Nursery terms & conditions

The document and the terms and conditions within it govern the basis on which Goldcrest Day Nurseries Ltd (referred to here as we) agree to provide childcare services to parent(s)/guardian(s) (referred to as ‘you’).

Only a parent/guardian with parental responsibility for a child can register that child for a childcare place with us. We will ask to see your child’s birth certificate, or other relevant documentation, to confirm that you have parental responsibility for the child as part of our registration process.

Our obligation to you

Once you have confirmed the place, a separate fee will be charged in the form of a Non refundable administration deposit payment and will be required to hold the place for your child. The monetary value of the deposit will be published as part of our schedule of fees which can be obtained on request.
We will provide the agreed childcare facilities for your child at the agreed times (subject to any days when we are closed). If we change the opening hours, we will give you as much notice of our decision as possible and, if necessary, we will work with you to agree a change to your child’s hours of attendance.

Closure

Training: We will be closed annually on the first Monday of September for necessary Staff training and development (not chargeable), therefore you will need to arrange alternative childcare on this date.
Chargeable Closures: We may sometimes have to close the nursery in adverse weather conditions e.g. snow, or for necessary safety precautions/urgent maintenance work e.g. Boiler breakdown/lack of heating/electricity/staff ratio etc: please note this list is not exhaustive and if the nursery feel it necessary
Christmas Holiday Closure (Chargeable) : Please note we are closed annually from 3pm on 24^th December and return on 2^nd January,.(This will not affect Term Time Only children).
Public Holidays (not chargeable), we close for all annual Public holidays
Bank Holidays (chargeable), we close for all annual Bank holidays.
We will adhere to the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (2018) when collecting and processing information about you and your child. We explain how your data is processed, collected, kept up-to-date in our Privacy Notice which is given to you at the point of registration.
We will try to accommodate any requests you may make for additional sessions and/or extended hours of childcare.
We will treat your child with the utmost respect and dignity. We will never use or threaten any type of punishment that could adversely affect a child’s wellbeing.
We will provide you with regular verbal and written updates as to your child’s progress and we will agree times to discuss with you the progress of your child or any other aspects of our childcare services as and when required. In addition to this we operate an Open Door Policy (you can speak to Management or Key Person at any given time, or if you require a more detailed meeting this would be arranged at a mutually convenient time)
We will comply with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and our Ofsted registration in regards to the childcare services we provide for your child.
We will provide you with details of our policies and procedures, which outline how we satisfy the requirements of the EYFS in our everyday practice; and we will notify you as and when any changes are made to our policies and procedures. We will be available to discuss or explain our policies and procedures, and/or any relevant changes, at a mutually agreed time.
We will maintain appropriate insurance to cover our childcare activities.
We will try to make a place available to any of your other children. However, we cannot guarantee that a place will be available.

Your obligation to us

You will need to complete and return our Application to Join and Registration Form to us before your child can start with us.
You must notify us immediately of any changes to the information you have provided to us and keep us informed of any other necessary information that may affect the childcare that we provide for your child.
The Registration Form includes medicine consent and emergency treatment authorisations which you will need to complete prior to your child attending.
You will read and abide by our policies and procedures.
You will make yourself available as and when required to discuss the progress of your child or any factor relating to their childcare place with us at mutually agreed times.
You must immediately inform us if your child is suffering from any contagious disease, or if your child has been diagnosed by a medical practitioner with a notifiable disease. For the benefit of other children attending you must not allow your child to attend whilst they are contagious and pose a risk to other children during normal daily activities.
We will administer/use the creams/formulas that you provide unless we see fit otherwise
Parents with parental responsibility must keep us informed each day of attendance if it is not themselves collecting, and give us the identity/password of the persons who will be collecting your child. If the person who is due to collect your child is not usually responsible for collecting them we will require proof of identity or password. If we are not reasonably satisfied that the person collecting your child is who we are expecting, we will not release your child into their care until we have checked with you. We will attempt to call you, however we will keep your child in our care if we are not able to get in touch with you.
You must inform us immediately if you are not able to collect your child by the official collection time. You must make arrangements for another authorised person to collect your child as soon as possible. A late payment charge will be applied; please refer to the current fee schedule for details.
You will inform us as far in advance as possible of any dates on which your child will not be attending.
You will provide us with at least one month’s notice of your intention to decrease the number of hours your child attends or to withdraw your child (and end this Agreement). If insufficient notice is given you will be responsible for the full fees for your child for one month from the date of notice. If you are ending this Agreement, this must be given in written which needs to be signed and dated.
You must inform us if your child is the subject of a court order and provide us with a copy of such order on request.
In the event that you are not able to collect your child at the end of their registered attendance, you must call to notify us. In the event that your child is not collected within one hour of session end time and we heard from you, and we have been unable to contact yourself as parental guardians of emergency contacts we will contact Thurrock Safeguarding Childrens Board (Social services)
During your child’s time with us at Nursery, we will display your child’s name and/or photograph around the nursery e.g. on their belongings tray/ self registration board/ snack board and creative displays etc. (please note, if there is any safeguarding reason why you do not wish your child’s name/photograph to be on display within the nursery, you must inform Management immediately)

Payment of fees

Our fees are based on a monthly fee that shall be notified to you in advance of your child starting Monthly. We may review these fees at any time and at least annually but shall inform you of the revised amount at least one month before it takes effect. If you do not wish to pay the revised fee, you may end this Agreement by giving us one months notice, by completing our Notification of Leaving Date form which can be obtained from our Nursery Manager.
Fees must be paid on a monthly basis, in advance.
Children who are eligible for the Nursery education grant: this will be reflected in the monthly invoice and clearly shown as 0.00 per hour.
Full time discount applies to Full time/Full week children, however please note, once your child is eligible for 30 hours nursery grant, you will no longer qualify for full time discount.
All payments made under the Agreement should be by standing order/direct debit or online payment. All payment, regardless of method, shall be made by you monthly in advance no later than the 10^th of each month. If payment is made by cash, it is your responsibility to obtain a receipt as proof of payment.
In order for payments to be easily traced by accounts, it is vital that you use your child’s name as reference.
Late payments incur a late payment fee of £10.00. [In addition, daily interest will be charged on all outstanding amounts at the rate of [3%] above the Bank of England base rate.]
If the payment of fees referred to in 3.3 is outstanding for more than 14 days and no prior agreement has been made, we may terminate this Agreement by giving you 14 days’ notice in writing. Upon termination of this contract the child shall cease forthwith to be admitted, and the notice to so terminate shall be regarded as a formal demand for outstanding monies.
If you have requested additional sessions or have been unable to collect your child by the official collection time and we have as a result provided you with additional childcare facilities, we will raise the applicable charges under a separate invoice for payment.
No refund will be given for periods where the place is unfulfilled due to illness or holidays on the part of either party. We accept no liability for other costs which you incur if we are unable to provide childcare for any reason.
Where we offer a reduced fee rate after a child’s 2nd birthday, that reduction will take effect from the first day of the following billing period.
In the event of late collection of your child, we reserve the right to charge for each additional 15 minutes, or part thereof, on a pro-rata basis.

Suspension of a child

We may suspend the provision of childcare to your child at any time if you have failed to pay any fees due.
If the period of suspension for non-payment of fees exceeds one month, either of us may terminate this Agreement by giving written notice, which will take effect on receipt of the notice.
We do not support the exclusion of any child on the grounds of behaviour. However, if your child’s behaviour is deemed by us to endanger the safety and well-being of your child and/or other children and adults, it may be necessary to suspend the provision of childcare whilst we try to address these issues with you and external agencies as appropriate.
During any period of suspension for behaviour-related issues we will work with the local authority and where appropriate other welfare agencies to identify appropriate provision or services for your child.
If your child is suspended part way through the month, under the conditions stated in clause 4.3 we shall give you a credit for any fees you have already paid for the remaining part of that month, calculated on a pro rata basis. This sum may be offset against any sums payable by you to us.

Termination of the agreement

You may end this Agreement at any time, giving us at least one month’s notice by completing the ‘Notification of Leaving Date’ form.
In the event that we deem it necessary to terminate your child’s place with us having exhausted all other options, we will inform you in writing, this may be with immediate effect.
We may immediately end this Agreement if:
1. You have failed to pay your fees;
2. You have breached any of your obligations under this Agreement and you have not or cannot put right that breach within a reasonable period of time after we have drawn it to your attention;
3. You behave unacceptably, as we do not tolerate any physical or verbal abuse or threats towards staff;
4. We take the decision to close. We will give you as much notice as possible in the event of such a decision.
It may become apparent that the support we are able to offer your child is not sufficient to meet his/her needs. In these circumstances we will work with you, the local authority and other welfare agencies as per our procedures to identify appropriate support, at which point we may end this Agreement.
You may end this Agreement if we have breached any of our obligations under this Agreement and we have not or cannot put right that breach within a reasonable period after you have drawn it to our attention.

General

As already mentioned, If we have to close or we take the decision to close due to events or circumstances beyond our control (e.g. extreme weather conditions) the daily Fee will continue to be payable in full and we shall be under no obligation to provide alternative childcare to you. If the closure exceeds three consecutive days in duration (excluding any days when we would otherwise have been closed), we will credit you with an amount that represents the number of days closed in excess of three days.
If you have any concerns regarding the services we provide, please discuss them with your child’s key person. (If these concerns are not resolved to your satisfaction, please contact the manager). Customer satisfaction is paramount and any concerns/complaints will be dealt with in line with our Making a Complaint Policy.
From time to time we will take photographs and video recordings of the children who attend. These photographs are used for on-going recording of our curriculum and for children’s individual development records. They are stored on our computer whilst your child is with us. The photographs are used for display and for your child’s records within the setting. On Nursery Trips, 3^rd parties may wish to photograph the children e.g. visit to Library or Elderly Care home, (For Safeguarding requirements: please note if your child cannot be photographed for any reason, we will require written notice, otherwise we will allow your child to be photographed during Trips. If we wished to use any image of your child for training, publicity or marketing purposes, we would always seek your written consent, for each image we intend to use, as indicated on our Registration Form.
We reserve the right to refuse to admit your child if they have a temperature, sickness and diarrhoea (please be aware your child cannot return to nursery until a period of 48 hours has passed with no further incidences of sickness or Diarrhoea) or a contagious infection or disease on arrival at our setting, or to ask you to collect your child if they become unwell whilst in our care, in line with our Managing Children who are Sick, Infectious or with Allergies Policy.
Calpol; we gain written consent from parents at point of registration for Goldcrest to administer Calpol in the event of a temperature developing. In the event of Doctors advising or Parents wishing for administration of Calpol every 4 hours (other than a temperature), we will require a written permission from Parents or a Doctors note stating this.
At Goldcrest, we deem a fever/high temperature to be 38;c, however if a temperature reaches anything above 38.c e.g. 38.1:c. and the temperature does not go down after the child receiving Calpol, we will ask the Parent to collect the child.as soon as possible. If temperature returns within a 4 hour period of being administered Calpol either at home or at Goldcrest we will require you to collect your child immediately . We recognise that Parents consider varying degrees of Temperatures to be normal, however we will always adhere to our own Goldcrest Policy in this matter.
Pain Relief: Please note we will only administer Calpol (or paracetamol equivalant), as Pain relief. Any other Pain relief e.g. Ibuprofen (or anti immaflatory) will not be given by Goldcrest unless a Doctor has prescribed to your child.
Conjunctivitis: We will administer eye drops purchased from the Pharmacy, along with Parents written consent, to any child with this ailment. (For the health & safety of others, Children with Conjunctivitis will not able to attend Goldcrest without this medication as this is a highly contagious condition)
Infant Colic: We can treat with products from a Pharmacist along with Parent written permission.
Excema/Skin Disorders/Nappy Rash/Teething/Mild toothache/Ringworm/Fungal infections/Oral thrush/Hayfever/allergies (this list is not exhaustive): We will apply/ Administer medicine & products from Pharmacist for skin conditions along with Parent consent.
Please be aware: We are a largely outdoor provision, we venture outside into our Garden daily, therefore should you wish for your child not to be outdoors due to a cold/cough or any other reason, we would ask that your child not attend, as we would be unable to adhere to staff ratio to keep your child indoors during their attendance
Clothing: Please clothe your child in items of clothing that you are happy for them to get dirty in, this enables the children to play and have fun, and staff not to have to continually change the children, thus giving them more time to interact with your child. Whilst we endeavour to use aprons, to cover your child’s clothing during mealtimes/painting etc, we cannot force a child to wear an apron.
First Aid: A First Aid qualified member of our staff will administer any First Aid to any child should we deem it necessary.
Whilst food and drink is provided on the premises, we are not a commercial kitchen and may not be able to cater for the individual needs of every child. As cross contamination cannot be ruled out, a risk assessment is conducted for children with any known allergies. It is our usual practice to provide both a meat and vegetarian option. Every effort is made to follow recommended food preparation guidance and to ensure that [all staff involved in the preparation and serving of food are suitably trained.
Any personal information you supply to us will be collected, stored and used in accordance with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) (2018) and our Confidentiality and Client Access to Records Policy. We will always seek your consent where we need to share information about your child with any other professional or agency, e.g. Progress Check at 2 and Transition to school records and the Children’s centres. We are required by law to override your refusal to give consent only in specific circumstances where the child or someone in the family may be in danger if we do not share that information, e.g. Safeguarding/Child Protection.
CCTV: We operate a continuous recording of CCTV in all classrooms within Goldcrest, for the Safeguarding and security of both the children and staff. Please be aware, in the event of us being required to replay any footage, this will only be viewed by Management of Goldcrest as other children will be recorded in the footage.

This agreement

We reserve the right to vary the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement
This Agreement contains the full and complete understanding between the parties and supersedes all prior arrangements and understanding whether written or oral relating to the subject of this Agreement except to the extent that we vary terms from time to time.
Acceptance of a place will be deemed as acceptance by you of these terms and conditions.