Funding during closure

[AnonyMouse_55007]

Hi

Just want to know if anyone has heard whether we will still receive the money for the funded children from the Local Authority if we are forced to close, as this is practically 99% of our income for our pre school that comes in and if that stopped because we had to close then it would have a very serious impact on our finances. Have not heard or seen anything from our LA to say one way or the other about it, unless I have missed seeing it somewhere lol. 

 

[AnonyMouse_54312]

Hi, I've just spoken to the LA and they are saying they will honour the funding.

 

[AnonyMouse_19782]

it would be a big surprise if LEA's didn't honour funding.  To them this is "dead" money - they have budgeted for it.  Far more difficult for parents paying fees to honour their side, technically they should be budgeting for their child's fees, but in reality not many parents really ring fence that money and would feel aggrieved at having to pay for something they are not actually getting the benefit of.

[AnonyMouse_5970]

21 minutes ago, Panders said:

 Far more difficult for parents paying fees to honour their side, technically they should be budgeting for their child's fees, but in reality not many parents really ring fence that money and would feel aggrieved at having to pay for something they are not actually getting the benefit of.

This will be the difficulty for us if we have to close.  We are day care 0 - 5, so have lots of fee paying children as well as funded.  I don't know how I would pay staff if we didn't have our fees but at the same time, we never charge when we're closed - snow days, bank holidays etc.  It's so worrying, I just want someone to tell me what to do.

[AnonyMouse_50818]

We have a lot of children that are not in due to parents worrying. There is no information about private nurseries and what will happen, we are all just waiting to be contacted by our Local Authority....

Parents are not going to pay their fees if we close! I suggest that you contact some of your local nursery managers and see what they are doing. What are they telling parents with regards to paying fees? We are all going to have to work together as the Local Authority  are  not going to approach us and say 'hey we will pay all the fees for you whilst your closed' 

I have 4 invoices that parents haven't paid due to keeping their child off, I can see more parents doing the same by the end of this month. 

I don't think they will hold back funding if we have to close, surely they wouldn't be that silly

My other concern is children that are not attending now! As we all know we have to inform the council if a child has had more than 2 weeks off as the will stop funding them. 

One important message is we must ensure we continue to follow our safeguarding procedures and contact the families to see why children are not attending. If they have a social worker or an Early Help plan, please contact whoever is leading on the case to let them know the child is at home.

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by nomski100

[AnonyMouse_8282]

Hoping this link works

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-childcare-offers-to-continue-during-coronavirus-closures?utm_source=81af3210-cd22-496a-9f51-1c72514c14e8&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate&fbclid=IwAR1wM2muzHDdbyn1dijFEUzf-m1YJbwpCCL-0_dFB4iUvMnxCHTV8kxfXYU

Thank goodness for that!