Positive relationships: Let's talk about ... Late arriving parents
Melanie Defries
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
How tolerant should private nurseries be about what time parents pick up their children, and to what extent can they afford it? Melanie Defries talks to a group of managers.
Q: Why do you charge parents for arriving late, and how much do you charge them?
'We charge parents £1 a minute for being late. It's something we have done since we opened five years ago. We feel that staff already work a long enough day, and the late fee goes directly to whoever has to wait behind for any parents.'
'We charge parents £20 for every 15 minutes that they are late. However, we do not charge them the first time it happens, as long as they are no more than 15 minutes late. It acts as a deterrent and encourages parents to be punctual!'
'We have recently increased our charges from £1 to £5 a minute for parents who arrive late to collect their children. We felt that we had to do this because some parents were arriving more than half an hour late on a regular basis.
'Often they would not even call to tell us they were going to be late and we'd have to chase them to find out what time they were going to arrive.
'On a few occasions we were not able to contact the parents at all and we feared that something terrible had happened to them. We also had an Ofsted inspection where we were criticised for having children on our premises after 6pm.
'The inspectors said that if we didn't deal with the situation, then Ofsted would. We had to have a meeting with them and explain how we were going to address this.'
'We charge parents a flat rate of £15. We first introduced this charge over eight years ago when we noticed that late collection was becoming a problem. Parents get one warning on the first occasion and after this they get charged, which discourages them from doing it again. However, we do look at each case individually. If a parent calls to say they have been held up or there is some sort of emergency, we may not charge them.'
'We do charge parents for being late and we explain this clearly in our contractual terms and conditions. However, charges are waived on the first occasion that it happens, as long as we are given two hours notice and as long as it is by no more than 15 minutes. After that the charges are £25 for the first half an hour and £50 for every hour after that.
'Staff do have some discretion if a parent is only a few minutes late. However, we have had parents who have arrived 2.5 hours late because they have been in the pub.'
Q: How do parents respond to being charged for late collection?
'We have only had to charge one parent so far; this parent was consistently late and never called in to let us know. Also, on several occasions we were unable to contact the parent to find out what time they would be arriving.
'We have tried to explain to parents that we are not registered to look after children after 6 o'clock, and that we are not insured to offer childcare outside of these hours. I have written this in newsletters and tried to tell parents that if anything happened to a child who was here after 6pm our insurance company would not pay out and Ofsted could close us down.'
'In general, our parents are quite punctual and we have not had to charge anyone for a long time. When parents have been late in the past, most haven't complained about having to pay a charge, although some parents can get quite snooty about it. Most of them understand that if they arrive after 6pm it means that our staff have to work late and that the charge is used to pay them.'
'We explain our charges to parents when they first visit the nursery and it is in the terms and conditions of their contract. Most parents appreciate that staff are being held back themselves and have to be paid for this. We ask parents to arrive at least ten minutes before closing time so that there is no last-minute rush and staff have time to talk to parents about what their child has been doing.'
'What parents don't always realise is that some staff have their own children who are at nursery and if parents are late, staff sometimes have to pay late collection fees for their own child.'
'If parents have been late we send them a letter so that staff do not have to get involved in asking for the extra money. The letter states that they need to pay the late fee within 24 hours or we have the right to terminate their contract. We find that parents do not get as emotional as they do when a member of staff has to ask them for money. The letter makes it very clear that is a contractual matter.'
'Late collection charges can invoke complaints from parents who often say that they are already paying for our services and object to paying another fee. So, we explain to them that the charge is for a different service and that they have to consider the costs that we have to bear as a business, because of their lateness.'
'We detail our late collection fees in our official terms and conditions. However, we have had some problems in the past because parents were not reading the terms and conditions of the contract. So now we go through things like this on the induction day.'
'Most parents are very reasonable about the late charges because they know that the money is paid directly to staff.'
Q: Do the late charges help to improve parents' punctuality?
'Increasing our late charges has had quite a good effect. Not many parents have been late recently. We have seen a definite improvement and Ofsted seem to be happy!'
'At the moment we do not have a problem with lateness, but it changes with every new crop of parents that we get.'
'We very rarely have incidents where parents do not call to let us know that they will be late. In fact, we don't have much of a problem with lateness at all.'
'We find that having a stringent policy on late collection discourages parents from being late. For example, one parent called in this week and said that her partner was going to be 20 minutes late arriving. When staff explained that the charge would be £25 the parent changed her mind and said that her partner was not going to be late after all. So we find that it makes parents reconsider.'
AN EXPERT'S VIEW
By Claire Schofield, Director of Membership, Policy and Communications at the National Day Nurseries Association
Fees for late collection of children are a delicate issue for nurseries. Settings do not want parents to feel they take a draconian approach and do not understand that parents sometimes face difficulties in arriving on time; equally, nursery teams cannot constantly deal with the inconvenience and cost of consistently late parents.
The key is to have a clear policy on your approach that you enforce. Recent media headlines saw claims that some nurseries are charging up to £5 per minute for late collection of children. While this level of charges is very much the exception, more and more nurseries are looking at a late collection policy to help deter parents and cover their costs.
Your policy should clearly outline your approach and any action you will take. Charges should of course be stated, but equally your policy should also share the reasons for these charges, including how you are required to ensure that there are two staff on the premises and that these individuals are then being paid on your overtime rate. You should also remind parents that your staff have their own commitments, and consistent lateness can cause them problems. Also, if a parent arrives late, this can mean that a child is being cared for outside of your registered hours.
As a nursery, you should also consider how you can make your policy fair - for example, highlighting that you understand that sometimes there are unavoidable situations such as parents held up by delayed or cancelled trains, or a parent becoming stuck on the motorway due to an accident. You can consider saying to parents that in such situations, and with as much notice as possible, you will waive any late charges to a maximum of, say, once a month. Discretion is key - if a parent calls you from a broken down train an hour before their expected arrival, you may choose not to charge, while you may choose to enforce charges for another parent who simply arrives an hour late without telling you for the second time in a week.
Communication is vital, and late charges are mostly a last resort. Suggest to consistently late parents that they either need to speak to their employer about their own work-life balance, consider discussing the possibility of arranging for their child to stay for longer, or think about alternative pick-up arrangements.
Late charges are a contentious issue for many parents, and you must be clear in your stance and also ensure you enforce the policy when required. This can send a clear signal to parents that consistent lateness is not acceptable, and while you will be understanding as far as possible, it is not fair to children, staff or other parents if you are consistently having to care for children beyond the agreed session times.