Creche and Montessori fee

MYL

Hi All,
we need some advice on creche and montessori fees.
Older child 3.5yrs in montessori with ecce applied
Young child 22mths in creche.

Our two boys are with this creche since they were small when both of us are working full time. We were paying 1150e a month without cooked lunch. We have to prepare their lunch for them everyday.

Now, I have made redundancy and wants to reduced the creche fees. So we asked for a quote for 5 half days for the children from Sept 2013.
She will charge us 700e (without cooked lunch) and on top she will get about 202e from ECCE scheme for my older child. So she will get a total of 902e a month for the two children.

Therefore, the creche/montessori will get 248e less from us by changing from full time to part time.

I just found it's very unfair the way she charged us.

I really need some advice before we confront her about the quote.

Can anyone give us some advise on this matter.

Thank you very much for time.

lazygal

In fairness, the creche will have ongoing staffing requirements and other costs that were put in place when you signed up on a fulltime basis. I don't know any creches, apart from those with a drop in service, who charge exactly half the rate when a child moves from fulltime to part-time care. Most charge more than half the fulltime rate because they have to adhere to ratios, need staff to cover sick leave, annual leave and other reasons. What is the going rate in your area? That should give you an idea of whether the figures you've given are normal or excessive.

I don't think the word 'confront' is helpful. If this is a small independent operator I would hazard a guess that right now its probably just about making money because of the number of people going part-time or opting out because of job losses and other reasons. If you're happy with the service and want your children to continue going there, you need to approach this with a more positive attitude.

The ECCE scheme is for early childhood education, not creche care so really you shouldn't factor it in as such. Its not a substitute for creche care and cannot be used to offset other childcare costs such as running a creche, its a very specific payment made to providers. If you weren't availing of the ECCE scheme how much would the service charge?

Moonbeam

1150 is extremely reasonable for 2 kids,is it subsidised?
I don't know how they do it that cheap in the 1st place so I think it is very reasonable.

MYL

Thanks lazygal for your response.
I understand I shouldn't used the word confront. I just felt very annoying. It's because our expected quote and the actual quote she gave us are so different.
I understand we have to keep a good relationship with them especially our children are minding by them for few hours a day.
I think I will ask her for a breakdown of the fees between our two children.
I have quote from other places around the area. The fees could be slightly less (about 50e less) and they include breakfast and lunch as well.
Really thinking about moving creche. But with our little ones, we don't want to move them too much as well because the older one will be in junior infant in Sept 2014. That's a move already. I don't want them to feel they are moving from one place to another place too often.

MYL

1150e was a quote she gave us when I was pregnant with my younger one. It's a discount because our older one were with them already full time. But all the fees are not include any cooked meals with them.
Maybe she felt she under charged us for 6 months so she wants to change us a little more when we ask to change from full time to part time. really not sure.
The end of the day, it's a business for her.

Hannibal Smith

Would you not consider putting them in for the 3 hours of montessori? Then you have fees for one only?

MYL

they charge for the half day or full day. They don't accept 3 hours only for the younger one. otherwise, I have to come and go to the creche 3-4 times a day to collect and drop off the boys.

Xdancer

I recently moved my daughter from half days to full days in her nursery, and just to put the price you have been quoted into perspective the monthly price we were paying for half days (5 days a week) was 3/4 of what we are now paying for full days.

As already mentioned by others, your creche still have staff and other bills to pay to be able to offer the service they do. It's normal that half days are not exactly half the price of full days.

lazygal

MYL wrote: »

they charge for the half day or full day. They don't accept 3 hours only for the younger one. otherwise, I have to come and go to the creche 3-4 times a day to collect and drop off the boys.

In fairness, they need to know what staff they will need to have on the premises for ratios. They can't really have individualized hours when they have staff costs to maintain.

I'm a little confused, would your children not both be attending at the same time, the older for the ECCE session and the younger for creche care? Or are there different times, mornings and afternoons, for both?

Hannibal Smith

I suppose whatever the creche get fromthe HSE for the ecce let go. At the end of the day you wanted to reduce your expenses, and you're €450 better off. What hours are they doing?

When I enquired about half days with our creche it was about a €400 reduction. Sone crèches dont do half days at all.

The only other option is to keep the youngest home and stick to ecce hours with the eldest.

Moonbeam

it was 300pm difference going from 3 day week to 5 with the one in the creche that we used.

How Strange

Our fees were reduced by €315 when I cut my sons days to 3 recently. That's a reduction of just over a 3rd.

MYL

I was just shocked when I got quote at first because I wasn't expected they only reduced 1/4 of the fees they charged related to our two boys minding between 8am-1pm.
But in fact most of the people experienced the similar situation.
Thank you very much for all your responses.

Hello Lady!

Also bear in mind that although your child is moving to half days, it is unlikely that someone else's child will take the rest of the day. So they are down from a fulltime place to a part time place with no way of making up the lost revenue. This is the reason most creches don't charge half for a half day - because by allowing your child to do a half day they are potentially turning away another child for a full day.

I wouldn't be too worried about the cooked lunch thing either - I think you are better providing a lunch and at least that way you will know what they ate. I know most creches are supposed to provide 'healthy' meals, but from what I have heard of late it doesn't always happen.