minor injury. In the event of a major injury or illness an ambulance and then the parent/carer will be contacted. Day-time contact numbers are required on the registration form. If they change at any time the nursery must be informed immediately.
- Clothing and Personal Property. Please clearly label all your child's clothing. We ask that children do not bring in any unnecessary food, jewellery, money or other valuables into the nursery. Whilst the staff take every care to ensure belongings are safe ABC Kindergarten Ltd is not responsible for the loss or damage of personal belongings on the premises.
- Staff. Staff are required to sign a contractual clause that disallows them from working for any existing or ex-parent for a minimum of 12 months after the termination of their contract with ABC Kindergarten Ltd. Once staff have passed their probation (which is a minimum of 3 months), they are available to parents for babysitting at evenings or weekends on a private basis. ABC Kindergarten Ltd accepts no responsibility for any members of staff that wish to do so.
- Complaints. If you have any concerns or complaints we have a company policy within the nursery. We would ask that you express your concern to the Nursery Management either verbally or in writing or use the nursery suggestion form or day sheet. Management will note details of the complaint, make recommendations and the actions taken. All of the details of the complaint will be recorded. Once action has been taken a response will be made to the parent directly. As part of this Complaints Procedure all parents are entitled to approach OFSTED directly on 08456 404040 (please refer to Complaints Procedure).
- The right is reserved to terminate, without notice, any child's place at the nursery.
- All the nursery's Policies and Procedures are available in a parent handbook available on the Parent Board. These are updated as required and parents are informed and asked to acknowledge or make comment regarding any changes. if no acknowledgement is received changes are deemed to be accepted. It will be assumed that you are happy with all Policies and Procedures unless you specify in writing otherwise.
These terms, conditions and costings are subject to amendment.