Terms & Conditions

Your acceptance of our terms is initiated at the point of a signed terms and conditions hard copy being received by our registration team. A child’s place will not be confirmed until we have a signed terms and conditions form. You will receive confirmation by email of your child’s place. Whilst this agreement naturally has legal implications, we always act with fairness and take into account specific circumstances before making decisions. The success of your child’s time here at The Butterfly Preschool is dependent on the partnership between the nursery and our parents and carers.

1.    Booking and Registration

1.1  The booking is not complete until the relevant registration form, terms and conditions have been signed and returned to the nursery along with the agreed deposit. The deposit will be offset against your last terms fees.

1.2  Unfortunately, should you cancel your place, the deposit will become non-refundable due to the fact that we have had to turn someone else away to secure the place.

1.3  If a full terms notice is given to cancel a place before your child has started a 10% deduction will occur for administration costs, we would have already occurred.

1.4  If you want to register your child but their start date is a long way off a booking form and registration fee are required to register your child.

1.5  The nursery runs a set number of days a week morning & afternoon sessions, dependant on which setting you attend. These can not be swapped at anytime. You can add extra afternoon sessions if available. These either need to be confirmed on a termly basis or discussed with the nursery manager on the day. Any permanent changes will require a full terms notice. 

1.6  During your child’s first week at nursery there will be up to 5 settling in sessions where parents/carers need to stay with their children during the session. These will be confirmed to you via letter before you start with us.

1.7  Once a place has been taken up, the nursery requires a terms written notice, otherwise a terms fees will be charged. The notice needs to be given the last day of the term before you leave for example:- 

Start Date - Autumn Term / September   Notice by - Last day of the Spring Term / March

Start Date - Spring Term / January          Notice by - Last day of the Summer Term / July

Start Date - Summer Term / April            Notice by - Last day of the Autumn Term / Dec 

2.    Fees and Financial

2.1  All fees are payable in advance by direct debit or childcare vouchers by the end of the first week of each term before charges may be incurred. Responsibility for paying fees resides with the parents or legal guardians of the child. Other forms of payment can be accepted but must be agreed in writing with the nursery manager before the first payment is due.

2.2  Fees are calculated termly

2.3  The nursery is closed at weekends, bank holidays and most school holidays and our fees are structured accordingly.

2.4  Fees are reviewed each year in May and the new fee structure will not start until the new academic year which would start in September of each year.

2.5  Extra sessions are payable in arrears by direct debit. Please confirm these bookings in writing either via email or signing them off in the extra sessions chart on the signing in sheet in the morning.

2.6  There is no VAT to be paid on any of our charges.

2.7  We are unable to refund fees for sessions not taken due to illness, absence or where the nursery is forced to close due to circumstances beyond our control.

2.8  The nursery reserves the right to charge interest on late fees at the rate of 5% of the fees. Children may be excluded from the nursery if fees remain outstanding beyond 14 days from their due date.

2.9  We have two scholarship places a year which are totally free of charge. One is for 15 hours for a 2-year-old on the funded scheme and the other is for 15/30hr for a 3-year-old that has been on the 2-year-old scheme with us. Parents must be entitled to Early Years Pupil Premium. These places fill fast and a meeting with parents and child are required before being able to confirm these places. These places are left up to the discretion of the nursery owner/manager. These sessions are dependent on space available and could be 5 mornings or 5 afternoons a week.

2.10    Parents of children entitled to the free scholarship places must apply for their funding code, Early Years Pupil Premium code and give it to the nursery manager before the term begins. Children will not be able to attend the nursery until the nursery manager has received these codes.

2.11    The Early Education and Childcare Place (EECP) 3 and 4-year-old funding is accepted at the nursery, but parents must agree to our extras packages to obtain their 15 or 30 free hours from the government.

2.12    Our extras packages allow us to provide the high quality childcare that you expect from our nursery. The extras packages include highly qualified teachers, small child to adult ratios, extra curricular classes, school trips and consumables required to create wonderful art and design pieces. The price of the extras packages changes each term depending on the funding received by the government, for confirmation of the price please contact the nursery manager or the administration team.

2.13    For parents taking up a EECP 30 hour funded place it is their responsibility to obtain a new funding code each term and give it to the nursery manager. If a funding code is not provided by the first day of term the parent will be responsible to pay for the whole bill.

2.14    If the parents are not entitled to the EECP 30-hour funding anymore due to circumstances changing, each parent will have a grace period of half a term where the government will pay for the funding. After this the funding should be paid for by the parents or legal guardian to the child. Any circumstances that change and effect the funding being granted to parents or legal guardian will have to pay the funding themselves or the child will be asked to leave the nursery.

2.15    Because of staffing and resource requirements as laid down by Ofsted, children who are collected after the agreed time (12:15pm, 1pm, 3:30pm) will incur a late collection charge. The current charges are £30 for every 5 minutes you are late after the grace period of 5 minutes.

2.16    Discounts are available for siblings in the nursery. The discount is provided to the older child and remains in place until the older child leaves. The rate of this discount will be 5% for each additional child. Discounts are also available for a full time place at a rate of 5% from the termly fee.

2.17 Parents/carers claiming the Early Education Childcare Place entitlement from the nursery should ensure that they are not claiming more than the statutory allowance. Please consult the nursery manager if in doubt, otherwise extra charges could incur.

2.18 For the nursery to claim the EECP entitlement grant the parents will need to provide proof of child’s date of birth by way of birth certificate or passport. This should be given to the nursery manager or administrations team.

3.    Termination and suspension of childcare services

3.1  You may end this agreement by giving a full terms written notice. Detail of notice period outlined above in 'Bookings & Registration'. No specific reason for ending the agreement needs to be given, although naturally we would wish to understand the reason for termination.

3.2  Specifically, we reserve the right to end this agreement with immediate effect if (1) you have not paid agreed fees (2) you have breached your obligation under this agreement and you have or cannot put right that breach within a reasonable period of being requested to do so (3) your child’s behaviour is unacceptable or endangers the safety and well-being of any of the other children in the nursery (4) parents/carers behaviour towards staff or other parents is demand unacceptable or endangers the safety and well-being of any of the other children and staff (5) financial, business or commercial reasons compel us to radically change the nature of the nursery’s operations, including but not limited to permanent closure of the nursery, change of childcare services, re-registration of child numbers and age groups, changes to the registration and booking policy. Naturally, we will provide as much notice as possible given any of these events.

3.3  We may suspend the provision of childcare for any of the above reasons and in addition (1) if your child is suffering from an infectious or contagious disease or illness which may easily be passed onto others at the nursery. The suspension will continue whilst we try to resolve the problem in conjunction with the parent/carer. (2) where forces beyond our control compel us to either close the nursery or reduce the available hours, such as an outbreak of disease that involves the intervention of outside agencies such as Environmental Health, severe weather such as snow or ice which significantly impairs safe travel to and from the nursery, industrial action affecting travel to and from the nursery, an Ofsted inspector or any other reasonable incident not in our control. In the event that the nursery is compelled to close in reasonable circumstances beyond our control we are not able to refund fees or organize alternative childcare, nor can we accept any consequential liability sustained by parents/carers due for example to loss of earnings or costs associated with alternative childcare. Dependent on the nature of the closure we may be able to seek compensation through our insurance policy and every effort will be made to minimize the disruption to service and cost to parents or carers. None of the above compromises your statutory rights if the nursery has been negligent.

3.4  A full terms notice in writing is required otherwise you will be charged a terms fees in Lieu. Detail of notice period outlined above in 'Bookings & Registration'.

4.    Staffing

4.1  Staff are checked on commencement with the nursery through the Disclosure and Barring service to ensure there are no safeguarding issues of which we need to be aware. Suitable personal checks also include but are not limited to identify verification, qualification checks, personal and employment references, medical checks and where applicable visa or permits to work in the UK. In some cases, because of the length of time that this process takes, a person may start work pending clearance provided they are at no time left looking after children on their own.

4.2  The nursery observes the Ofsted regulations relating to staff and children ratios, currently 2-3 years 1:4 and 3 to 5 years 1:8. In practice our ratios exceed the minima.

4.3  Where a member of staff, within 3 months of leaving the employment of the nursery, is employed by a parent/carer to care for their child, who was previously registered at the nursery. Then parent/carer will be liable to pay a sum equivalent to three month’s salary for the employee at the time their employment with the nursery terminated.

4.4  If a member of staff is asked to take a child home out of nursery hours, it has to be checked by the nursery manager to make sure it does not affect that member of staff’s ability to finish her day’s work. A parent/carer will have to sign a “Taking a child home” policy before the staff member can take a child home.

4.5  Parents/carers may ask to baby-sit outside nursery hours. This is a contract between parent/carer and the member of staff, and the nursery takes no responsibility. Parent/carer and the member of staff need to sign a “Baby sitting policy” before this can occur.

5.    Health, Safety and Absence

5.1  It is understood that the nursery is under an obligation to report to the appropriate authorities any incident where we consider a child may have been abused, neglected or in some way harmed either physically or emotionally. This may be done without informing the parent or carer, in accordance with our Child Protection Policy.

5.2  Intimate care can be provided by a male or female member of our staff and can include feeding, washing, dressing, toileting and nappy changing.

5.3  The nursery is committed to the identification of and provision for children with Special Educational Needs. We believe that the potential of every child in our case is maximized, irrespective of ability, disability, race, gender and social background and to enable equal access to the curriculum in an environment where every child is valued and respected. Parents and carers must ensure we have all the relevant information regarding special needs to enable us to appropriately care for your child. 

5.4  In fairness to all our staff and to the clients and children that use our facilities we expect reasonable standards of behaviour at all times. We therefore reserve the right to exclude any child whose conduct is, in our opinion, disruptive or in any other way unacceptable to the smooth and efficient running of our nursery. Naturally every effort will be made to avoid this action and may include special needs assessments or one to one care if funding allows. We ask all parents/carers to appreciate this and to understand that, in the event of having to exclude any child, all fees are non-refundable.

5.5  We reserve the right to administer basic first aid and treatment when necessary. Parents will be informed of all accidents and will be required to sign an accident form. For accidents of a more serious nature, involving hospital treatment, all attempts will be made by the nursery to contact the parents but failing this, we are hereby authorized to act on behalf of parents to consent to necessary treatment from a suitably qualified medical source. We will administer prescribed medicines if parents complete a ‘Medicine Consent’ form; however, the first dose of medicine must be given at home and parents must take all medicines home at the end of each day unless otherwise agreed.

5.6  We may require parents to withdraw their child from nursery, in the event that they require special medical care or attention, which is not available or refused by parents or it is considered that the child is not well enough to attend nursery. We may also ask parents to withdraw their child from nursery, if we have reasonable cause to believe that they are or maybe suffering from or have suffered from any contagious disease/infection and there remains a danger that other children at the nursery may contract such a disease/infection. We accept no responsibility for children contracting contagious disease/infection whilst at nursery; however, we will publish infection notices in the nursery to keep you informed. Parents are requested to inform the nursery if their child is suffering from any illness or sickness before attending nursery.

5.7  Parents are requested to inform the nursery of any food, medicine, activity or any other circumstances that may cause the child to have an allergic reaction/allergy. Parents must provide details, in writing, of the severity of the reaction/allergy and must continue to inform the nursery of any changes/progress to the condition, in writing, when they become aware. Parents are requested to inform the nursery of any changes to key information.

5.8  Children who are unwell should not attend the nursery. Children who have suffered from sickness or diarrhoea will not be admitted back to nursery within 48 hours after the last bout. If children fall ill during the day parents will be contacted to arrange to collect them. If the parents are unavailable other authorised contacts will be called.

5.9  We suggest that all personal toys, books or other equipment are left at home. Comforters can be brought to nursery.

5.10 Children should come in normal day clothes with their school uniform smock over the top. Please avoid ‘designer’ clothes as accidents can happen. One change of clothes should be provided, in a bag on the child’s peg. Please label your child’s clothes to help avoid items going missing or being misplaced. The nursery does not accept responsibility for accidental injury or loss of property, although we take very good care of child property whilst in the nursery.

5.11 Children need to bring a labelled water bottle and piece of fruit with them for every session.

5.12 The nursery does maintain those insurances required by law. Details are posted on the parents notice board.

5.13 The nursery acknowledges its duty of care to uphold the Statutory Guidance issued under section 29 of the counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, the central function of which is to take due regard to our role in assisting the prevention of adults and children in our care from being drawn into terrorism or radicalization.

.    Security and Publicity

6.1  As part of the nursery’s fulfilment of the Early Years Foundation Stage we regularly photograph and sometimes video the children taking part in activities. Imagery is never published without the consent of the parent or carer. Our guidelines are as follows (1) Photographs in the nursery are only taken with nursery cameras or authorized devices such as tablet computers. (2) Staff mobile phones with or without cameras are not allowed in the playrooms or the garden. (3) Photographs taken of the children are stored on the nursery computer and are password protected. (4) Photographs are vetted for suitability before being printed or published. (5) All children are dressed appropriately before pictures are taken. (6) No photographs are taken in sensitive areas such as toilet or nappy changing rooms. (7) Parents are requested not to use their mobile phones within the nursery premises unless absolutely necessary. If you do not wish your child to be photographed or recorded, please inform the nursery in registration form.

6.2  The nursery will open its doors at 9:15am, 12:30pm, 1:00pm & 3:30pm. Early pick-ups need to be agreed with the nursery manager and doors will not open until the nursery manager believes it’s safe to do so. Parents/ carers are asked to make a queue outside the nursery until the doors are opened.

6.3  The nursery operates a CCTV system which is for security purposes only and is not connected to any exterior network other than for remote maintenance by the proprietor or authorized CCTV engineers.

6.4  If your child is going to be collected by someone other than yourself the manager will require prior notification and an agreed password. It is the responsibility of parents to keep us informed of any changes on contact numbers. Authorised person needs to be 18 years old and over.

6.5  Under no circumstances will the child be allowed to leave nursery with anyone unknown to nursery staff unless the parent or carer has previously arranged this. If the parents/carer has made alternative arrangements by telephone, the nursery will require the name, address and telephone number of the person permitted to collect the child and proof of identity will be required upon arrival at the Nursery. A list of responsible adults who are authorized to collect the child should be put on the child’s registration form. The nursery does also use a password system for entry to the building.

6.6    

We observe the The Data Protection Act 1998 which is a statutory act of government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island. The Act defines what types of data are allowed to be collected, how they should be stored and what can and cannot be done with that information. In particular, The Act states that personal data relating to individuals must be stored securely and only used for legitimate purpose.