Fees
Fees are payable monthly in advance, by standing order or Tax Free Childcare payments. Extra sessions are payable in advance by bank transfer. Invoices will be issued 7 days before the due date. Fees not paid on or before the 1st of each month, could be subject to a £100.00 late payment charge.
Fees are reviewed annually in April but may be revised with one month’s written notice.
Full fees are payable for all booked sessions even if these should fall on bank holidays or inset days over the Christmas period when the nursery is closed, the dates of closure will be displayed on the notice board, newsletters and our website.
Enrolment
Parents/guardians wishing to secure a place for their child can do so by completing our booking form on our website.
It is the responsibility of the parent /carer to supply and update the information required of the parent/carer to supply and update the information required on the booking form. First Steps cannot be held responsible for any incidents resulting from inaccurate or incomplete details supplied on the form. This includes a change of job, change of email address, moving house, new mobile phone or landline phone numbers.
In the term following your child turning 9 months old you may be entitled to working parent Early Years Funding, it is the parent’s responsibility to apply for the funding and inform the setting with the eligibility code FSC must receive this code 5 working days before the end of the funding period. your National Insurance number will also be required. Following your child’s third birthday, your child will be entitled to Early Years Funding; to access this funding the entitlements team require a copy of your child’s birth certificate or passport. It is therefore a condition of registration that that you email us a clear copy.
Staff
All our staff are checked for criminal offences under the Disclosure and Barring Service [DBS]
From September 2026 all staff require the completion of the DBS before their start date is confirmed. Once the DBS is complete all staff are registered on the update service portal.
Parental Agreement
Parents and Carers will:
· Work together with staff for the benefit of the children.
· Set a good example in their own speech and behaviour towards all members of staff at First Steps Childcare.
· Sign to say they have understood and agree to adhere to the Terms and conditions.
First Steps will not tolerate Parents, Carers and Visitors:
· Acting aggressively, using inappropriate language, displaying temper or acting in a threatening manner towards, staff, children or parents on the premises or over the telephone.
Dress
We recommend that you dress your child to consider the wide and varied activities of the day. Please clearly label your child's clothing. We regret that ‘First Steps’ and its staff or other children cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage to your child's belongings however caused. We also ask for parents to ensure their child is wearing or equip with outside clothing for the seasons e.g. spare shorts and t-shirts for the summer due to water play and winter coats, waterproof suits, gloves, hats and scarfs for the Autumn and Winter seasons.
Advanced bookings
To secure a nursery place, an administration fee is payable on registration: £100.00. Once sessions are confirmed and secured, we will contact and arrange our home visit and two settling in sessions. If you wish to reduce or end your child’s attendance, one term’s written notice is required. For example, notice given in April applies to changes from September, notice given in September applies to changes from December, and notice given in January applies to changes from March. The setting is open Monday and Friday from 8.30am to 4.00pm and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8.30am to 5.30pm, with limited places available from 8.00am to 8.30am. Children must not arrive before 8.30am and must be collected by 5.30pm unless prior arrangements have been agreed. Sessions cannot be swapped, but extra sessions may be available on an ad-hoc basis, subject to room availability. Late collection will incur a charge of £10.00 per 15 minutes. Please ensure you have read the fees policy.
Illness and Exclusion
For the welfare and health of the other children who attend the setting we request that you do not send your child if they are ill or may have an infectious disease. ‘First Steps’ reserves the right not to accept any child(ren) it considers unfit to attend the setting. Fees are still payable in full.
If your child is on medication which must be administered whilst attending the setting you must complete a medical consent form giving instructions on times and dosage for each course. Written consent must also be given for the application of creams and lotions. We can only act ‘in loco parentis’ in your absence. For further information please see our medical guidelines policies.
Special Circumstances
First Steps reserves the right to refuse admission, cancel sessions and alter opening times without notice should events occur beyond its control. In these circumstances fees are non-returnable for up to a maximum of five consecutive days.
Children’s Welfare
It is the responsibility of the parents/carers to provide the following items for your child. For children which require clearly labelled bottles, and a sufficient change of nappies. Failure to
provide nappies may result in you being charged for ones provided by the nursery. If necessary, clearly labelled barrier/nappy rash cream should be provided and a permission is sought upon enrolment. During the summer months ALL children will need high factor sun cream applied before the start of their session and a clearly labelled bottle in their bags should the setting need to reapply.
Parents and carers should be aware that the nursery has a duty to take reasonable action to ensure the welfare and safety of the children in its care. In cases where the staff have a cause to be concerned that a child in their care may be subject to ill treatment, neglect or other forms of abuse, a senior member of staff will follow the Child Protection/Safeguarding Children policy and may inform social services of their concerns. Parents will be informed.
We will only release children to parents/guardians or provide information to authorised persons stated on booking forms unless we have been given permission from the ‘main’ parent/carer and that person is in possession of the correct password.
Out of Hours Care
First Steps understands that staff outside normal working hours may undertake childcare for clients of ‘First Steps ’ if this involves transport of the child ‘First Steps’ would bring to your attention that this is a purely private arrangement and ‘First Steps’ will not accept responsibility for the child out of hours and away from the setting.
Notice
One term notice e.g. notice given in April to leave or decrease sessions in September, notice give in September to leave or decrease sessions in December, and notice given in January to leave or decrease sessions in March. This must be given in writing.
*Any request to only pay voluntary contributions must be received with a terms notice.
The nursery cannot tolerate parents, carers and visitors or siblings exhibiting the following:
• Disruptive behaviour which interferes or threatens to interfere within the operation of the nursery grounds, including outings or events.
• Using loud/or offensive language, swearing, cursing, using profane language or displaying temper.
• Threatening to do actual bodily harm to a member of nursery staff, visitor, fellow parent/carer, or student regardless of whether the behaviour constitutes a criminal offence.
• Damaging or destroying nursery property.
Early Years Entitlement
The term after a child’s third birthday also working parents of 9 months olds + need to apply for this funding via the childcare choices website they are entitled to 570 hours of funded per annum. Early years funding is only paid for 38 weeks of the year; however First Steps is a setting that is open for longer and so uses the stretched offer, therefore all invoices will be shown over 48 weeks and divided over the three terms (dependant on the number of weeks) this is to comply with the entitlement that is split evenly throughout the year. (i.e. no discount for holidays). To claim the EYE funding the following information is needed:
– birth certificate, passport (on registration, a copy needs to be sent to EYE funding team) eligibility code and National Insurance EYE funding parent declaration form - completed every term by parents these will be issued by First Steps. It is the parents’/carers responsibility to provide this documentation, if child’s legal documentation is not produced then parents/carers will be charged the settings normal fees as they will be unable to claim EYE funding. Funded hours are between 8.00-5.30. All fees charged relate to hours or addition charges identified overleaf that are not funded by the EYE funding.
Please see below a list of all the services and resources that we charge for and our reasons for them.
Allowable consumables that are chargeable include.
Food – these charges will be itemised to the sessions your child attends e.g. morning without lunch as from 1st September 2026
As a setting we have considered the views from our parents and to reduce the costs we have elected to discontinue the provision of lunches. However, we realise the importance of a healthy diet for all young children therefore please see attached our policy on healthy lunch boxes.
We will still provide breakfast between the hours of 8am-9am this will include a selection of fresh fruits, yoghurts, cereals and toast.
The setting will still provide oat /soya milk which cannot be claimed for under the free milk for schools’ schemes and other additional required foods i.e. vegetarian, vegan options
Food costs
Breakfast £1
Snack .50p x2
Tea £1.50
Food provided will be invoiced regardless of your child attending as the food is budgeted for the number of children attending on each day.
Requested ARS charges [3.00] below provides a breakdown of how these are required to continue to offer many and more of the facilities listed below to all children in our care:
These costs have been reduced and these services amended please read and familiarise yourself with the changes.
Celebrating and enjoying foods around the world, to ensure cultural diversity as part of our diversity ethos, pancake day, mother’s/ Father’s Day and inhouse children’s cookery activities etc
Stay and play sessions [additional staff]
Hand dryers, PPE equipment, and personal hygiene resources
sun hats/UV protective marques
Book bags
Parents information evenings
School transition documents
To support the preschool children to be school ready, and to replace books that are lost or broken while on loan.
Tapestry
Cost of outings (zoo lab, wells on the bus)
Staff Training
To support children with speech and language
Jake and Tizzy ‘resources’
Early talk boost
Autism training
Safer sleep training
Female Genital Mutilation
Safeguarding
Inclusion, equality and Diversity
Children’s Mental Health
Food hygiene level 2/Food Allergy Awareness
Manual Handling
Child Sexual Exploration
Online Safety
Paediatric First Aid
Leadership & Management
Safet Recruitment training
Inclusive communication
Funding for the items below will be taken from the deposit, payable on registration.
Settling in sessions
Home visits
2 x 2 hours settling in sessions
Cost of additional insurance [out of setting insurance]
Sun cream please ensure your child has a high factor (50 plus suncream) applied at the start of their session and this is bought to the setting each session to reapply as and when needed.
Wet Suits/ waterproof clothing
For the children to enjoy the outdoors even in the wet weather.
Lower-Income / Additional Support Funding (15 hours TT)
First steps stretch the funding across the 48 weeks (entitlement approx. 11.87 hours per week)
(570 hours maximum over the year)
Universal funding- all 3-4 year olds (15 hours TT)
First steps stretch the funding across the 48 weeks (entitlement approx. 11.87 hours per week)
(570 hours maximum over the year)
Working families funding (30 hours TT)
First Steps stretch the funding across the 48 weeks (entitlement approx. 23.75 per week)
(1140 hours maximum over the year)
Parent of working families funding will need to meet the government criteria in order to be eligible for 30 hours entitlement. This can be found at How to apply for 30 hours government funded childcare for working parents and find out if you’re eligible – The Education Hub once you have confirmed your eligibility, please provide the setting with the eleven-digit eligibility code in order for us to access your funding when you receive your 11 digit code you will need to bring this into First Steps, and fill out a consent form for all of the information required for entitlement team. This means a total of 1,140 hours will be spread over a maximum of 48 weeks which includes five inset days. Term time only option is available for preschoolers, funding is spread over 38 weeks of the year.