Chestnuts Fee Schedule

Chestnuts

Chestnuts TW1 Nursery is situated in Strafford Road, TW1 – for children aged 3 months old to school starting age.

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Opening Times are from 7:30am to 6pm.

Chestnuts is open all year round for 51 weeks of the year. It is closed on bank holidays and the week between Christmas and New Year.

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Settling in Sessions

Three 1.5 hour settling in sessions will be arranged with you before your child’s official start date. Sessions will be charged at £10.50 per hour plus lunch if your child stays for lunch.

Administration Fee

A £125 refundable admin fee is payable upon registration and will be refunded provided you give the correct notice period.

Fees for non-funded places

£10.50 per hour

Additional costs:

£2.00 for breakfast (between 7.30am and 8am)
£3.40 for a catered lunch
£2.10 for a catered tea

Early Education Entitlement

Chestnuts is registered with the Local Authority, Achieving for Children, to offer the early education entitlement to eligible families. Families will be eligible for either 15 or 30 hours, depending on circumstances. The full 15 or 30 hours must be taken. 30 hours can be stretched over 51 weeks.

EEE can only be taken in 3 or 6 hour blocks at the following times during school terms. Families must take either 15 or 30 hours. Charges for breakfast, lunch and tea will apply.

9 to 12
12 to 3
3 to 6

All hours taken outside of these times will be charged at the hourly rate.

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Eligibility

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Entitlement Stream 1 - Families Receiving Additional Forms of Government
Support (FRAS)

This funding stream applies to
1. parents/carers in receipt of certain benefits
2. a child in receipt of Disability Allowance
3. a child who is a ‘Looked After’ child.

Families that meet at least one of the above may be eligible to access 15 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks (term time only) from the start of the term after the child turns 2 until the end of the term in which the child turns 3. To find out if you are eligible and to apply for your eligibility reference code, visit;  2 Year Olds Applying for Childcare Support

Entitlement Stream 2 - Working Parents Entitlement

This stream is for working parents of children from 9 months to access 1140 hours of childcare over 38 weeks (term time only) Chestnuts stretches this entitlement over 51 weeks. To check your entitlement, visit: Get free childcare if you're working: Check if you're eligible - GOV.UK

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Entitlement Stream 3 - Universal Entitlement for 3 and 4 year olds

The universal entitlement is for 570 hours over 38 weeks (term time only) from the start of the term after their third birthday. Chestnuts offers this stretched over 51 weeks.

Entitlement Stream 4 - Extended hours for Working Parents

The extended entitlement is for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds who qualify for an additional 570 over 38 weeks (term time only) making a total of 1140 hours. Chestnuts offers the 1140 hours stretched over 51 weeks. To apply for the eligibility code visit  https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.

Stretched Entitlement

All early years entitlement streams start from the period after a child is 9 months or from the period after the third or fourth birthday All streams cover three periods. The total number of hours in one year is 570 (15 hours) or 1140 (30 hours), depending on the stream. Stretched entitlement is where these hours are divided over more than 38 weeks. At Chestnuts we divide the hours over 51 weeks. This means that you pay the same amount each week of a funded period and do not have to pay full fees during school holidays. The 30 hours per week funding stretched over the 16 weeks in the Autumn Term works out as 26.25 hours per week funded entitlement. The remaining 3.75 hours are charged at the hourly rate of £10.50. Spring term is stretched over 13 weeks and the summer term is stretched over 22 weeks, giving you 51 weeks in total.

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The Government sets deadlines for applying for your code and giving it to us - see table below for the dates.

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Enhanced Provision

 

At Chestnuts we offer families the option of accessing our Enhanced Provision during their funded hours. This covers the additional costs of provision that is not part of the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework and therefore not covered by the funding we receive. Our Enhanced Provision includes the fact that every staff member is qualified in Early Years and in Paediatric First Aid. It includes adult-directed activities that incur additional resources/costs such as cooking, gardening and our sports sessions. It includes access to the extended garden and sensory room activities.

 

The charge for our Enhanced Provision are as follows:

Babies up to 2 – no charge.
2 year olds - £1 per hour or £15 per week.
3 & 4 year olds - £2 per hour or £30 per week.

You will be asked termly if you wish to opt in to our Enhanced provision. The fee applies to the full term.
Extra-curricular activities such as termly Sports sessions will be invoiced separately to those families who choose to attend.

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Agreement to pay for enhanced provision

Due to the shortfall in Government funding for the Early Years Entitlement we are relying on families to pay for the enhanced  provision in order to remain financially viable. If you do not want your child to access the Enhanced Provision please sign the section on the application form.

Entitlement Regulations

If a child does not attend an agreed entitlement session, for example due to sickness or holiday, then the entitlement hours cannot be offered at another time. Entitlement hours cannot be accumulated and hours that are not taken in one week cannot be carried over or taken at a later date. If, when claiming the funding, we find that you are not entitled to the free hours you have agreed to access at our setting, for example, not declaring hours at a different setting or not renewing an eligibility code, then you will be charged our standard hourly rate for any hours accessed in the term. Persistent absence of more than 4 weeks may result in your entitlement being withdrawn. It is possible to split the entitlement hours with another setting. If a child is accessing the entitlement at another setting this must be declared on the parent authorisation form.

Invoicing
Your invoice will be sent via Famly on the 1st day of each month and payment is expected to credit our account by 27th of the month, otherwise a £30 late charge will be applied. The invoices will detail how many entitlement hours have been accessed in the invoice period separately to additional hours and services that have been charged for.

Don't forget that entitlement hours can only be taken between 9am and 3pm. Every hour outside of these times is chargeable. If you leave part way through a funded period, you may not receive your full allocation of 570 or 1140 hours. Your hours will be reconciled and we will offer the balance of the hours within the notice period. If you do not wish to use these hours, then they will be forfeited. Should notice be given prior to your child accessing a full year of entitlements the total services accessed outside of the entitlements up until the end of the notice period will be recalculated and a balancing figure calculated.

Famly

We accept payments via Famly, the software platform we use to bring all different ways of communicating together into one app making it a lot easier for you as a parent to manage. Full details of your account including sessions booked and current balance can be accessed on Famly.

Childcare Voucher Schemes

Fees can be paid through various employer childcare voucher schemes. Chestnuts is currently registered with the majority of providers.

Notice Periods

Once a child has started accessing the entitlements there is a four-week notice period to change the number of hours or to end the agreement and move the entitlements to another childcare provider. Once notice has been formally given in writing parents / carers will be given a copy of a notification of changes form that must be taken to any new childcare provider that you are taking up the entitlements with.

Entitlement hours cannot be accessed at another provider until the week following the end of your four-week notice period.
Please be aware the notice period for the entitlements is different from our contract for any hours purchased outside of the entitlement hours for which we require 12 weeks’ notice. The Local Authority will only allow a change to hours or move to a different provider once per term. In the event that Chestnuts has to give notice that Chestnuts can no longer offer the entitlement sessions, then there will be no notice period applied to the early education entitlements and a parent may take up their entitlement sessions with another childcare provider as soon as arrangements have been made.

Late Collection

 

Children must be collected promptly at the end of each session. Parents/carers who know they are going to be late MUST inform Chestnuts at the earliest opportunity. Parents/carers who are constantly late will receive 2 verbal warnings before a
late fee charge of £30.00 is issued.

Catered Lunch / Tea

Chestnuts uses a specialist catering company called Care Catering that has been providing food exclusively for day nurseries for over ten years. They offer a 6 week lunch menu cycle with seasonal variations. They cater to specific dietary requirements and offer a separate baby weaning menu and a vegetarian menu.​ For more information, please take a look at their website www.carecatering.co.uk

Policies

If you would like to review any of Chestnuts policies, please visit the Information for Parents page on the website. 

Customer Complaints

We hope you will always be happy with Chestnuts but acknowledge that you may occasionally have a concern or an issue.
If you are not satisfied with the verbal response, you get or would prefer to contact the owner in writing, please do. Should you remain unsatisfied you are able to complain directly to Ofsted:

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