Full Terms and Conditions
Little Haven Nursery - TERMS & CONDITIONS
Whilst we try to keep our terms and conditions as brief as possible, nonetheless, because we are caring for very young children, we are naturally obligated to many rules, regulations and also a good deal of legislation. We take our responsibilities very seriously and in that regard we have to be very clear to our parents and carers about the framework within which we operate. Please take time to read the following pages as it will help us provide and maintain the highest standards of care.
The terms and conditions detailed in this document represent the key elements of our booking agreement. However, as you can appreciate there is a significant amount of day to day detail which cannot be reasonably contained in one document. Consequently, you are also provided with supplementary information as well as the day to day exchange and communication of documentation, Parentzone, policies, procedures and reports.
Your acceptance of our terms is initiated at the booking and registration stage. Whilst this agreement naturally has legal implications, we always act with fairness and take into account specific circumstances before making decisions. The success of your child’s time here at Little Haven Nursery is dependent on the partnership between the Nursery and our parents and carers. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you wish to discuss the terms further.
It is imperative that you return your completed signed Registration and parent Agreement Forms and details following your child’s first settling in visit.
Where possible this must be signed by both parents and given to the Nursery Manager. It is extremely important that you inform us of any alterations to telephone numbers, contact details or any other changes which occur throughout the year as these forms are updated annually.
The booking is not complete until the relevant booking form has been signed and returned to the Nursery along with the agreed deposit (£50). This deposit will be returned or offset against your final month’s fees when your child leaves the Nursery, providing a minimum period of three months attendance and appropriate notice is given.
Unfortunately, should you cancel your place, the deposit will become non-refundable due to the fact that we have had to turn someone else away to secure the place.
Changes to your booking before the start date – Changes that do not reduce the number of sessions booked, to swap days for example, or changes to increase the number of sessions booked, can be made as available and may affect the deposit. Decreasing the number of sessions booked will be reasonably considered and taking into account circumstances, notice, amount of reduction and our other booking requirements. We reserve the right to cancel your booking and withhold all or part of the deposit if the decrease is greater than one full day or two half sessions or there is an unreasonable delay to the start date.
Changes to your booking after the start date – Swapping or increasing sessions can be considered as detailed in the previous point. If we cannot accommodate your request to increase or change sessions, then we can put you on our waiting list or you may wish to terminate the booking giving 4 weeks notice. Decreases to your booking require 4 weeks notice. We reserve the right to cancel your booking and withhold all or part of the deposit if the decrease is greater than one full day or two half sessions.
Prior to making your booking we can provide up to 5.5 hours settling in free of charge. In the unlikely event that a child does not settle at the Nursery, (1) the parent / carer may terminate the booking with 4 weeks notice. (2) the Nursery reserves the right to terminate the booking giving 2 weeks notice if we feel we have acted with all due care to settle a child and in our opinion it has been unsuccessful. Before taking such action, we will investigate any additional resources that might be available to help settle the child.
We do not charge a registration fee.
If your booking and the place is confirmed by us, it is not possible to reduce the booking for 4 weeks after commencement. After this time the Nursery requires 4 weeks notice of any changes.
Once a place has been taken up, the Nursery requires 4 weeks written notice of any changes
Fees and Financial
Our fees apply to normal opening hours of 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. for a full day and 7.30 a.m. - 1.00 p.m. or 1.00 p.m. - 5.30 p.m. for a half day. We ask that parents collect at either 12.50pm or 5.25pm at the latest so that a thorough positive transition can occur. All ongoing fees are payable in advance by Standing order or childcare voucher on the first day of the month to which they relate and by the 7thof the month at the latest before any charges may be incurred. Fees are calculated monthly/annually and divided by each calendar month and are discounted to reflect the fact that the Nursery is closed between Christmas and New Year. All Bank holidays are chargeable, we cannot offer additional days to parents due to the loss of a day by a bank holiday. We do not provide discounts for family holidays, sickness or extended periods of absence.
The Nursery is closed at weekends, Bank Holidays and between Christmas and New Year and our fees are structured accordingly; effectively you pay for 51 weeks of the year.
In some cases the Nursery has already adjusted our fees to take into account that we are closed during Christmas and New Year. Further discounts for Nursery closure may be offered in exceptional circumstances and assuming the closure is within our control.
For new starters to the Nursery the first month’s fees can be paid later to allow time for the Direct Debit/standing order mandate to be initiated.
We adhere to a strict child/staff ratio, therefore it is important that you do not arrive earlier than the agreed starting time or later than the agreed finishing time. Nursery fees are payable monthly in advance. Invoices are issued around the 1st of each month and payable by the 7th of each month and are to be paid by Standing order. We accept Childcare Vouchers. If you wish to take advantage of a voucher scheme please inform the Nursery Manager. There will be a charge of £25 for any returned payments.
If your child’s start date is part way through the month then we will invoice for the actual sessions taken and begin the annualised calendar month calculation the following month.
Fees are reviewed once per year normally between March and April. Any changes to the fee rates will be notified to you at least 4 weeks in advance. We will raise invoices each month unless you request us to not do so.
Extra sessions are payable on the day in cash or via Bacs transfer, prior to additional day starting. In certain circumstances extras may need to be paid for on the day by cash. We will advise you at the time of booking if this is the case. Additional hours outside of contracts will be charged at £10 per hour.
There is no VAT to be paid on any of our charges.
‘Parentzone’ is available and will be at an additional monthly cost to parents per month
We are unable to refund fees for sessions not taken due to illness, holidays, absences, bank holidays or where the Nursery is forced to close due to circumstances beyond our control.
The Nursery reserves the right to charge interest on late fees at the rate of 2% above the Bank of England base rate. For re-presented cheques a minimum charge of £25 will be made. Children may be excluded from the Nursery if fees remain outstanding beyond 7 days from their due date.
There is a minimum booking commitment for children aged 6 weeks to 5 years of either one full day or two afternoon or morning sessions. Bookings must be for the same session(s) each week. It is not possible to swap days, so that for example, a normally booked Thursday is swapped for a Friday on a one off or temporary basis. Additional days can be accepted as a chargeable extra and subject to availability.
Because of the staffing and resource requirements as laid down by CIW. Should you arrive later than the finishing time with no contact (being 1pm and 5.30pm) or the agreed end time, you will be charged at a rate of £1per minute or £25.00 per 15 minutes. Any exceptional circumstances will, of course, be taken into consideration.
Discounts are available for core childcare paying siblings in the Nursery, this does not relate to Childcare Offer children. The discount is provided to the older child and remains in place until the older child leaves. The rate of this discount will be 5% for each additional child. Discounts are also available for full time bookings (5 days) at a rate of 5% from the monthly fee. The maximum discount available under any circumstances is 5%
If you are not collecting your child personally from nursery, it is essential that staff are made aware of the person that you have authorised to do so in your absence. Only persons identified on enrolment forms are able to collect your child. A password system is used and we will not allow children to leave with anyone who cannot give the password to staff. We also ask that as a parent you do not let any person into the nursery that you are not familiar with, even if you believe it to be another parent.
You should provide a complete change of clothes for your child which is kept at the nursery. These must be clearly labelled. We also require the children to wear slippers or indoor shoes whilst in baby room and within the nursery and wellies for outdoor play.
Prescribed medicine which is clearly labelled for your child can be administered by a member of staff during the nursery day and once handed over will be stored appropriately. Parents sign daily medicine forms to authorise staff to administer the prescribed dosage. At the end of the day you will be requested to sign to confirm that you have been informed of dosage and times administered. In addition, should your child develop a high temperature whilst at nursery we will reduce clothing, we can no longer offer Calpol/Ibuprofen and you will be called or messaged to advise you. If your child’s state of health does not improve you will be asked to collect them from nursery, preferably within half an hour. Please adhere to our Sickness and Illness Policy and our communicable disease policies for guidelines concerning your child’s time away from nursery following an illness.
All our employees are contracted not to undertake a position of work of a similar nature with a customer of Parachutes Childcare Limited/Little Haven Nurseries Ltd for a period of 2 months after leaving our employment and are bound by this contractual condition. Failure to comply with the above will render the employer liable to pay to Parachutes a sum equivalent to two months salary for the employee at the time they terminate their contract with us.
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information. We do not store credit card details nor do we share details with any 3rd parties.
4 weeks notice in writing is required, should you wish to cancel your nursery place for any reason. Therefore, 4 weeks fees is due from the date of notice.
Termination and Suspension of Childcare Services
You may end this agreement by giving four weeks written notice. No specific reason for ending the agreement needs to be given, although naturally we would wish to understand the reason for the termination.
Specifically, you may end this agreement with immediate effect if (1) we have breached any of our obligations under this agreement and we have not or cannot put right that breach within a reasonable period of being requested to do so (2) we change any of the terms and conditions in an unreasonable manner.
Specifically, we reserve the right to end this agreement with immediate effect if (1) you have not paid the agreed fees (2) you have breached your obligations under your agreement and you have or cannot put right that breach within a reasonable period of being requested to do so (3) if it is considered that yours or your child’s behaviour is unacceptable or endangers the safety and well-being of any of the other children or staff in the Nursery (4) financial, business or commercial reasons compel us to radically change the nature of the Nursery’s operations, including but not limited to permanent closure of the Nursery, change of childcare service, re-registration of child numbers and age groups, changes to the registration and bookings policy. Naturally, we will provide as much notice as possible given any of these events.
We may suspend the provision of childcare for any of the above reasons and in addition (1) if your child is suffering from an infectious or contagious disease or illness which may easily be passed onto others at the Nursery. The suspension will continue whilst we try to resolve the problem in conjunction with the parent / carer. (2) where forces beyond our control compel us to either close the Nursery or reduce the available hours, such as an outbreak of disease that involves the intervention of outside agencies such as Environmental Health, Track and Trace, severe weather such as snow or ice which significantly impairs safe travel to and from the Nursery, industrial action affecting travel to and from the Nursery, CIW investigation or any other reasonable incident not in our control. In the event that the Nursery is compelled to close in reasonable circumstances beyond our control we are not able to refund fees or organise alternative childcare, nor can we accept any consequential liability sustained by parents / carers due for example to loss of earnings or costs associated with alternative childcare. Every effort will be made to minimise the disruption to service and cost to parents or carers. None of the above compromises your statutory rights if the Nursery has been negligent.
Staffing
Staff are checked on commencement with the Nursery through the Disclosure and Barring Service to ensure there are no safeguarding issues of which we need to be aware. Suitable person checks also include but are not limited to identity verification, qualification checks, personal and employment references, medical checks and where applicable visas or permits to work in the UK.
The Nursery observes the CIW regulations relating to staff and children ratios, currently 0-2 years 1:3, 2-3 years 1:4 and 3 to 5 years 1:8.
Where a member of staff, within 3 months of leaving the employment of the Nursery, is employed by a parent/carer to care for their child, who was previously registered at the Nursery, then the parent / carer will be liable to pay a sum equivalent to two month’s salary for the employee at the time their employment with the Nursery terminated.
Parents/carers may ask staff to baby-sit outside Nursery hours. This is a contract between parent/carer and the member of staff, and the Nursery takes no responsibility.
Health, Safety and Absence
It is understood that the Nursery is under an obligation to report to the appropriate authorities any incident/disclosure where we consider a child may have been abused, neglected or in some other way harmed either physically or emotionally. This may be done without informing the parent or carer, in accordance with our Safeguarding Children Policy.
Intimate care can be provided by a male or female member of our staff and can include feeding, washing, dressing, toileting and nappy changing. Furthermore, the Nursery will ensure that practitioners’ employment rights are not infringed.
The Nursery is committed to the identification of and provision for children with Additional Learning Needs. We believe that the potential of every child in our care is maximised, irrespective of ability, disability, race, gender and social background and to enable equal access to the curriculum in an environment where every child is valued and respected. Parents and carers must ensure we have all the relevant information regarding any additional needs to enable us to appropriately care for your child.
In fairness to all our staff and to the clients and children that use our facilities we expect reasonable standards of behaviour at all times. We therefore reserve the right to exclude any child/parent whose conduct is, in our opinion, disruptive or in any other way unacceptable to the smooth and efficient running of our Nursery. Naturally in a child’s case, every effort will be made to avoid this action and may include additional needs assessment or one to one care if funding allows. We ask all parents / carers to appreciate this and to understand that, in the event of having to exclude any child, all fees are non-refundable.
All Nursery meals are prepared on site with consideration to provide a well balanced diet. Vegetarians and special dietary requirements are catered for. A copy of the weekly menu is displayed on the notice board. Please ensure you keep us notified about your child’s dietary needs and preferences. We may from time to time use outside caters if the chef is on annual leave or during recruitment, all checks will be undertaken by the Nursery manager to ensure food is safe.
We reserve the right to administer basic first aid and treatment when necessary. Parents will be informed of all accidents and will be required to sign an accident form. For accidents of a more serious nature, involving hospital treatment, all attempts will be made by Nursery to contact the parents but failing this, we are hereby authorised to act on behalf of parents to consent to necessary treatment from a suitably qualified medical source. We will administer prescribed medicines if parents complete a ‘Medicine Consent’ form; however, the first dose of medicine must be given at home and parents must take all medicines home at the end of each day unless otherwise agreed.
We may require parents to withdraw their child from Nursery, in the event that they require special medical care or attention, which is not available or refused by parents or it is considered that the child is not well enough to attend Nursery. We may also ask parents to withdraw their child from Nursery, if we have reasonable cause to believe that they are or maybe suffering from or have suffered from any contagious disease/infection and there remains a danger that other children at the Nursery may contract such a disease/infection. We accept no responsibility for children contracting contagious diseases/infections whilst at Nursery. Parents are requested to inform the Nursery if their child is suffering from any illness or sickness before attending Nursery.
Parents are requested to inform the Nursery of any food, medicine, activity or any other circumstances that may cause the child to have an allergic reaction/ allergy. Parents must provide details, in writing, of the severity of the reaction/ allergy and must continue to inform the Nursery of any changes/progress to the condition, in writing, when they become aware. Parents are requested to inform the Nursery of any changes to key information.
Children who are unwell should NOT attend the Nursery. Children who have suffered from sickness or diarrhoea will not be admitted back to Nursery within 48 hours after the last bout. If children fall ill during the day parents will be contacted to arrange to collect them. If the parents are unavailable other authorised contacts will be called.
We suggest that all personal toys, books or other equipment are left at home. Comforters can be brought into the nursery.
The Nursery provides a car park when dropping and collecting your child. Please ensure your child is supervised at all times in the car park. Do not park close to the buildings and be aware of your speed. The Nursery is not liable for any accidents or injury whilst customers are using the car park or responsible for any loss or damage, whilst using the car park.
Children should come in normal day clothes. Please avoid ‘designer’ clothes as accidents can happen. One change of clothes should be provided, in a labelled bag. Please label your child’s clothes to help avoid items going missing or being misplaced. The Nursery does not accept responsibility for accidental injury or loss of property, although we take very good care of your child’s property whilst in the Nursery.
The Nursery does maintain those insurances required by law. Details are posted in the Parent Reception Area.
The Nursery acknowledges its duty of care to uphold the Statutory Guidance issued under section 29 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, the central function of which is to take due regard to our role in assisting the prevention of adults and children in our care from being drawn into terrorism or radicalisation.
Security and Publicity
As part of the nursery’s fulfilment of the Early Years Foundation Phase we regularly photograph and sometimes video the children taking part in their activities. Imagery is never published without the consent of the parent or carer. Our guidelines are as follows (1) Photographs in the Nursery are only taken with Nursery cameras or authorised devices such as Tablet computers. (2) Staff mobile phones with or without cameras are not allowed in the playrooms or the garden. (3) Photographs taken of the children are stored on the Nursery computer and are password protected. (4) Photographs are vetted for suitability before being printed or published. (5) All children are dressed appropriately before pictures are taken. (6) No photographs are taken in sensitive areas such as toilets or nappy changing rooms. (7) Parents are requested not to use their mobile phones within the Nursery premises unless absolutely necessary. If you do not wish your child to be photographed or recorded please inform the Nursery in writing.
The Nursery operates a CCTV system which is for security purposes only and is not connected to any exterior network other than for remote maintenance by the Proprietor or authorised CCTV engineer.
Under no circumstances will the child be allowed to leave Nursery with anyone unknown to Nursery staff unless the parent or carer has previously arranged this. If the parent/carer has made alternative arrangements by telephone, the Nursery will require the person permitted to collect the child be told the password which will be required upon arrival at the Nursery. A list of responsible adults who are authorised to collect the child should be given to the Nursery Manager.
We observe The Data Protection Act 1998 which is a statutory act of the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Act defines what types of data are allowed to be collected, how they should be stored and what can and cannot be done with that information. In particular The Act states that personal data relating to individuals must be stored securely and only used for legitimate purpose.
Other
If you have any complaints about the service that we are offering, can you please in the first instance contact your child’s key worker, then the Nursery Manager or Proprietor, and in the final instance, CIW.
We may change the terms and conditions where such change arises from regulatory issues or changes in legislation affecting us, proposed changes in invoicing procedures, or in our reasonable opinion it is in the interests of children attending the Nursery. We will give you at least one month’s written notice of such change, where possible or we are not legally required to do so with immediate effect.
We will not be in breach of these terms or otherwise liable to you by reason of any delay in performance or non-performance of its obligations due to an event outside its reasonable control including ‘acts of God’, fire, flood, snow, lightning, war, act of terrorism, strikes or other industrial action.
Acceptance of this agreement is implicit when you sign our booking document and applies to all parties noted on the booking form, irrespective of whether the secondary parties have signed the form. We would respectfully request that if parents / carers experience difficulty in fulfilling any of the conditions of this agreement, that they contact the Nursery Manager or the Proprietor as soon as possible. We will do our very best to resolve the issue.
Thank you.