Six million families will be eligible for financial support with the launch this month of the new Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit schemes, and many of them will also be able to claim assistance with childcare costs.
The changes are part of the Government's long-term drive to encourage families off benefit dependency and into the labour force. But for some people, trying to juggle the competing demands made on their low incomes proves an unequal struggle and they fall behind with their childcare fees.
Indeed, Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, says, ' A lot of people these days are not used to handling money. If the children need new shoes or the exhaust falls off the car and the childcare fees are due, which gets paid? Nurseries are ending up as debt counsellors.'
Rosalind Taylor, joint proprietor of the Devon-based Puffins chain of nurseries, says that childcarers are by nature kind people. When a proprietor or manager has formed a caring relationship with a family, it can be tough to take a firm stance.
She advises managers and owners to calculate the real implications of bad debts on their business. 'We worked out that at one of our nurseries, which at the time had 40 places, we needed to have 32 places filled to cover our costs, and we did not include our wages,' she says. 'There is little room to manoeuvre if someone defaults on their fees.'
Michael Ruaux, managing director of Crofter's Park Nursery in Bolton, Lancashire, says, 'Our normal terms are to ask for a week's deposit and one month up front. Parents who are looking to return to work, or who are maybe starting work for the first time, are not going to be able to do that.'
The nursery asks parents to pay by standing order, with fees going out of the parents' account on the day the child starts nursery and arriving in the nursery's account three days later.
'Some of the parents who have the least money are the most meticulous about paying week in and week out. They know that if they missed a week, they could not cope. Some of the best payers are like that.'
However, Sue Ranson, managing director of the Cornwall-based Coombe Valley nursery chain, prefers not to use standing orders. She finds that taking a set amount each week or month from a parent's bank account does not match children's attendance patterns at nursery.
The managers at each nursery in the chain have responsibility for preparing invoices after checking the registers to see exactly when children have attended nursery, and any extras such as swimming sessions.
Regardless of the payment regime a setting adopts, at some stage managers are bound to encounter parents who do not or cannot pay on time. Action must be taken quickly.
Finding the right moment to talk to a parent can be tricky - you want to avoid having a potentially abrupt conversation with a parent when a child is present, and at the next session a relative may collect the child, and so delays occur. Mrs Ranson, therefore, prefers a system of letters.
'The first letter says, "Oh dear, you appear to have missed a payment". The second is on the lines of "I say, we still haven't received the payment".
And the third says, "Pay by such and such a date or don't bring your child in any more".'
Mrs Taylor says, 'We are strict, otherwise people take you for a ride.' She makes it the responsibility of the administrator, rather than the manager, to contact parents about overdue fees, to arrange a payment date and, where necessary, help parents work out what they can pay.
'Maybe they can pay an extra 10 a week,' she says. 'We allow a bit of leeway for mothers returning to work after maternity leave, as it can take them a couple of months to get their finances straight.'
Mr Ruaux has not pursued debts through the courts when he has felt that even if the court made an order requiring parents to pay so much a month, the money was unlikely to be forthcoming.
However, Mrs Ranson insists it is always worth instituting legal proceedings. She won a case against a woman only to find that her partner owned everything in their house, leaving the bailiffs unable to raise any money. However, the County Court judgement against her meant the woman could not have a bank account.
'If people want to operate in society in the normal way they want these things, so they pay. If they do not pay, they risk getting a bad credit rating and all that involves. For most people the threat of litigation is enough.'
Mrs Taylor warns that settings must have their contracts phrased correctly so they can chase defaulters and recommends that both parents sign it. In one instance, only a mother signed and the father refused to take responsibility for paying the fees because he had not signed it. 'You can only chase a signatory,' she warns.
SETTING UP AN EFFICIENT SYSTEM
* Explain terms and conditions clearly to parents when they enrol a child.
Ask them to sign a contract agreeing to those terms and accepting responsibility for paying the fees.
* Arrrange your banking online so your office staff can monitor your accounts on a daily basis and see that direct debits/standing orders are paid.
* If your bank will agree to stand as your guarantor, consider asking permission to be able to operate a direct debit system. The Puffins chain offers parents a small discount if they pay by direct debit. Both direct debit and credit cards are costly to administer and you may want to pass on to parents bank charges levied on these cards.
* Another payment option is by standing order, but this again does not suit all circumstances.
* Some families prefer to pay by cash, but this poses security problems.
Draw up a clear policy on who can take fees in cash, where the money is stored and who banks it.
* Charge an administrative fee - 10 is usual - for your time and expenses in dealing with bouncing cheques/direct debits.
* Ask for a deposit and a month's fees in advance. If, by the last week of the month a parent has not paid, the office administrator should contact them and explain that if the fees are not paid by the due date, the child's place will be cancelled.
* Ensure that you have effective procedures for monitoring accounts, recording conversations about payments and sending out reminders about late payments, so that you can see at a glance the current position with each family.
* Agree a policy for handling debts. Be prepared to negotiate with parents so they can pay outstanding fees by instalments. For example, Mr Ruaux cites a case of parents who were quite badly in arrears. 'One of the children was about to become eligible for a nursery education grant place and we suggested they kept paying the fees for that child to pay off what they owed.'
A PROBLEM SHARED
If you would like to find out how other nursery managers might respond to a problem that you are facing, then write giving details to: A Problem Shared, Nursery World, Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1W 1BX.
Q Some of our staff have begun to use sloppy language with the children.
They tend not to pronounce words properly and use slang. As a manager, I am unhappy about this but feel unsure how to respond. What should I do?
A Call a staff meeting and ask questions such as, 'Would we stand back when a child has a bleeding knee, needs their nose wiped or their shoelaces tied?' The inevitable response will be, 'Of course not!' Then ask, 'So, why are we not so attentive when it comes to promoting that all-important aspect of early years education - language acquisition?'
Explain that all nursery staff have a responsibility to help each child in their care access the very best of holistic education, and part of that responsibility is speaking well.
Acknowledge that there is great richness in regional accents and dialects - and indeed there is merit in exploring dialects - but that everyone must enunciate with care. Cite the example of newscasters. They have a multitude of different regional accents, but we can understand all of them perfectly.
Point out that there is no excuse for using slang and sloppy language. Explain that children in the process of acquiring language listen intently to everything that is said to them. Practitioners' words should, therefore, be easily understood and complete.
Remind staff that when they talk to a child (whether they can respond or not), they should be at the child's physical level, offer good eye contact and be aware of the speed at which they speak. Children, in turn, look at our entire faces trying to pick up clues and understand this magical ability we have to convey our thoughts in words.
Staff should feel proud about the part they play in developing children's language skills, with management doing their part by investing in training in promoting children's language development.
Staff who are not extending a child's language are not delivering important aspects of the Foundation Stage. They are also denying children a confident approach to the English language, in all its hues.
Rosie Pressland is principal of Pocklington Montessori School in York and managing director of internet training provider iceye
