Little Life Nursery

Full Terms & Conditions

Little life Nursery: Terms and Conditions

Fees for full days are payable monthly and averaged across the 52 weeks of the year that we are open (so that is the same amount each month). We will require the first month´s fees by the first day of the calendar month in which your child joins us. No child will be admitted before fees have been received.

We are registered to provide Government Funding via Hertfordshire Council. You can access the full details via accessing the government website https://www.gov.uk/childcare-calculator. Alternatively, you can view funding details on Herefordshire Council website https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/schools-and-education/childcare-and-advice-for-parents

Fees are reviewed annually. Annual increases to fees may be applied each year. Parents will be informed at least 8 weeks before any price increase becomes effective.

Fee Payment

Parents will be required to sign up to our direct debit scheme for payments of fees. Fees are due one month in advance by the last day of the month e.g. October fees are due on the 30th of September. Any late payment of fees will incur a £15.00 late payment fee per week following the 5^th of each month. If the balance is not settled in full, including late payment fees within 30 days of invoice due date, the child will no longer be able to attend the nursery and the deposit will be seized.

Notice

Full day children, all year round

If you plan to leave Little Life Nursery, reduce the number of days or change the days that your child attends, you will need to give 8 weeks’ notice.

After acceptance of the offer by the parent either party may terminate this agreement by the service of 8 weeks’ notice in writing or by emailing info@littlelife.io

During that said 8 weeks period the nursery undertakes to continue to admit the child and the parent undertakes to pay all fees due. In the event of the parent failing to pay the 8 weeks fees; the child’s place shall be immediately withdrawn and Little Life Nursery shall be entitled to serve a formal demand for payment of such monies which may incur additional charges as set by the agency claiming the unpaid dues.

In the event of the parent giving notice of withdrawal of the child and immediately withdrawing the said child there shall be due to the nursery 8 week´s fees in lieu of notice. Failure by the parent to provide 8 weeks’ notice or any notice at all shall render the parent liable to the nursery for 8 weeks fees and their security deposit. Upon payment of the 8 weeks´ fees, the parent´s deposit will be refunded.

Termination

Little Life Nursery reserves the right to terminate your child’s place immediately at the nursery in the event that any fees remain unpaid or where any of the terms and conditions are breached.

Communication

Communication with parents is by email so do check your inbox regularly for information and updates. Please make sure therefore that we are added to your address book so that our messages don’t go into spam by mistake. Sometimes we like to use your kind comments as testimonials. If you have any objection to this, please let us know.

Reservations

We are unable to hold a child’s place. A place will be confirmed after the initial offer in line with our admissions policy and upon receipt of the enrolment fee and security deposit payment.

Changes to sessions

If you wish to either decrease or increase days, then please note that you will be required to give the same notice period outlined above. All requests for changes are also subject to our availability of places.

Swapping days

Please note, swapping your child’s days or scheduled times of attendance is NOT permitted at any given time.

Additional sessions

We are happy to offer additional sessions if they are available. Additional sessions other than the normal weekly session must be requested in writing, confirmation of the sessions will be emailed to you. Additional sessions will be charged for unless cancelled with five working days’ notice. All additional sessions will be added to the next month’s invoice.

Food

The cost of all snacks is included in your nursery fees. Full day children receive breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and tea.

All meals are vegetarian and are freshly cooked.

Clothing

Parents should ensure that their children arrive in appropriate day clothes and bring a full spare set of clothes. We recommend sturdy outdoor spring/autumn regular waterproofs to ensure that your child remains warm and dry. We will provide all families with a recommended kit list and this is also available on our website.

We recommend thermals, long sleeves and wellington boots in winter. In summer, long sleeve shirts and closed shoes are required. We request parents please provide their own shoes, gloves and hats. All items of clothing must be labelled. Little Life Nursery cannot accept responsibility for any lost or damaged property.

Sickness/Absence:

Children who have, or develop, an infectious illness must be excluded from nursery for a minimum of 48 hours. This is in the best interest of the other children and staff, and complies with regulations set out by the Environmental Health Department. Please notify the nursery of all absences. We are sorry to say that sickness or absence from Little Life Nursery does not qualify for a reduction in fees.

Children may not attend the nursery if they have:

• Nausea
• Diarrhoea
• Any infections illness
• Any unknown rashes
• If they are unwell, e.g., not able to join in activities or require 1:1 care:
• If they are dependent on liquid paracetamol
• Within 24 hours of the first dose of any medication not ever previously taken, and may not return until the condition is diagnosed by a physician who certifies they are able to attend.

Children who become ill while in our care will be looked after until parents can be contacted to take them home. Parents will be notified immediately at the first signs of any illness. If a parent cannot be contacted, we will contact the NHS directly and act upon the advice they provide. If possible, we will endeavour to contact the child´s named GP.

In the event of an emergency the child will be taken to the nearest hospital, accompanied by a member of staff from Little Life Nursery who will act in loco parentis until the parent arrives. We will not administer medication without permission. We will contact you for approval to give your child liquid paracetamol ( the only medication kept on site aside from first aid items), and will not give this to your child until you have provided authorisation, and are on your way to collect your child. All other methods to reduce temperature will be attempted first. If your child’s temperature is dangerously high, we would contact an ambulance. In the event of an allergic reaction, we would call an ambulance.

Parents have the responsibility to keep us informed of any changes in any contact numbers and addresses, or any changes in your child’s medical condition or GP. Should your child require regular medication to be administered during the hours he/she is in our care at Little Life Nursery you will need to complete all necessary paperwork in line with our policies. The medication must be prescribed by a doctor and be clearly labelled to include your child’s name and the required dosage. You must take the medication home at the end of each day (we cannot keep any medications on site with the exception of liquid paracetamol and first aid items).

When changing nappies, providing first aid or dealing with any bodily fluids we have to take necessary precautions to ensure the safety of children in our care and staff against the possible transmission of any diseases. We ensure that there is always a number of staff fully trained in first aid and health and safety.

Late collection

Little Life Nursery closes promptly at 6:00 pm. Any parent who is unable to collect at the correct time must inform us immediately, so we are able to staff accordingly.

Whilst we have a legal responsibility to ensure that a child is looked after if a parent is not in time to collect a child, we are only registered to have children on the premises from 8:00 am to 6:00pm. Early drop-offs or late collections impact on our statutory rations and our registration. In the case of late collection of your child, a late collection fee of £8 per 10 minutes will be applied.

Collection security

For security reasons, your child may only be collected by those individuals you have listed on the registration form. Any changes to these named contacts can only be accepted in writing, in advance, and the new named alternate contact must introduce themselves, with identification, to the child’s key worker. Children will only be released to named contacts on provision of a password as provided by you. We will never permit a child to leave the premises unaccompanied or with an unauthorised person.

Only in the event of an emergency will we allow your child to be collected by an alternative individual who has not been designated as a named contact. In this instance, the parent must first provide the nursery with a photograph of the emergency contact, and agree a special password (different to the normal password) with the nursery in advance. The emergency contact must bring valid identification.

Finally, we will not permit a child to be collected by an authorised, named contact or alternate, if they appear to be unfit to provide for the child’s safety, or appear to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Safeguarding and Child Protection

We follow the guidelines set by the local authority on safeguarding children and child protection at all times. Our first priority is towards the children in our care. In any instance of suspected child abuse or neglect we will deal with the matter first in the nursery, and we must ask you to read our policy documents as part of the settling in period in the nursery.

Holidays

Little Life Nursery is closed for all public and bank holidays, as well as a two-weeks period over Christmas. We are open at all other times, aside from notified inset days (see below). We are sorry to say that refunds or swapped days are not available for Bank Holidays or if you chose to take an extended holiday with your child yourself – we are still required to pay our staff during these times and over bank holidays.

Inset days

Operating in the outdoors means that a lot of extra planning is required to make Little Life Nursery run smoothly and enable a fantastic experience for all children. As a result, our staff work long hours and occasionally require inset days to ensure the effective functioning of our nursery. In line with other local schools and nurseries, we reserve the right to host four inset days each year, typically at the beginning of a new term, and will provide 8 weeks’ notice of this to parents. We will seek to hold this on such a day to cause minimal disruption to our parents and carers and for fairness the day of the week is rotated each term. It is necessary for this inset day to be charged and refunds and swapped days are not possible.

Emergency closure

Little Life Nursery endeavours to remain open at all times aside from Bank Holidays and the defined holidays. In the event of severe weather conditions or where the nursery has to close totally or partially for other reasons (e.g. illness epidemic), parents will be contacted by the nursery, by phone, email or text message, asking them to collect their child/children.

Where the nursery has closed, please ensure that you have confirmed with the nursery that the nursery will be open the following day before bringing your child back in.

In the event of inclement weather, we will open the nursery if we can get staff in – but we may have to offer a limited number of spaces, based on available and expected staff. This would be done on a first come, first served basis. Sometimes we may ask parents to wait with their child until staff members may be able to get into the nursery, or to take children home and return at a later time, once we know which staff are able to come in. We may also need to ask parents to make arrangements to collect their children early in such an eventuality.

Little Life Nursery cannot provide refunds to parents for emergency closure, as we still need to pay staff, and such events are deemed to be force majeure. We understand that it is inconvenient, and potentially costly, and will endeavour to do our reasonable best to make sure that this does not happen.

Review of terms and conditions

We reserve the right to alter our terms and conditions at any time. In this instance, you would receive written notification regarding new terms and conditions.