Registration, Bookings, Notice Periods and Fees

1. To register your child at the nursery, a non-refundable deposit of £50.00 is payable to secure a place. This will be credited against your first month’s fees. If the place is no longer required, or not taken up, the deposit will not be refunded.
2. No deposit is required for siblings, if your first child is still attending the nursery. If you are registering multiple siblings at the same time, only one £50 deposit is required to secure their places. In addition, no deposit is required if your child is attending the nursery for fully funded sessions only.
3. On booking a place at our nurseries, we recommend a minimum of 3 sessions a week (mornings or afternoons, with short or full days counted as two sessions). If you wish to book a place for less than 3 sessions a week please contact the nursery manager to discuss on a case by case basis.
4. In the event of siblings attending the nursery at the same time, a sibling discount will be applied. In the scenario where two siblings attend the nursery a 15% sibling discount will be deducted from your eldest child’s fee for regular booked sessions for attendance at the same time. If more than two siblings attend the nursery a 25% sibling discount will be deducted from your eldest child’s fee, and 15% sibling discount from your second eldest’s fee. The remaining siblings pay full fees. Please note, sibling discount is deducted after the deduction of funded entitlement hours.
5. Sibling discount cannot be applied to ad hoc sessions or if payments are not made and cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount or offer.
6. Fees include all meals, drinks (including stage 1 formula milk), snacks, nappies and activities.
7. We reserve the right to adjust the fees to reflect increases in our costs of providing our services. We will give you no less than six weeks’ prior notice in writing of the fee increase.
8. All fees are charged monthly, in advance, and must be paid by Famly Pay, tax free childcare, bank transfers or voucher by or on the first day of the month to which they relate. We are unable to accept cash or cheques. Please reach out to our nursery managers if you have any questions regarding voucher acceptance and eligibility.
9. We do accept Child Care Grant (CCG) payments from universities to cover your nursery fees. However, you are still responsible for ensuring the monthly fee is settled if the Child Care Grant does not cover all or is withdrawn.
10. Late payments are subject to a surcharge of 5% of the amount outstanding. Your child may be excluded from the nursery if your fees remain outstanding more than 14 days beyond the 1st of the month.
11. A charge for late collection will be made if your child is not collected before the end of their session time, at the rate of £5.00 for every 5-minute period. Payment of this late fee is required when invoiced.
12. Fees are payable during periods where your child is absent from the nursery, including sickness and holidays.
13. In the event of any additional closure days, out of our control, (eg: extra bank holidays) fees will still be payable.
14. The nursery is open for the equivalent of 49 weeks per year. The nursery is closed for the 8 standard bank holidays, plus an additional 3 Christmas closure days and 4 training days throughout the year (15 days total). Nursery fees for part time attendance are calculated over a 49 week period and then divided by 12 months.
15. Invoices will be calculated on an annualised basis, except term-time only bookings. This takes the weekly session booking, multiples it by 49 weeks and divides this equally per month.
16. Extra sessions are charged at the usual session rate, and payment is required at the time of booking. Early Years Funding Entitlement hours cannot be used in relation to payment for extra sessions. A week’s notice is required to cancel additional booked sessions, failing to do so will result in full payment being taken.
17. If you wish to change your booking pattern, this is subject to availability. Please note there are separate waiting lists for full and part time places.
18. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, term-time only booking patterns are invoiced each month based on actuals but will also include a retainer fee during school holidays equivalent to 50% of the net weekly cost (after it has been adjusted with any public funding) for any weeks during school holidays. This retainer fee will not include the Christmas closure period, 8 standard bank holidays, or staff training days.
19. Please note, the retainer fee for term time sessions is to secure your child’s attendance for the next term. If you wish your child to attend extra sessions during the school holidays this will be subject to availability due to reduced staffing during the school holidays and will need to be paid for in full.
20. Six weeks’ written notice is required if you wish to cancel your space. Your fees are still payable throughout the notice period. Once a place at the nursery has been confirmed, the notice period applies, and fees are payable if there is any delay in taking up the place.
21. Attendance may not begin until your first month‘s fees are paid.
22. For children who receive funded hours, by requirement from the Government, we are required to monitor their attendance. If attendance drops below a certain threshold (which varies in different local authorities) we have an obligation to inform the local council. They may decide to temporarily withdraw funding until attendance returns above their threshold. In this scenario, sessions will be charged at the full nursery session rates and payable by you. For further details on the threshold, please reach out to your nursery manager.

Safety & Wellbeing

23. If your child becomes unwell whilst in our care, we will contact the you, or your emergency contact, detailed on the registration form. If senior staff feel the child is not well enough to remain at nursery, you may be asked to arrange collection of your child.
24. If your child is unwell, we ask that you contact the nursery to inform them of their absence. The nursery must be informed if your child is suffering from any contagious disease to ensure we can effectively communicate to all parents/carers any communicable diseases in the nursery. For the benefit of other children and staff, we ask that your child remain at home until they have returned to full health. A copy of our infectious disease policy is available on the parent zone on our website or from the nursery.
25. We will only allow parents/carers and emergency contacts, that have been recorded in your registration form, to collect your child from our nursery setting.
26. We will work with you to cater for specific dietary and medical requirements of your child. You must notify the nursery in writing if there are changes to a special diet or medical condition so that we can ensure all paperwork is updated.
27. Any information communicated or advised to you by a medical professional must be shared with the nursery to ensure your child’s safety and health is suitable catered for.
28. We have a duty of care to ensure that any significant concerns about the children in our care are reported to the local Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and, where appropriate, Ofsted. We may note any incident or observation of a child where we deem the child may have been, or may be in the future, at risk of harm or neglect. In exceptional cases this may be done without speaking to you until we have sought external advice.
29. In exceptional circumstances there may be an event that triggers the closure of the nursery that is out of our control. Such events include, without limitation, ‘acts of God’, fire, war, acts of terrorism, strikes or other industrial action, infectious diseases, and epidemics, and Acorn will not usually issue refunds for such forced closures.
30. Acorn will not tolerate, under any circumstances, behaviour towards staff which is deemed to be threatening, abusive or violent. Any such behaviour may result in termination of your child’s nursery place, or a refusal to allow the person back on the premises in the future.
31. We may suspend the provision of childcare if your child’s behaviour at the nursery endangers the safety and wellbeing of the other children or staff at the nursery. The suspension shall continue whilst we try and address these problems with you.
32. Acorn cannot take responsibility or liability for any services provided by our staff outside of our provision (such as babysitting). If you use any of our employees to provide services to you, you acknowledge and agree that this contract is kept entirely between yourselves and the individual, and in no way involves Acorn.

General

33. We expect all parents/carers to read and adhere to our policies and procedures regarding illness and absence, medication, dietary requirements, safeguarding children, security, behaviour, equal opportunities, complaints, among others. All relevant policies can be accessed at the setting or found on the ‘Parent Zone’ of our website: https://www.acornearlyyears.org.uk/Pages/Category/parent-zone
34. Acorn reserves the right to terminate your child’s place providing at least six weeks’ notice in writing, or immediately in the event of a breach of these T&Cs which (if remediable) has not been remedied within 14 days.
35. Acorn reserves the right to change any element of these T&Cs without notice where such a change arises from regulatory or legal requirements, or by providing reasonable notice for non-regulatory or statutory amendments.
36. Acorn does not accept responsibility for accidental injury or loss or damage of property. The nursery is not responsible for any items left by you at the nursery, including without limitation, pushchairs, prams, car seats or clothing.
37. Our Privacy Notice can be found at: https://www.acornearlyyears.org.uk/Pages/Category/parent-zone