Please read this policy carefully.
Booking an appointment at Lively Eaters means that you accept the terms of this policy. Lively Eaters staff are committed to providing a high-quality service and your therapist dedicates a significant amount of time preparing for your appointment. This often includes the purchase of food specifically for your child. In addition, we have many families on a waiting list for support.
In order to provide the most efficient service we request that parents/carers provide us with sufficient notice when changing or cancelling an appointment.
We recognise that there are circumstances beyond your control that may lead to an appointment being missed or cancelled with short notice. However, for us to continue to operate a supportive service for families, it is necessary to charge a fee for all missed appointments and short notice cancellations, regardless of the reason for not attending the appointment (e.g., a child falling ill on the day of the appointment).
Consider other ways that we can use your allocated appointment time:
Rather than risk delaying you child’s therapy progress by cancelling your scheduled face-to-face appointment, you may like to consider:
- Telehealth appointment – we can forward you a recipe for you to support your child to prepare in your kitchen whilst your therapist talks them through the steps on telehealth.
- Telehealth appointment to share a meal/snack time – this allows your therapist to observe your child in their home environment
- Parent/carer telehealth session – If we are not able to work with your child directly through telehealth, there is still value in parent/carer only sessions. Examples of what we can do include:
– Problem solving issues at home
– Reviewing videos of mealtime at home
– Discussing progress, challenges and goals for the coming term
- Report writing – We may be able to use the time to write any NDIS progress reports required for any upcoming NDIS planning meetings, or liaise with your child’s doctors, therapists, childcare, school etc to support your child’s progress.
Cancellation Fees:
If you do need to cancel a therapy session, please give us as much notice as possible. Availability in our diary is limited for face-to-face appointments and we may not be able to reschedule your appointment as soon as needed or at a time that suits.
Outside of business hours a message can be left on our secure telephone message service by phoning (08) 7226 6395, or you can email us at info@livelyeaters.com.au.
Our late cancellation / reschedule and non-attendance fees are as follows:
| Cancellation or reschedule with more than 48 hours (2 business days) notice ie. for a Monday 10.30am appointment, notification must be given by 10.30am the previous Thursday | No fee |
| Late cancellation or reschedule of in-person or telehealth appointment with less than 48 hours (2 business days) notice or non-attendance, regardless of reason ie. for a Monday 10.30am appointment, notification must be given by 10.30am the previous Thursday | Full fee of scheduled appointment* |
| Late cancellation or reschedule of home/school/childcare appointment with less than 48 hours (2 business days) notice or non-attendance, regardless of reason | Full fee of scheduled appointment incl. travel costs** |
* Example: If your scheduled appointment was 1 hour, you will be charged the full fee for 1 hour. If your scheduled appointment was 1.5 hours, you will be charged the full fee for 1.5 hours, and so on…
** Example: If your scheduled therapy session was 1 hour and the scheduled travel time was 1 hour, you will be charged for the session and travel, i.e., 2 hours.
We will not waive the cancellation fee if you are called in to work, travel arrangements change, child-care arrangements change, for school or sporting events, if you have double booked yourself, or for illness/injury.
Please note:
- Medicare and Private Health funds cannot be used to cover cancellation fees
- The NDIS does cover some cancellation fees
Efforts will be made to reschedule your appointment in a timely manner; however, the cancellation fee for the missed or cancelled appointment will still apply. Your next appointment will not be confirmed until this fee is paid.
As a courtesy, we send text reminders to families 4 days prior to their scheduled appointment. It is the parent/carer’s responsibility for keeping track of appointments and for notifying us of a need to cancel or reschedule an appointment. The cancellation fee will apply if we do not receive 2 full business days’ notice, regardless of whether our text reminders are received.
Intensive Program
Given the extensive number of allocated therapy hours and the waiting list to access our Intensive programs, the following cancellation policy applies:
Cancellation less than 4 weeks prior to confirmed start date – Full therapy fees apply
Cancellation 4 – 6 weeks prior to confirmed start date – $1500 fee
Cancellation more than 6 weeks prior to confirmed start date – Planning fee of $193.99
Illness
We do understand that all children and/or family members become sick sometimes, and that this might occur on the day of your appointment. To protect our staff and other children from illness, we ask that you do not bring sick or infectious children into the centre, but that you choose one of the above alternatives for your session.
Please do not bring your child to Lively Eaters if he or she is unfit to attend preschool or school or is unwell because of conditions such as gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, continuous coughing or yellow/green discharge from the nose or mouth (or others listed in SA Department of Education & SA Health guidelines).
If your child has a runny nose but is otherwise well, we recommend a Telehealth session instead. If a child, their family members, carers, support workers or any other person accompanying them appears unwell when attending the clinic, their appointment will be cancelled, and they will be asked to leave. A late-cancellation fee will apply for the full cost of the scheduled session.
