Policies

Policy for Payment of Fees

Policy Statement:

The management of childcare fees in Little People’s Academy endeavours to reflect best practice with regard to the budgeting of costs for the provision of a quality early childcare and education service and to ensure the long-term sustainability of the service.

Billing:

Fees are payable on a 12 month / 52-week basis and all absences and holidays must be paid for.
There is no refund for illness, holidays or closure of the service due to unforeseen circumstances.
The service will close if it is deemed by Senior Management to be unsafe to open, e.g., Extreme staff shortages or severe weather conditions. Full fees will be payable. Refer to ‘Exceptional Closure Policy’

Unless otherwise agreed, all fees are payable in full, in advance, whether paying weekly or monthly.
Your first week’s fees must be paid in advance by bank transfer or by cash payment.
An administration fee of €5 will be incurred for each direct debit that is returned unpaid on its due date and this will be charged for and included on the monthly invoice in the next available billing period.
Should a child attend for any extra care/time not covered by their standard care booking this will incur an additional charge and must be pre-booked in advance.
Full fees without any subsidy, grant or funding deduction are payable to Little People’s Academy whilst any application for a subsidy, grant or funding is being processed and during any time these no longer apply and/or are withdrawn. Please refer to the separate additional subsidy, grant and/or funding policy document for further information. Further terms and conditions apply when availing of any funding type.

Funding, subsidy and/or grant deductions applied to fees may therefore be adjusted from time to time depending on a child’s funding approval, absence period, start date, finish date and where a change in care has occurred.

Cancelation of Care:

Unless stated otherwise the following will be required to terminate a child’s care:
If you intend to terminate your child/s care, 4 full weeks written notice must be provided by the parent/guardian to withdraw a child from the service.
Termination of care notices must be made in writing and emailed to the branch manager or the general manager.
If the required termination of notice period is not provided by the parent/guardian, the parent/guardian must forgo 4 weeks fee in lieu of same.
Where the required notice period is not received any deposit monies held on file are forfeit and will be non-refundable.
Any deposits held are at risk of being forfeit if the required notice period is not received.

Change in Care – Notice Period:

Little People’s Academy has an approval process in place for changing your child’s care option,

All places and care arrangements are subject to availability.
Should a change of care request be approved the following notice periods will apply:

Where the request is to reduce your child/s care; a minimum of 4 weeks written notice must be provided by the parent/guardian.
Where the request is to increase your child/s care, the request must be made in writing and the increase in care will take place from the date of availability.

Where a change in care occurs the fee rate charged for the new care arrangement will be as per the current pricing applicable at the time of the change. Where a previous family discount applied this will cease and a discount will only apply where the current requirements and conditions required to avail of a family discount are satisfied.

Cancelation & Billing Agreement:

A parent/guardian is requested to sign the terms and condition of registration stating the termination and billing agreement before their child’s enrolment.
Where the termination and billing agreement is not signed the terms and conditions as set out in this policy document will continue to apply to all enrolments at Little People’s Academy.

Fee Structure and Service Opening Hours:

Fee Structure

The fee structure, rates and discounts offered, if any, may vary from centre to centre.
Unless otherwise stated fees are payable on a 12 month / 52-week basis and all absences and holidays must be paid for. There is no exception to this policy.

Crèche Opening

Our centres open throughout the year with the exception of the following times:

Christmas Eve, the period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, Good Friday and all Bank and Public Holidays.
Our fee structure incorporates these as closed crèche days and therefore no changes/discounts will be applicable to fees due to these closures.

Fee and Care Options Review:

Fees and care options are reviewed periodically by management, to ensure that sustainability, quality, staff costs and overheads are appropriately met.
Fees are subject to change.
Care options are subject to change
Parents/guardians will be notified in writing, via email, a minimum of 2 months prior to any increase/change in fees or care options. Should a parent/guardian not wish to continue his/her child’s care arrangement with our service on foot of a notice to increase/change fees, the parent/guardian can terminate the child’s care with us by giving 1 months’ notice in writing and email this notice to the crèche manager or the district manager.

Discount:

Should a discount be offered to a family, it is offered at the sole discretion of senior management and may be amended or withdrawn without reason or notice at any time.
Any discount offered will be applied to standard monthly/weekly fees, prior to the deduction of any grant/subsidy.
No discounts will apply to any extra care, hours and/or time availed of outside of the standard regular care booking.
Minimum care requirements will apply to avail of any discount offered.
10% Sibling discount applies when two or more siblings attending 5 full days, or 5% sibling discount applies when two or more siblings attending 5 part time days per week. This sibling discount is subtracted from the older siblings’ fees before any subsidies are applied.
10% staff discount applies when a staff member has their own child attend our service either on a part time or fulltime basis.
Once a change in care occurs, any prior discount applied will cease. Current fee rates applicable at the commencement of the change in care will apply. Should the new care arrangement satisfy the current criteria required for a discount, if any, the discount rate that will apply will be based on the current discount rate offered at the time of the change in care.
The deposit relevant to your child’s particular care is required along with a completed registration form before a child’s place is secured.
The deposit will be held onto separately, for the duration of a child’s attendance at Little People’s Academy. Please also refer to the Deposit and Billing Termination Agreement Form.
The deposit amount is reviewed by management regularly and is subject to change.
The deposit will be refunded once the terms of our termination and billing agreement have been met and all balances on your account are paid in full.
The deposit will be refunded within a month after the child leaves the service via bank transfer.

In the event if the following instances the deposit will be non-refundable:

Where a booked place is not taken up and/or is cancelled by you, the deposit will be forfeit and therefore non-refundable.
Where the terms of the fee policy are not upheld.
Where the child does not start on the reserved start date (or on the deferred start date where the start date has been deferred by agreement with Little People’s Academy for a maximum period of up to 6 months).
Where the notice period required to terminate care is not provided in full.
Where all balances due on an account are not paid in full. All outstanding fees must be paid in full before a deposit refund is issued.
Where a balance is outstanding on the account the deposit monies held on file will be retained to cover this outstanding balance.

Delays and Non-Payment of Fees Policy:

Any delays in payments must be discussed in advance and agreed with management
Non-payment of fees in full will result in the loss of your child’s place with Little People’s Academy.
Little People’s Academy reserves the right to request a Parent/Guardian to withdraw their child from the service if fees are unpaid. Little People’s Academy will provide one week’s notice in this instance.

Late Collection Fee:

We understand that at times a parent or allocated collector may be late collecting their child. However, a late collection fee will apply where a child is collected after the crèche's closing time after reminders by management have already been given to the parent regarding their collection time. The fee charged will be €10.00 for the first 15-minute period of the creche closing and €5.00 per 15 minutes or part thereof thereafter.

Additional Care:

At Little People’s Academy we aim to provide as flexible a service as possible, we understand that schedules can change and at times a parent/guardian of a child enrolled for part time care will require additional care in the crèche. Should additional care be required from time to time for a child in addition to the normal standard care arrangement the crèche manager will confirm availability directly with the parent/guardian.

Additional care will be charged for and included in the next available billing period.
We do not facilitate ‘change in day request’ whereby a parent/guardian requests to swap their child’s option on a given day on a given week. Please note that we cannot provide a ‘care change’ (i.e., swapping of days). If your child attends for care that is not as per their normal standard care booking then this will be charged as extra care.
We do not charge extra care by the hour. Where a child attends for an extra period or part thereof a full half session will be charged for.

Payments in Relation to Holiday or Illness of the Child/Children:

No reduction in fees will be made if children are absent for holidays, illness or other reasons.
There is no reduction in fees for Public/Bank holidays.
In the case of a long term, medically certified illness of a child, parent/guardians are advised to keep in contact with the centre on a regular basis. In this situation, arrangements will be discussed with the parent/guardian and the District Manager, and decisions made on payment of fees will be made on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the proprietor.

Funding, Subsidy and Grants:

Please note that where a parent/guardian is availing of any type of funding, subsidy or grant for their child additional rules and policies will apply depending on the type of funding being availed of.

A supplementary policy and/or guideline document is issued directly to a parent/guardian when their child is availing of a particular government funding scheme..
The rules and procedures as set out in these additional and separate funding policy documents will also apply in addition to those already noted in this document.
Any rules and procedures set out by the DCEDIY (Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth) in relation to their childcare funding programmes must be complied with to continue to avail of these funding types. For further information in relation to the rules on the DCEDIY funding schemes please go to www.gov.ie
Full fees without any subsidy, grant or funding deduction are payable to Little People’s Academy whilst any application for a subsidy, grant or funding is being processed and during any time these no longer apply and/or are withdrawn. Please refer to the separate additional government subsidy, grant and/or funding policy document issued on the commencement of your child availing of any of these types of funding. Funding, subsidy and/or grant deductions applied to fees may therefore be adjusted from time to time depending on a child’s funding approval, absence period, start date, finish date and where a change in care has occurred.

Communication:

Our services policies, statements and procedures are accessible and communicated to all, using a variety of media, e.g., handbooks, posters/pictures and memos. All parents/guardians are informed of the services fees policy on enrolment and any changes to policies are passed onto parents as soon as they are reviewed. Managing staff members check with parents/guardians that they have read and understood the policy and provide any assistance needed.

A summary of this policy is included in the Parents’/Guardians’ Handbook. This policy may be also included in staff induction and annual staff training.

A copy of all policies will be available during all hours of operation to all staff and to parents/guardians in the Policy Folder located in the branch manager’s office.

Parents/guardians may receive a copy of the full policy at any time upon request. Parents/guardians and staff will receive written notification of any updates.

Further Information on our Fees Policy:

If you require more details regarding our services purpose and function, or / and our services policies, you can contact our branch manager by email at lpahillstreet@gmail.com or our general manager by email at littlepeoplesacademyoffice@gmail.com

Signed: Tara Hutchinson Furey (G.M) Date: 05th January 2022

(For and on behalf of the company Little People’s Academy)

This policy was ratified in September 2021. Planned Review Date: January 2022