Terms & Conditions

The following terms and conditions govern the basis on which we agree to provide Childcare Services to you.

1. Our obligation to you
1. We will try to accommodate any requests you may make for additional sessions and/or extended hours of childcare at the Pre-school.
2. We will notify you as soon as possible of any days the Pre-school is closed.
3. We will provide you with verbal updates of your child’s progress.
4. We will try to make available a place in Pre-school for any of your other children. However, we cannot guarantee a place.
5. Subject to sufficient places being available we can accept older children - up to the end of their Reception year - during the school holidays only. Sessions must be booked a minimum of 4 weeks in advance, and these will be invoiced at the time of booking. Priority will be given to Preschool children.
6. We can only take school aged children who have deferred a school place, if we have availability and subject to provision mapping.
7. We will adhere to the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR 2018) when collecting and processing information about you and your child. We explain how your data is processed, collected and kept up-to-date in our Privacy Notice which is available to view on our website www.claydonpreschool.co.uk or from the Pre-school office.
2. Your obligation to us
1. You will need to complete all the details on the Famly App, including permissions and allergies (if applicable), as well as providing us with the completed All About Me form and a copy of your child’s birth certificate or passport before your child’s first session at our Pre-school.
1. If you are eligible for 15-hour 2-year working funding or 30-hour 3/4-year funding, you are responsible for obtaining the 15/30-hour code from the Childcare Choices website. This code must be provided to us with your National Insurance number before the term you wish to use the funding for commences so that eligibility can be checked prior to your child’s funded place being booked. This code must be renewed every 3 months on the Childcare Choices website.
2. All children are required to book a minimum of 2 sessions per week, on different days, a minimum of 3 hours per session.
2. You must inform us immediately of any changes in your contact details, personal details or your child’s health details.
3. You must inform us immediately if your child is suffering from any contagious disease/illness. We reserve the right to take a child’s temperature upon arrival and/or during their session. For the benefit of other children, you must not allow your child to attend Pre-school if they have a contagious disease/illness as this is easily passed on to another child during the normal daily activities of the Pre-school.
1. In line with government health guidelines children should not come into Pre-school for a minimum of 48 hours after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea has occurred, or for the first 48 hours of starting a new course of antibiotics.
2. We reserve the right to contact you to request that you collect your child if he/she becomes unwell whilst they are at Pre-school.
3. If you are requested to collect your child because they are unwell you should ensure this is within 30 minutes of being contacted. If you are unable to do this you will be expected to arrange for someone else to do this on your behalf and let us know who will be collecting, and ensure they have your password.
4. Full details must be given of anything affecting your child’s health including allergies, conditions, or additional needs.
5. In order for the staff to administer medicine you must authorise this by signing a medication consent form on Famly before leaving the premises on that day. Both parties must follow the Pre-school’s Policy and procedure on medication and illness.
4. You must keep us informed as to the identity of the persons who will be collecting your child from our Pre-school. If the person who is collecting the child does not usually collect them, we will require a password to be set up as proof of identification. If we are not satisfied that an individual can collect your child, we will not release them into their care.
5. You must contact us as soon as possible if you are unavoidably delayed and you will be unable to collect your child at the expected time of collection. A late payment charge will be applied as detailed in the Fees section. We are not covered by insurance outside 8am to 5.30pm and therefore we are not permitted to accept the care of children before or after these times.
6. You must not bring your child into the setting prior to the start of the session time unless this has been previously agreed. An early payment will be applied in this case as specified in the Fees section.
7. You will supply us with at least 4 weeks written notice of your intention to decrease the number of hours your child will be attending Pre-school or to withdraw your child from our Pre-school. If insufficient notice is given you will be responsible for the full fees for your child for 4 weeks from the date notice was given.
8. Sessions cannot be reserved without payment. However, approximately 1 month prior to the end of each term, the Administrator will notify you of any session availability for the subsequent term and you will then be given the opportunity to reserve those sessions with effect from the new term.
9. You must inform us immediately if your child is the subject of a court order and provide us with a copy of such an order on request or if your child is subject of a Social Services Protection Register.
10. 10. All children must bring at least one complete change of clothing to each session. All clothing should be clearly labelled with your child’s name and left in the child’s tray.
3. Payment of Fees
1. The Pre-school is open 49 weeks of the year – we will be closed for weekends, bank holidays and 2 weeks over the Christmas period. Parents will be notified of these dates in advance.
2. From April 2024 our session fees are £7.20 per hour for 2-year-olds and £6.40 for 3 years and above.
1. There will be a £1 breakfast fee for children who attend the setting between 8-8.30am. In addition to this, there will be a £1 light tea fee for children who stay after 5pm. There is also a dinner charge for all children who attend the setting at 12pm of £1.60 for a hot healthy balanced meal. From 22^nd July 2024, children will only be provided a cold healthy balanced meal at 12pm at a cost of £1.50.
2. You may be aware that the funding rate that we receive from the Government does not cover the extras that we provide for the children. For example, arts supplies, wet weather clothing, cultural capital experiences, hygiene products, healthy morning and afternoon snacks and so on. Therefore, in addition, we request a contribution towards snacks and consumables for both funded and unfunded children of 75p per session of up to 3 hours and £1.50 per session over 3 hours.
3. These will be included on your invoice for each session in the billing period. We may review the fees at any time but shall send out notification 4 weeks prior to it taking effect. If you do not wish to pay the revised fees you may end this agreement by giving us 4 weeks written notice (see Clause 2.7).
3. All Fees, including the Snack/Lunch/Dinner/Consumables contribution, must be paid monthly in advance. Ad-hoc sessions/extra/activity charges may be invoiced separately at the time the booking is made.
4. Where a parent/carer does not agree to pay the voluntary Snack/Lunch/Dinner Consumables contribution this must be notified to the Pre-school in writing before the relevant invoice is issued. In this situation we ask the parent to provide a healthy snack and lunch/dinner, if applicable, for their child instead, the contents of which must be approved by the staff to ensure it meets our healthy eating policy, and to ensure it is allergen friendly.
5. If you are unsuccessful in obtaining a 15/30-hour funding code for your child, you have missed the deadline and your claim is rejected, or we are unable to claim funding for your child for any other reason, you will be responsible for paying the full fees for sessions already taken/booked and will be invoiced accordingly. Any subsequent request to reduce sessions shall require notice in accordance with Clause 2.7.
6. Fees are payable via tax free childcare, cash or via bank transfer. Preferred payment is by on-line banking - bank details are provided on all invoices or can be obtained from the Administrator. Please use your child’s name as the bank payment reference to ensure the fees are allocated to the correct child.
7. As a registered charity with limited funds at our disposal, we expect parents/carers to assist us with the smooth running of Claydon Pre-school by ensuring that all childcare fees are paid promptly. Obviously, we appreciate that from time to time, unforeseen circumstances may occur which result in late payment of fees. This is why as a considerate organisation; we are committed to resolving payment issues with parents/carers as fairly and openly as possible and have adopted the following four stage approach.
   Stage 1
   If you are having difficulties paying your invoice, please contact the Management Team before the due date on the invoice to discuss when your childcare fees are likely to be paid, or, if needed, to set up a payment plan agreed by both parties. You can send an email to [email protected] or [email protected].
   Stage 2
   If payment is not made by the invoice due date or in accordance with any payment plan agreed in Stage 1, a late payment fee will be applied to your account as follows:
   - £20 in respect of outstanding childcare fee invoices
   - £5 in respect of invoices pertaining only to Snack/Lunch/Dinner/Consumables contributions
   ​A member of the Management Team will contact the parents/carers to ascertain when the childcare fees are likely to be paid. If fees are paid in accordance with an agreed plan, then no further action will be taken. If you still fail to pay your childcare fee’s after making this arrangement them stage 3 will be followed.
   Stage 3
   If the overdue payment is still not received by the due date of the next invoice, then the child will not be allowed to attend for their booked sessions until the debt has been paid in full or in accordance with any payment plan agreed in Stage 1. If there are consistent late payments then Stage 4 may be considered alongside Stage 3.
   Stage 4
   The Management Team, Chairperson or other member of the Committee will write to the parent/carer informing them, with 14 days’ notice, that either:
   - their child no longer has a place at Claydon Pre-school, or
   - if your child is funded and you have additional childcare hours on top of your funded hours, your child’s placement will be reduced to funded hours only and you will have the right to state what these times will be (subject to availability). Your child will not be able to have any additional hours until the outstanding childcare costs have been received. Claydon Pre-school cannot hold your additional hours open until the issue is resolved.
   In both situations, all invoiced fees to the date of termination/reduction in hours shall remain payable. If payments are still not received, then we proceed to stage 5.
   Stage 5
   The board of trustees will write to the parents/carers informing them of the next steps that will be taken to recover the unpaid fees via the court system and any associated costs.
   
8. No refund will be given for non-attendance of booked sessions or for the first 2 weeks of absence due to illness. A refund of fees will be given after 2 weeks of absence due to illness provided sufficient medical evidence is provided.
1. The Pre-school is closed bank holidays and for 2 weeks over the Christmas and New Year period – this will be automatically deducted from your bills.
2. In the event of an emergency or bad weather resulting in the Pre-school closing we will inform parents as soon as possible by email and/or text/phone. Fees will not be refunded in these circumstances.
3. In the event of late collection of your child from their normal agreed session time, we reserve the right to charge £5 for every 5 minutes, rounded up to the nearest 5 minutes (with effect from June 2022) (ie if you are one minute late, you will be charged £5, 6 minutes late £10 and so on). If the late collection is after 1730 then the charge will be £15 for every 5 minutes, rounded up to the nearest 5 minutes. (ie if you are one minute late, you will be charged £15, 16 minutes late £30 and so on).
4. We cannot offer refunds or reductions for family holidays to term-time children. Provided we receive four weeks’ notice; year-round children can take a maximum of 3 weeks (or part thereof) family holiday per school year with no fees. If a child is away on holiday for more than 3 weeks during a school year, then we will require a holding fee. The holding fee will be half that child’s normal weekly billable fees for each additional week’s holiday beyond 3 weeks. This will mean that we keep the child’s place open for them.
4. Suspension of a Child from Pre-school
1. We may suspend the provision of childcare to your child at any time if you have failed to pay the fees due. No refund will be given for any period of suspension due to non-payment of fees. (See clause 3.7)
2. We do not support the exclusion of a child on the grounds of behaviour. However, if your child’s behaviour is deemed by us to endanger the safety and well-being of the child and/or other children and adults at the Pre-school it may be necessary to suspend the provision of childcare to the child whilst we try to address these issues with you and external agencies.
3. If your child is suspended part way through a half-term under the conditions stated in clause 4.2 we shall give you a credit for any fees you have already paid for the remainder of that half-term. This credit may be offset against any sums still outstanding by you to us.
5. Termination of the Agreement
1. You may terminate this agreement at any time giving us 4 weeks’ notice. Fees for this period of notice are non-refundable.
2. We may terminate this agreement if – 
1. You have failed to pay your fees. (See clause 3.7)
2. You have breached any of your obligations to us under this agreement and you cannot put right that breach within a reasonable period of time.
3. You behave unacceptably as we will not tolerate any physical or verbal abuse towards staff, volunteers or students on placement.
4. We take the decision to close the Pre-school. We will give you as much notice as possible in the event of such a decision.
6. General
1. If you have any concerns regarding the service we provide, please discuss these with the Manager. Customer satisfaction is of paramount importance to us, and any concerns/complaints will be recorded in accordance with our Complaints Policy. Please familiarise yourself with the Pre-school’s Policies which are on our website (www.claydonpreschool.co.uk/pol…) and are also available for you to view in the Preschool office.
2. Any personal information you supply to us with be collected, stored and used in accordance with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR 2018).
3. We will always seek your consent where we need to share information about your child with any other professional or agency outside the Pre-school. We are required by law to override your refusal to give consent only in specific circumstances where a child or adult may be in danger if we do not share that information.
4. Acceptance of a place at Pre-school will be deemed as acceptance by you of these Terms and Conditions.
5. This agreement supersedes any prior arrangements and agreements.
6. The Pre-school is not responsible for any work undertaken by its employees outside of the terms and conditions of their employment by Claydon Pre-school.