Booking and Registration
By registering or making a booking with Little Lionhearts Nursery School, it is regarded that you have read and accepted our terms and conditions. We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions and our fee structure at our sole discretion. We will do our best to provide you with as much notice as possible and keep you informed of these changes.
To formally reserve a space at the nursery, you must complete and submit the registration form and make a registration fee of £250. Once the completed registration form and payment are received, you will be issued written confirmation of the placement. You may choose to accept or decline the offer within 7 days. Once you accept our offer, the registration fee will become non-refundable.
Once you have confirmed to accept our offer, we can provide 4.5 hours of complimentary settling-in sessions prior to the start date. We will investigate any special needs or resources that may be available to help the child settle in. We will work with you to cater for specific dietary and medical requirements of individual children to the best of our abilities. You must make sure any special diet or medical condition is communicated to us and confirmed in writing.
In consideration of a better childcare experience, there is a minimum booking commitment of two full days or three half days for all children.
Fees and Payment
For new starters to the Nursery, the first month’s fee and registration fee need to be paid in full before the child commences attendance. All ongoing fees are payable monthly in advance by Direct Debit, Tax-Free Account or via Childcare Voucher. Claimants of Tax-Free Childcare or Childcare Grant must use the relevant government portal to make or approve payment to the nursery 7 days prior to the invoice due date, otherwise, direct debit payment will be taken. The responsibility for timely payment of fees ultimately resides with the parents or legal guardians of the child.
The nursery closes for 3 staff inset days per year, as well as on bank holidays and for 1 week between Christmas and New Year. Therefore, our fees are calculated by taking the child’s weekly attendance fee and multiplying it by 50.4 (weeks of the year), then dividing by 12 to give an evenly divided monthly payment. Extra sessions are payable by card, cash or bank transfer.
The nursery has absolutely no obligation to accommodate a child who is collected late if we are not able to do so. If a child remains uncollected with no notification for more than 30 minutes after normal collection timelines, we are required by law to contact the local authority. A late fee of £1 for every minute will be charged after the agreed collection time.
We are unable to make pro-rata refunds for sessions not taken due to illness, absence, bank holiday or holidays.
For any late payments, the nursery reserves the right to charge a £25 administrative fee, any outstanding fees will also attract an interest charge at 2% above our bank’s standard rate. For any failed Direct Debit or cheque we will charge a £5 administration fee. Children may be excluded from the Nursery if fees remain outstanding beyond 14 days from their due date.
Policies and Procedures
Our nursery policies and procedures are available at the reception, if you require a copy please ask a member of staff.
Cancellation, Suspension and Termination
You may end this agreement at any time by giving us one month’s notice in writing; However, if your child is eligible to claim the government’s childcare funding, you are required to give us at least two months’ notice. During the notice period, the parent/guardian must maintain fee payments as they become due. Failure to make a payment on time or failure to provide the required notice would result in the parent/guardian being liable for one month’s payment regardless of the child’s attendance.
We may end this agreement with immediate effect if
- you have not paid the agreed fees
- you have breached your obligations under this agreement and you have or cannot put right that breach within a reasonable period of being requested to do so
- you behave unacceptably, as we will not tolerate any physical or verbal abuse towards staff
- your child’s behaviour is unacceptable or endangers the safety and well-being of other children in the Nursery
Extraordinarily, we may also end this agreement if any financial, business or commercial reasons compel us to radically change the nature of the nursery’s operations, including but not limited to the permanent closure of the nursery, change of childcare service, re-registration of child numbers and age groups, changes to the registration and bookings policy. We will provide as much notice as possible given any of these events.
We may suspend the provision of childcare for any of the reasons below:
- if your child is suffering from an infectious or contagious disease or illness that may easily be passed on to others at the Nursery. The suspension will continue whilst we try to resolve the problem in conjunction with the parent/carer.
- where forces beyond our control compel us to either close the Nursery or reduce the available hours
Where the Nursery is forced to close due to circumstances beyond our control, we shall be under no obligation to provide alternative childcare facilities to you.
If during this agreement and for a period of 6 months after the termination of this agreement, you (directly or indirectly) employ or otherwise engage the service of any member of our staff, or allow or permit the provision of any childcare services to your children by any member of our staff, then you shall pay us a figure representing 20% of the relevant member of staff’s gross annual salary at the time they left our employment and/or services.
We have an obligation to report to the appropriate authorities any incident where we consider a child may have been abused, neglected or in some other way harmed either physically or emotionally. This may be done with or without informing you.
Complaints
Your satisfaction is of paramount importance to us, if you have any complaints or concerns then we request in the first instance you speak to the nursery manager in order to resolve the matter.