Late Pickup

[Guest]

We have a certain parent who is always late picking up their child from pre-school, ranging from 10 minutes to beleive it or not 1 hour last week. We how ever informed her that she will be charged for that hour, as two members of staff had to stay behind, luckly they had no appointments to attend too. As usually we have no written evidence in our policy regarding late pickups and the charges we should be making, it does say to inform next authorised person in which we did and if nobody answers to ring ofsted etc

Doe's anybody have a certain statement included in there prospectus about late pickups that I could add to ours and also what charges that you may apply for beng late. What is the time limit to start ringing ofsted?

[Guest]

Found a recent discussion about this here. There is also a link on this thread to a previous one. Hope it helps.

[Guest]

We're not a pre-school but a nursery, we charge £1 per minute, and we do charge it! We still get late comers but not as many and usually only 5/6 minutes! We give them a warning 1st and if they ring we use our discretion, however if its a regular thing then they get charged regularly! Only ever had 1 complaint about it - but they paid!

[Guest]

We recently introduced a late collection charge at our pre-school as last year we had two parents who were always late and never apologised. We have had to charge it this term for one of the persistent offenders. We rewrote our collection policy to reflect it prior to the summer holiday and drew all parents attention to it also. When we made the charge this term we firstly sent a polite reminder of the change just in case she had not heard about it through the various means we used. Eventually we reluctantly made the charge. Her response? - I just seem to lose track of time! Still no apology either. Now we have no qualms about making the charge which is £5 for each 15 minutes or part thereof. We bill at the end of the week and have pre-printed invoices to complete on the Friday lunchtime detailing the times she was late and the charges. We give payment terms of 30 days and issue a receipt.

Edited November 27, 2008 by Guest

[Guest]

Currently we don't charge in nursery but some people do take the .......... and so we are contemplating a charge there.

 

In after school its £5 for every 5 minutes after 6pm (when we shut).

 

We haven't had many latecomers since the charge was enforced a couple of times!!!!!!

[Guest]

Hi Aussie

Do you have terms and conditions which the parents have to sign and return to you? We have had problems in the past with non payment of fees when parents have pulled their children out and they have refused to pay the half term cancellation fees. They always said that they didn't know about it. So now we give them two copies of the terms and conditions, one they keep and the other is returned to us and they have to sign it. They cannot then use the excuse that they didn't know about it. This also applies to late collection. We give parents a leeway of 5 minutes, we know we can all be late from time to time. And we will use our discretion in one off cases. But for persistent late collections we charge £5 for each half hour and part of.

Linda

[AnonyMouse_13453]

In the past I have charged the per capita rate for employing two members of staff for the additional half hour. It didn't happen again! I must add that this was with a persistent offender and i had warned her in advance that i would do this.

[AnonyMouse_6021]

We had to phone a dad today to say his daughter hadn't been collected from pre-school, he apologised profusely and turned up five minutes later to collect. He had no problem signing the late book and understood the next time he would be charged, he apologised again and left. Ten minutes later his partner came in, in floods of tears, we told her not to worry as dad had picked up. She was crying because she was supposed to collect and had forgotton, she was absolutely distraught, but wanted to apologise personally. This was the first time they had ever been late, and if either were late again I think all of us would be loathe to implement the late charge. Thankfully our boss has says said she trusts us to use our discretion. Having said that we do have one regular offender who happily signs the late book nearly everyday but has yet to pay a penny, and I doubt she ever will as her son leaves at Christmas.

Karrie

[AnonyMouse_5677]

does anyone have a policy/proceedure for when another childcare provider (childminder/ day nursery) collects late?x

[Guest]

thanks all for your replys, will start implementing these suggestions and re writing the policy and procedures and giving a copy to all parents. Perhaps next lot of new children will get parents to sign new terms and conditions re: late pickup.

thanks again

[AnonyMouse_7677]

We also charge a late pick up 'fine' £5 up to 6.15, £10 up to 6.30 and if later than this will liaise with management committee.

Just an additional thought! we have been told by our Birth to 5 advisor that if we have a child who hasn't been collected and after we have tried every contact number on their day care record for up to an hour after we close at 6 p.m. we are then to contact the Social Services for advice, stating we have a child that has not been collected.

[Guest]

WE HAVE A FEW PARENTS WHO COLLECT LATE AND ON ONE OCCASION THEY NEW THEY WERE GOING TO BE LATE SO I CHARGED THEM £5 PER 5 MINS HE PAID IT AND LEFT DUE TO SAYING IF IT HAPPENED AGAIN I WILL RING SOCIAL CARE. WE HAVE IT IN OUR POLICIES IN THE SAME CATAGREE AS LOST CHILD AND ALSO IN THE INDUCTION PACKS FOR PARENTS.

[AnonyMouse_18183]

We had to phone a dad today to say his daughter hadn't been collected from pre-school, he apologised profusely and turned up five minutes later to collect. He had no problem signing the late book and understood the next time he would be charged, he apologised again and left. Ten minutes later his partner came in, in floods of tears, we told her not to worry as dad had picked up. She was crying because she was supposed to collect and had forgotton, she was absolutely distraught, but wanted to apologise personally. This was the first time they had ever been late, and if either were late again I think all of us would be loathe to implement the late charge.

 

Bless...

 

[AnonyMouse_18183]

WE HAVE A FEW PARENTS WHO COLLECT LATE AND ON ONE OCCASION THEY NEW THEY WERE GOING TO BE LATE SO I CHARGED THEM £5 PER 5 MINS HE PAID IT AND LEFT DUE TO SAYING IF IT HAPPENED AGAIN I WILL RING SOCIAL CARE. WE HAVE IT IN OUR POLICIES IN THE SAME CATAGREE AS LOST CHILD AND ALSO IN THE INDUCTION PACKS FOR PARENTS.

 

Welcome to the forum BOOMERANGSDAY

 

[Guest]

We too have been told to contact Social Services if a child hasn't been collected within half an hour and we have tried every possible contact number in their file, have only ever once been 5 mins away from calling - phew!

[AnonyMouse_8466]

Welcome to the Forum, BOOMERANGSDAY!

[AnonyMouse_3139]

Hi BOOMERANGSDAY, welcome to the forum

 

I do wonder about parents who forget their child! I mean, how could you? There were always enough reminders of the little horrors, opps, I mean sweethearts, around for me never to forget mine.

[Guest]

does anyone have a policy/proceedure for when another childcare provider (childminder/ day nursery) collects late?x

 

I too would be interested in what others do for this.

[AnonyMouse_12805]

Surely the proceedure or policy woulkd be the same for whoever it was? Our contracts are with parents first and any policies are the responsibility of the parent to adhere to and surely to ensure their 'representitive' does as well. Any fees are sent to parents, so therefore I would send any late charges to parents as well, regardless of who picks up the child.

[Guest]

Hi

 

I have just opened a new nursery and on the advice of a friend who owns a nursery we have £10 per 15 minutes on the basis that it needs to be expensive enough to be a deterrent!!!

 

Best wishes

 

Stephanie