\n<\/p>\n
A nursery has refunded a father almost \u00a31,200 after an investigation found he had been charged mandatory \u201ctop-up\u201d fees for hours of childcare that should have been free.<\/p>\n
Tiago Gomes\u2019s daughter was eligible for government-funded childcare at the Lake House day nursery and preschool in Bristol but he was told that he must pay an extra compulsory fee for \u201cconsumables\u201d.<\/p>\n
In England, children aged three and four can receive 30 hours of free childcare a week, while those aged\u00a0between nine months and two\u00a0years now qualify for 15\u00a0hours.<\/p>\n
The law says nurseries must be transparent about additional charges for consumables \u2013 such as nappies and sun cream \u2013 and they must be optional. Nurseries are not allowed to apply top-up fees.<\/p>\n
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has investigated 23 complaints about fees, and earlier this year the high court ruled in its favour in a separate case involving Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the ombudsman said many parents were not aware of a council\u2019s duty to intervene with nurseries that were not following government rules.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Some nurseries have bene charging for \u2018sonsumables\u2019 such as sun cream and nappies.<\/span> Photograph: Joel Saget\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Gomes paid for some additional hours of childcare and was charged a total of \u00a31,033 a month. He was told that for each government-funded hour there was a \u201cparent contribution charge\u201d, which paid for \u201cessential care products, educational programmes, expert nutrition\u201d.<\/p>\n The level of this charge \u2013 which was also applied to other parents\u2019 bills \u2013 was not broken down on his invoice.<\/p>\n He complained to Bristol city council, which found that the nursery had not made clear that the charges were voluntary.<\/p>\n Gomes asked the nursery for a refund, but none was given. He then complained to the ombudsman and was refunded the \u00a31,173 he had paid in the additional\u00a0fees.<\/p>\n The Lake House day nursery and preschool in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, is one of more than 80 nurseries and preschools operated by Grandir UK.<\/p>\n In a statement to the Guardian, Grandir UK said: \u201cWe are dedicated\u00a0to maintaining full transparency and are committed to ensuring our families receive high-quality care and education. We ensure that our families have a clear\u00a0understanding of what is included in their funded entitlement and any additional services that may incur charges.\u201d<\/p>\n It did not respond to queries about whether other parents had made similar complaints or\u00a0whether there had been other\u00a0refunds.<\/p>\n The ombudsman said that after Gomes\u2019s complaint the nursery had delayed providing information to a council audit. It asked the council to show that other parents were not being charged additional fees.<\/p>\n Councillor Christine Townsend, the chair of the children and young people committee on Bristol city council, said it has received two complaints about the provider.<\/p>\n \u201cWe agree with the ombudsman\u2019s findings on the provider and are taking appropriate action, including a full financial audit,\u201d she said. \u201cWe also note the ombudsman found no fault with the council\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n \u201cAffordable, high-quality childcare is essential for Bristol families, and we remain committed to supporting them.\u201d<\/p>\n The council is looking for details from the nursery on consumables being an optional charge, it said.<\/p>\n Nurseries have complained that the funding for nursery hours is insufficient at a time when wage costs are increasing. A survey by the Early Education and Childcare Coalition found a third of providers have limited the number of government-funded hours on offer. One in 10 say they will close within two years because of the pressures on the sector.<\/p>\n Lauren Fabianski from the EECC said the shortfall was frustrating to providers and parents as the funded childcare was being labelled as free but \u201cthe government is not funding it in a way that actually makes it deliverable for free\u201d.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: \u201cHigh-quality, affordable childcare plays a vital role in our plan for change to get tens of thousands more children each year ready for school.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why we are increasing early years funding to over \u00a39bn next year \u2013 with a recent Coram survey showing the real difference the rollout is already making, as costs for families accessing 15 hours have more than halved.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are backing parents with new guidance \u2013 reflecting the law reaffirmed by a recent high court judgment \u2013 which sets out that additional charges must not be a condition for parents accessing their funded hours, saving families money.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson for the ombudsman said: \u201cThe high court has confirmed the ombudsman\u2019s position that providers cannot place mandatory charges on free\u00a0hours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A nursery has refunded a father almost \u00a31,200 after an investigation found he had been charged mandatory \u201ctop-up\u201d fees for hours of childcare that should have been free. Tiago Gomes\u2019s daughter was eligible for government-funded childcare at the Lake House day nursery and preschool in Bristol but he was told that he must pay an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[3631,311,2217,3630,1037,633,3628,3629],"class_list":{"0":"post-10596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-childcare","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-father","11":"tag-fees","12":"tag-investigation","13":"tag-nursery","14":"tag-refund","15":"tag-topup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}