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Terms & Conditions

Revised April 2022

Nursery Opening Times

The nursery is open between 8 am-6 pm Monday to Friday only closing over the Christmas period, all the Bank Holidays and three inset days.  We offer early morning sessions at Brighton at Hove from 7.30 am.  Children being collected after the end of their session will be charged at the rate of £5.00 per 15 minutes or part thereof.  Children collected after 6pm will be charged £10 per 15 minutes or part thereof.  

Annual Nursery closures

We are only closed on Bank Holidays and for some or all sessions between Christmas and New Year (Dates and times will be given in advance on a yearly basis). The nursery closes for 3 training days per year. It is essential for the staff team to have an opportunity throughout the year to review our environment and practice as a whole staff team and carry out essential training. You will be informed of these days in advance.

Admission procedure

Nursery admission is organised by date of birth and depending on sessions available.  However, siblings of children already attending go to the top of the list.  For children who are over three, they can access a free entitlement which covers part of a session.  Please note that parents wanting to take up full sessions will have priority over those who wish to access the free entitlement.

Minimum booking per child is two full days for babies and two sessions per week for children two years and above. This is to ensure that your child has the opportunity to settle in and enjoy their time at nursery and maintain a routine.

Spaces are allocated when the specific days and times requested become available.  The nursery’s system also allocates morning and afternoon sessions evenly, so the system may stop allocating morning sessions and allocate afternoon sessions to parents further down the waiting list to maintain the balance of bookings.  Also, parents who have requested full days may find that they are booked in before parents who have requested morning or afternoon only spaces, this will depend on the balance of spaces allocated overall.  

Once you have decided to place your child at Pumpkin Patch, you will be sent a link to our Nursery Management System called Famly.  We would ask you to add your child’s information and your parent contacts.  You will also need to accept our Terms and Conditions before we can secure your place.   You can also set up your banking details for payment of fees.  A £100.00 deposit is due when your sessions are confirmed (approximately one month before the date your child will start.)  The deposit will be offset against your last month’s fees.  However, failure to give the required notice (1 month) will result in loss of deposit.  You will also be invoiced for a one-off registration fee (non-refundable.) of £20.00. You will receive an invoice from Famly for £120.00 before starting to confirm your place.  

Payment of Fees

Fees are payable one month in advance and are due the last day of each calendar month.  We operate a direct debit system which will take payment on the last day of the month which you can set up through the Famly app.

Fees are calculated as weekly fees x 50 weeks divided by 12 months.  This allows for 2 weeks towards Bank holidays, Inset Days, Christmas closure, your family holiday and sickness.

Term-time only fees are calculated as weekly fee x 38 weeks divided by 11 months (no charge for August.) Term dates will be shared in advance and align with local school terms as much as possible, although Early Years funding is only 38 weeks not 39 weeks that schools attend.

Late Payment of Fees

Fees are payable one month in advance on the 1st of each month. A late payment fee of 5% of your outstanding balance will automatically be added to your account on the 15th of the month. We encourage parents to communicate with us if they are having difficulty paying their fees as it may be possible to set up a payment plan to support you. Unfortunately, if an outstanding balance runs into the second month without communication from parents as to why the fees remain unpaid, then the nursery will be forced to refuse the child/children entry. This remains the case until there is communication from the parents, and an agreement can be put in place.

The nursery uses a debt recovery agency that takes over the responsibility of any unpaid fees which may incur further charges.

FREE ENTITLEMENT – 15 funded hours

You are entitled to 570 hrs throughout the year from the term after your child’s 3rd birthday. Some children are entitled to funding the term after their 2nd birthday, to determine a child’s eligibility, please visit www.gov.uk. We allocate a maximum of 15 hours per week term time only or a maximum of 11 hours over the year as we are open all year round. Consumables charges and hourly rates around free hours will apply. Funding can be utilised in various ways, either by applying hours on their existing agreed booking plan if more than one day, or alternatively apply the hours to 1x full day, 2x half days or by using fewer hours to afternoon sessions.  

We offer a limited number of stand alone free early years funded sessions. You can apply for these directly through your nursery manager. The free sessions are applied to afternoon sessions only. 1 x 1-4pm and 3 x 1-5pm term time only (15 hours) or 1 x 1-4pm and 2 x 1-5pm all year (11 hours).  If you are not in receipt of one of these free spaces you will have charges added to your bill to cover the additional services we provide including; Tea-time meal, snacks, suncream, nappies, allocated sessions with our Atelieristas (resident Artists) and  for Forest and Beach school as available.

FREE ENTITLEMENT – 30-hour funding for working parents

15 funded hours will continue to be offered for all children and an extended entitlement of an additional 15 hours for those who are entitled. To determine a child’s eligibility for extended FE, please visit www.gov.uk.

The additional 15 funded hours will be available to families where both parents are working, or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family, and each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage (NMW) or national living wage (NLW), and less than £100,000 per year. Parents do not necessarily need to actually work 16 hours a week, but rather their earnings must reflect at least 16 hours of work. This includes those parents on zero contract hours or self-employed who meet the criteria.

If you are eligible for the 30 funded hours, then you are entitled to 1140 hrs throughout the year from the term after you child’s 3rd birthday. We allocate a maximum of 22 hrs per week over the year. Consumables charges and hourly rates around free hours will apply. Your child can attend up to 22 hrs per week by applying hours on their existing agreed booking plan if more than two days, or alternatively apply the hours to 2x full days; 1x full day and 2x half days or 4x half days.   There are a limited number of stand-alone funded sessions based on Monday-Thursday 1 pm-5:30 pm and Friday 1 pm-5 pm per week all year.  There are a limited number of term time only sessions of 30 hours per week.  These will be offered on a first-come, first serve basis but with an aim for the nursery to support working families.

Tax-Free Childcare

With this scheme, the government will contribute up to a maximum of £2,000, per year, per child (£4,000 for children with a disability) towards the cost of childcare.

Childcare Vouchers

If your employer is part of a Salary Sacrifice Childcare Voucher scheme, you are able to use these for childcare funding. Pumpkin Patch accepts all of the main Childcare Vouchers.

Notice of leaving and deposits

One calendar months’ notice is required if leaving which must be submitted before the 1st of the month in writing. If notice is received after the 1st of the month, it will be calculated from the 1st of the following month. Deposits will be retained if you plan to leave the nursery within the first five months. The nursery is linked to an agency that takes over the responsibility of any unpaid fees. Parents of children in their last year are required to give their leaving date for the end of the academic year before the end of April, which is effectively one terms notice. Deposits are refunded and shown in your final invoice.

Changing sessions

Parents wishing to change their children’s sessions must put their requests in writing a minimum of 1 calendar month in advance.  We are not able to swap sessions or provide alternative sessions for holidays

Extra sessions

From time to time you may wish to book your child in for an extra session at nursery. Extra sessions will only be allocated if there are no account arrears;  offered on a first-come first-served basis with the proviso that there is space for us to take on additional children under the EYFE and Ofsted staff to child ratios. All extra sessions booked after your invoice has been sent will be added on to the next month’s invoice.   This includes all ‘ad hoc’ sessions, changes of sessions and outdoor adventure sessions booked.

All ad hoc sessions are chargeable at the hourly rate and will not have any discounts applied.  Once booked, an extra session can not be cancelled or amended without one month’s notice.

Safeguarding

At Pumpkin Patch, we place the highest priority on the children’s safety and wellbeing.  We have a full and comprehensive safeguarding policy that we need to follow.  This is available to read on request.

Mobile Phones

Please note that mobile phones are not allowed within the nursery.  

Unacceptable Behaviour

The nursery reserves the right to withdraw a child’s place from nursery without notice if a parent’s behaviour is unacceptable and does not support the nursery’s policies and procedures.  This includes through email, telephone or over the Family App.

Unforeseen closures

Temporary nursery closures due to force majeure or ‘acts of God’ (such as, but not limited to, infectious diseases, floods, snow) beyond our control or other unforeseen closures will still be charged at full fees.

Cooked Meals & Snacks

The nursery offers a nutritious, low sugar, low salt balanced diet from recipes that have been voted for by past generations of children. Parents have contributed to menus and ideas. The fees include all the cooked meals provided within the session booked. All dietary requirements can be catered for, and all children receive snacks and milk at periods throughout the day. Children are given the opportunity to drink water when they wish from the sports bottle provided for them. We do not allow parents to bring in food or drinks of any kind from home. This is to prevent contamination from food that we have not been able to prepare ourselves and to protect those children that have allergies to specific foods. We are also a completely nut-free nursery.

Sleeping

The nursery has facilities for the younger children to sleep and the routine for this can be discussed at your child’s first visit.

Nappies, Baby Milk and Wipes

Nappies, baby milk and wipes are included in the fees charged. We use Pampers nappies and Asda wipes.  We provide Aptamil, Hipp Organic and SMA in powder form.  If you would prefer to use a different brand or reusable nappies, then you will need to provide this.

Bags and clothing

Your child should bring in a change of clothing provided by yourselves. All clothes should be clearly labelled with your child’s full name.  If your child uses a sleeping bag, this will be provided by yourself.

Respiratory illness including COVID-19

If your child develops any of the symptoms of a respiratory illness including coronavirus, e.g. high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste they will need to stay at home. They can return to nursery when they are well enough to do so, and they no longer have a temperature.

If your child has a fever in the 48 hours after having an immunisation, they are able to attend nursey as long as they are not displaying any other symptoms and are well enough to do so.  

Other Illnesses

If your child has vomiting or diarrhoea, they will need to stay away from the nursery for 48 hours after the last symptom. We follow UKHSA guidance on infection control and exclusion periods, however, if a child is in an ‘active phase’ of a contagious viral infection, that has no official exclusion period, we will ask parents to withhold their child from nursery until symptoms subside.

Outdoor Adventure Program

Our outdoor adventure program is for children from 2 and a half and older.  The sessions are subject to weather and availability.  No discounts are applied to forest School and parents can only book sessions if there are no account arrears. Any cancelled sessions will be offered on another date.