1.1 These are The Cottage Day Nursery Limited ("we", "us", "our") terms and conditions ("Terms") which together with the registration form ( the "Registration Form") set out the whole agreement between the parent, guardian or carer ("you") and us for providing the nursery (the "sessions") for your child ("child").
1.2 Please check that the details in the Terms and on the Registration Form are complete and accurate before you commit yourself to the contract. If you think that there is a mistake, please make sure that you ask us to confirm any changes in writing, as we only accept responsibility for statements and representations made in writing by our authorised employees and agents.
1.3 Please ensure that you read and understand these Terms before you sign them because you will be bound by these Terms once a contract comes into existence between us, in accordance with clause 2.2. You will be given a copy of the signed Terms upon registration,
1.4 If any of these Terms are inconsistent with any term of the Registration Form, then the Registration Form shall prevail.
2. YOUR REGISTRATION
2.1 Signing these terms does not guarantee a placement for your child with us; we are free to accept or decline your application at our absolute discretion.
2.2 A contract will come into effect upon signing all registration forms and having made a deposit payment for our services within three calendar days of signing these forms. A commitment to honour the sessions agreed upon will then be made by ourselves at this time.
3. AMENDMENT OF THESE TERMS
3.1 We have the right to revise and amend these Terms from time to time. You will be subject to the policies and terms in force from time to time.
4. FEES
4.1 Registration Fee - A non-refundable charge of £40 for the Nursery is made for registering your child, this will not deducted from your invoice. In addition to this, four weeks fees will also be required to secure your childcare place, this will then be deducted from your first full invoice. Further charges can also be incurred for additional copies of Invoices/Vouchers/Tax Credits/Funding etc these are charged at £25 per request.
4.2 Fees are payable monthly in advance and are due on the 1st of every month. You must pay our invoices within 3 calendar days of the invoice due date.
4.3 Payment of fees can be made by, credit card, debit card, direct debit, childcare vouchers, tax-free childcare, and/or university assistance.
4.4 Late Payment - Fees not paid within 5 calendar days of the invoice due date will incur an administration charge of £40. This charge will be added to the invoice. Should fees not be paid on time for two consecutive invoice periods then, without limiting any other rights or remedies that we may have, your child's place at nursery will be terminated with immediate effect. Should you also not respond to reminder letters or late payment notices then your child's place at nursery will be terminated with immediate effect. We are not obliged under any circumstances to admit your child upon failure to pay the fees by the invoice due date.
4.5 If you do not make any payment due to us by the due date for payment (as set out in condition 4.4), we may charge interest to you on the overdue amount at the rate of 3% a year above the base rate of Natwest Bank from time to time. The interest shall accrue on a daily basis from the due date until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgment. You must pay us interest together with the overdue amount.
4.6 Fees will be subject to change at any time, but a minimum of one month's notice will be given in writing.
5. NON-ATTENDANCE
5.1 You shall not be entitled to any refund or release from liability for payment of fees by virtue of non-attendance at any of the Sessions for any reason.
6. HOLIDAYS
6.1 Statutory holidays are not charged for. Personal holidays are charged at the normal session rate in order to secure your place at the nursery.
6.2 Should you wish to terminate your place at nursery in order to avoid paying for personal holidays then this is your prerogative to do so. However, your return to the nursery will not be accepted within three months of your termination date and will still then be subject to availability.
6.3 Termination of your child's place with a re-registration within 3 months of each other will incur an additional registration fee at the prevailing rate plus four weeks fees.
7. MEDICINE
7.1 We will administer prescribed medicine providing that a written instruction via email, the Famly App (message), or by completing our Medicine Consent Form has been received prior to expected administration. No medicine(s) will be administered based upon verbal consent. All Medicine administered by us will be communicated by using the Famly App or by signing the medical consent form presented.
7.2 All medication must come into the nursery in the original packaging with a visible expiry date. In addition, prescribed medication must have a prescription label with the child's name, dosage, and current date clearly visible.
8. PERSONAL DATA
8.1 You must provide us in sufficient time, with any information and instructions relating to your child and care of your child that is necessary to enable us to provide the sessions in accordance with these Terms.
8.2 All information provided by you regarding your personal details is protected by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR). We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office as a Data Controller. With regard to your personal details, or your child's personal details it is imperative that if these change for any reason then you are obliged to inform us in writing.
8.3 We will only use the personal information that you provide to us to provide the services, or to inform you about similar services which we provide unless you tell us that you do not want to receive this information. We will not pass your data to third parties.
8.4 You acknowledge and agree that we may pass your details to credit reference agencies.
8.5 You acknowledge and agree that any data you have provided us throughout your registration can be collected, stored, and used in order to provide our service. This includes any data given in regard to other adults. It is therefore your duty to inform any additional adults named in the registration document that you have consented to us collecting, storing, and using their data.
8.6 We need your information primarily to allow us to perform our obligations (including our legal obligations to Children). The situations in which we will process personal information are as follows; upon consent from parents, personal data regarding your child will be shared with schools for progression into their next stage of education, will be shared with local authorities without the consent of parents where a situation of child protection might exist and personal information will be shared with local authorities without the consent of parents for government funding purposes.
9. NURSERY CLOSURE
9.1 We will be closed for all public holidays throughout the year. There will be no charges made for sessions falling on days which we are closed. It is normal for the nursery to close between Christmas and the New Year, no charges will be made for sessions falling on these days, and notification will be provided upfront.
10. SICKNESS
10.1 Any child suffering from a rash, sickness, diarrhea or any contagious illness must be kept at home for the required time scales as advised by the Local Health Authorities. We reserve the right not to accept a child if they are not well enough to attend. Should your child become ill at nursery then we reserve the right to contact you and if necessary ask for your child to be collected. You must inform us if your child contracts any ailments or diseases and you must inform us of any illness which may prove dangerous to other children within nursery care. We reserve the right to take your child to the hospital in an emergency and seek medical attention.
10.2 Refusal to collect your child when requested to do so and putting others within the nursery at risk will result in your child's place being terminated with immediate effect.
11. ACCIDENTS
11.1 We reserve the right to administer first aid treatment when necessary. You will be informed of all accidents and will be required to sign the accident form in accordance with our Accident Policy Procedure or acknowledge this using the Famly App. For accidents of a more serious nature then all attempts will be made to contact you, but failing this we are hereby authorised to act on your behalf and authorise necessary treatment. Upon registration, you should notify us in writing should these terms not be acceptable for any reason.
11.2 All accidents from home, whether notified to us or not, will be witnessed by two members of staff, the details recorded and if not notified by you previously, then steps will be taken to contact you with the details immediately.
12. LATENESS
12.1 You must inform us if you are knowingly going to be late so that appropriate staff cover can be provisioned. If your child is not collected at the official closing time of 6 pm then it will be necessary to make an extra charge of £10 per 10 minutes late, per staff member delayed. These charges will be added to your invoice next due.
13. TERMINATION
13.1 Should you register early to secure a nursery place and then cancel your registration within three months of your start date then we will retain the first four weeks of payment or deposit already received.
13.2 Should you wish to terminate your placement with us then you must give four weeks' prior written notice. The receipt date of the notice is the date on which we will calculate the four weeks from your leave date and any liability of fees.
13.3 We shall reserve the right to terminate your placement at any time, by serving you written notice with immediate effect.
13.4 Termination will not affect either of our outstanding rights or duties, including our right to recover from you any money you owe us under these terms.
13.5 Termination of your child's place with a re-registration within 3 months of each other will incur an additional registration fee at the prevailing rate plus the first month's invoice paid in advance.
14. SECURITY
14.1 Under no circumstances will your child be allowed to leave our premises with anyone other than you. Should it be necessary for someone else to pick up your child then it is your responsibility to let us know who the person is. In this case, appropriate security details must be provided by you and communicated to the nursery manager/deputy. These will then be passed to the appropriate members of staff.
14.2 Each access door to the nursery site is controlled by a keypad which requires a code to be entered before the door can be opened. The access code is given to you in trust and must not be passed onto anyone else. A situation that can also arise is what is called 'tailgating' which is when you are followed into the building by someone else whilst the door is open. Please ask the person following to let the door close and for them to input the code. There may also be times when we choose to restrict access to our nursery buildings i.e. during a pandemic. During these times you may well be asked to deliver and collect your child at the entrance to the nursery. Coming out of these restricted periods of time we may permit access to the nursery buildings, but at times that best suit the circumstances and by restricting the number of parents in the building at any one time.
15. CAMERAS AND VIDEO
15.1 Parents are not permitted to take photographs or make recordings of children or of the setting without the prior consent of the nursery manager.
15.2 During special events e.g. Christmas, parties, staff may take group photographs to distribute to parents on request. In this case, individual permission will be asked for each child before this event. This will ensure all photographs are taken in line with parental consent.
16. MOBILE PHONES/SMARTWATCHES/COMMUNICATION DEVICES
16.1 The nursery operates its own mobile phone policy in relation to staff and visitors to the premises. Whilst we recognise that there may be emergency situations that necessitate the use of a mobile phone, in order to ensure the safety and welfare of children in our care, parents and visitors are asked to refrain from using their mobile telephones/smart watches or any other communication device whilst on the premises or when collecting or dropping off their children.
17. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY - Please pay particular attention to these terms
17.1 We shall not be responsible for losses that result from our failure to comply with these terms including, but not limited to, losses that fall into the following categories:
loss of income and revenue;
loss of profit;
loss of business;
loss of anticipated savings; or
loss of data.
17.2 This clause does not exclude or limit in any way our liability for:
death or personal injury caused by our negligence; or fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or any breach of the obligations implied by section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 or section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Service Act 1982; or
losses for which it is prohibited by section 7 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 to limit liability; or any other matter for which it would be illegal or unlawful for us to exclude or attempt to exclude our liability.
18. EVENTS OUTSIDE OUR CONTROL
18.1 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under these Terms that is caused by events outside our reasonable control (a "Force Majeure Event").
18.2 A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-occurrence, omission, or accident beyond our reasonable control and includes, in particular (without limitation), strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action, civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attacks or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war, fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic/pandemic or another natural disaster.
18.3 Our obligations under these Terms are suspended for the period that the Force Majeure Event continues, and we will extend the time to perform these obligations for the duration of that period. We will take reasonable steps to bring the Force Majeure Event to a close or to find a solution by which our obligations under these Terms can be performed despite the Force Majeure Event.
19. PROPERTY AND BELONGINGS
19.1 We cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage of your or your child's property. We discourage the bringing in of toys and personal belongings. Anything that is brought onto our premises is done so at the owner's own risk. Please do not bring your child to our premises in his/her best clothes and shoes. We will not take any responsibility for marks, staining, damage, or theft incurred.
20. SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN POLICY & PROCEDURES
20.1 The welfare of your child whilst in our care is of paramount importance. As part of our commitment to your child's welfare, our Safeguarding Policy Procedure will be undertaken. We will always work with you at every stage. On registering your child with us you are consenting for this procedure to be implemented. Please refer to this policy on the nursery website under the parent registration section.
21. NON-SOLICITATION OF OUR STAFF
21.1 You agree with us that you will not during this contract and for six months from the date on which this contract terminates, directly or indirectly, solicit or entice away, or endeavour to solicit or entice away from us any individual who is at the time of offer, or attempt, an employee with us or produce or facilitate the making of any such offer or attempt by any other person at any time during the previous year, whether or not such person would commit any breach of his contract of employment by reason of his leaving our service.
22. BEHAVIOUR
22.1 If your child's behaviour is continually abusive, disruptive, or violent towards other children or staff every effort will be made to liaise with you, and/or (with prior consent) your child or another professional, to improve his/her behaviour. If this does not improve then we reserve the right to terminate your child's registration with immediate effect.
23. GENERAL
23.1 All notices sent by you to us must be sent for the attention of the nursery manager to 'The Cottage Day Nurseries Limited' at the site address that your child attends. We may give notice to you at either the e-mail or postal address you provide to us in the order. Notice will be deemed received and properly served 24 hours after an email is sent or three days after the date of posting of any letter. In providing the service of any notice, it will be sufficient to prove, in the case of a letter, that the letter was properly addressed, stamped, and placed in the post and, in the case of an email, the email was sent to the specified email address of the addressee.
23.2 If any court or competent authority decides that any of the provisions of these terms are invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable to any extent, the term will, to that extent only, be served from the remaining terms, which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.
23.3 If we fail, at any time while these terms are in force, to insist that you perform any of your obligations under these terms, or if we do not exercise any of our rights or remedies under these terms, that will not mean that we have waived such rights or remedies and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive a default by you, that will not mean that we will automatically waive any subsequent default by you. No waiver by us of any of these terms shall be effective unless we expressly say that it is a waiver and we tell you so in writing.
23.4 A person who is not a party to these terms shall not have any rights under or in connection with them under the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
23.5 These terms shall be governed by English law and you and we both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.