late collection of child

[madrupert]

hey,
we've had several parents arriving late to collect their child at the end of the afternoon session. we are a small local pre-school and all of us are mom's too, whom go on to collect our own children when we finish work. one parent was 30 minutes late after falling asleep on the sofa at home. this has such a big affect on us all and it makes us very late in collecting our own kids.
does anyone charge for lateness?
what do you say to a parent when they finally arrive, without affending them but getting your point across!!!

this seems to be quite a problem already this year (from sept - 3 weeks) so just sounding out for any advice.
thanks X

This was a big bugbear to us as well, came to a head when a parent complained to Ofsted that i had asked her to please be on time , I had apparently shouted at her.. problem was I was not the one who dealt with it, and lots of parents were around to back us up.. not upheld I may add but lots of stress!

we now have a form for every parent who collects late to sign.. It states time they should have been collected, what we did about contacting parents.. phone numbers used, times etc..if we contacted them or any calls they made to us and then the time the child was actually collected.. and a note of additional childcare costs at the bottom.. we charge £5.00 per 15 mins! and this is in our admissions policy also.

we charge even if they tell us they are late.. it is a childcare cost.. and they are told so, and that it covers the wage of the staff members who stay.

we give them one warning when signing and the second time they are expected to pay.. so far one warning has been enough.. the fact that they have to sign a separate form with details on it seems to be a good deterrent for those who are constantly late..

needless to say we do take each one individually and understand the various reasons etc. It is more for those who often turn up late.. and the ones who do not apologise really rile me!

As for the oversleep from night duty.. we have had arrangement to call parent at home 30 mins before due to collect.. usually not needed but we offer the 'service'

[DizzyDora]

We also charge £5 per 15 mins late to cover our costs. Also parents get a late letter if 3 are issued in a year they may lose their place. We do take each situation individually and i am prone to be a little more understanding if i get a gushing apology!

Within our setting the policy states that any child that has not been collected after 30 mininutes, the setting has not received a phone call with an explanation they are classed as abandoned, settings have the right by law to contact the local authority. Not that we have done this.

We explain to parents that their child can feel forgotten and become distressed which is not good for their self esteem, as they sit watching all the other children leave with their parents, but there parent doesn't arrive. It therefore important that they arrive on time

We have a policy that states we charge £20 for the first 15 mins late then £5 for the next 15 mins. This came in at our AGM in May and so far we have not had to charge anyone, a couple of reminders that this is in the policy have been given to two who very nearly made it to the first 15 mins.