Nursery World - Nurseries fear refund claims following top-up fee ruling

Top-up fees have always been a grey area, and now a nursery and county council have been found to have broken the rules following an intervention by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman. So what does this mean for the sector? Hannah Crown reports

One parent in Market Harborough is being repaid £1,200 of the fees he was charged

Additional charges to free entitlement hours are routinely imposed by nurseries to compensate for low funding rates, but the news that a parent has won his case over top-up fees at one of the UK’s largest nursery groups has given rise to concerns about the potential for similar refunds across the country.

Parent Damian Roche, whose child received 30 hours of free entitlement at Kiddi Caru Market Harborough, has been awarded £1,200 in fee compensation after the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman found that Leicestershire County Council failed to fulfil its obligation to ensure the 30 hours were delivered free of charge and instead treated the entitlement as an hourly subsidy.

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