Childminder and holidays

I had an almost identical situation with my CM, my LO joined when she opened her business. She also took this level of holidays and we also had an issue with working hours continually being changed/reduced ie pick up 6pm went to 5.30pm to 5pm as she tried to find the balance between her own family and the business - overall making it really difficult.

I would explore a solution using both a nursery and the childminder, often nurseries have more space during school holidays with people taking their child out for holidays/family time so this could work well for you when CM is not available ie even if child could do 1 or 2 days at nursery, rest with CM and then you could explore whether nursery can give you extra days during school holidays. You will find the CM far more flexible in taking your shield when they are under the weather whereas nurseries tend to be on the phone asking you to collect every time child has a runny nappy or a sniffle.

Our contract with CM stated you could get a refund on your fees if you had to find paid childcare during her holidays - worth checking your contract here so you are not double paying.

unfortunately there’s no rules/regulation here, its up to the CM on how they run their business and the motivation for setting up the business might be to have more time during school holidays with her own children.

Could your partner take leave or any other family members? I’d go for a nursery place as you may well have to cover days she’s sick on top of the holiday leave.
Obviously you’ll also need cover when your child starts school.

It's 5.6 weeks

the 28 days holiday entitlement many people get includes bank holidays. There is no legal entitlement to bank holidays.

Bank holidays often aren’t included in the holiday entitlement, so it’s 33 days.

Honestly exact same experience I've had with every childminder. Even ones who were term time were off sick or visiting relatives too, so it amounts to quite a lot of time off. It's such a massive risk compared to nursery where you might have better coverage, but you need to make sure you have a good one.

I have no idea how people think we are meant to make this work!

Have you tried the Bubble app?

@Goodtogossip employed people get 5 weeks holiday entitlement so she's not really taking any more than most people who work full time

She is taking nearly double what employed people get. 5 weeks = 25 days and she's taking 48 days.

It sounds like she's not term time only but has decided to take her holidays inline with her children's school holidays so she can spend time with her family. You should have a contract with her. What was agreed for holiday notice. It is usual to have a minimum of 4 weeks notice on both sides for any holidays so if she hasn't given you the correct agreed notice for Feb holiday speak to her about it. She's self employed so can take as much or as little holiday as she choses & while I agree it's not ideal for you, her taking 40+ days, it's common for employed people to get 5 weeks holiday entitlement so she's not really taking any more than most people who work full time. You can't expect her to take her holidays around you so I'd either try & arrange alternative childcare when she's not available or move your child to a more suitable provider.

Yes if it was sprung on her with only a couple of days notice but no employer in their right mind is going to tolerate her suddenly announcing before every single school holiday that she has to stay off because she has no childcare and even if they did the cost of taking unpaid leave would be way more than the cost of childcare. It isn't an option and isn't relevent so I really don't know why people are saying it in a way that almost defends the cm.

It would be classed as emergency if she had no back up and it’s an interruption in care. Whether it be paid or unpaid

It isn't 'emergency care' though. That would be a one off cm sickness. She can't just take emergency leave any time there's a school holiday. The childcare arrangement isn't sustainable for OP so she needs to find one of the many childcare facilities that is. Her cm is within her rights to have this much holiday but she may well find that most parents are in the same position as OP and choose to give their money to somebody else.

I’m an Ofsted registered Childminder - my advice would be to refer to your contract. I personally take 5 weeks holiday one of which I close between Xmas and new year - this year I tagged on one day after that - I don’t usually work bank holidays so would normally take those off but will work them if needed but I charged an enhanced rate for those (no one has taken me up on them as yet). An employer cannot refuse care for emergency leave for dependents but in any case there may be an option to have a nanny for emergency care and see if any Childminder has any availability for the dates you’ve been given for the year by the Childminder. In the meantime I would look at getting your little one’s name on a waiting list and hopefully you’ll get lucky!

she has primary aged children so it’s very logical that she will take her holiday in school breaks, you should have been able to foresee that. It means any holidays away you want to take will be tied to school terms which mamas very expensive too.

40 days is a lot, most places have 25-30. Might she have or create an arrangement with another childminder for holiday cover?

I assume you aren’t paying for cm when she’s on holiday?

good childcare is hard to find so you might want to get a babysitter for the extra time.

The only way round it is to take unpaid leave explain circumstances, or go sick and don’t explain circumstances. Surely after 15 years your employer will be flexible? Sickness is a dishonest option but may be your only option at such short notice

I hope she doesn’t expect to be paid for all this time off as a lot do and some don’t.

Did you sign a contract with the CM? I feel as this kind of detail should be in a contract

Ring around all the nurseries you never know you may just find one that has a space. Definitely get added to the waiting lists.
6 weeks notice is pretty shocking really. Good luck.

Technically she isn't term time only but she might as well be !

That is utterly shit. Get yourself on nursery waiting lists asap - they might not all be booked up, I know two new ones have opened up in our town in the last few months and aren't full. Ask on local groups. You can always move if you find one you like better later on (visit lots), but for now you just need childcare.

This is why we went for nursery rather than childminder. Our nursery was only closed between Christmas and new year. If someone was ill they had plenty of other staff and occasionally used agency staff. It only ever closed because of Covid and a one-day heating problem.

A word of warning - most holiday clubs won't take children under five, so this continues to be a problem in Reception if you have a summer-born child.

We use a childminder now for school pick-up (because the afterschool club was completely full - which they did not tell us on the open day). She's closed over Christmas and for two weeks in summer, and I think one other half-term. It's all in the school holidays so works for us (as we use school holiday club and private clubs), and I would guess is less than the 30 days annual leave most people who work full time get.

I think for Feb you'll have to take unpaid leave or use a nanny. Or we have a local business called Baby Poppins which is like help for mums in the home - you might have something similar locally?

As your child ages then you can book them into holiday clubs etc. but they are quite young for that. Can you find another mum to share childcare with. Can you work half days and stick them in front of the tv for the other half. It's hell I know...

She's been really unfair to say she wasn't term time only and spring this on you.

Ultimately you'll need to change provider so get your name down for the nurseries and for any more reliable childminders.

For Feb you could take unpaid parental leave. I hope you may have a better provider by the next lot of holidays!

Sign up for a nursery and beg for holiday hours at a nursery/ ta, nanny or similar to do some holiday care to tide you over. The childminder has been really misleading and that’s shit.

I would get their name on nursery waiting lists ASAP, contact your local,council to make sure there are no other CMs registered. For February, options could be to hire a babysitter that can cover the whole week (sitters.co.uk), or contact a local college doing childcare courses to see if any 2nd. Students would be available - advertise, interview and get them to do a trial. Are there any nurseries on your way/near to work?

YANBU. at all. That is not in my experience having used a CM for 10 years the norm for child minders and I would have struggglee with that even with a Dh to stagger time off with. However she is self employed and entitled to do as she wishes.

Unfortunately, you’ll need£ to look for alternative childcare. What a shame

I feel your pain, similar has happened to me with cm lying to me about how many weeks holiday she was planning on taking and mine essentially works term time only. I've switched to a nursery and had to make do with some fairly grotty holiday clubs for my then 2 year old as the better holiday clubs were for school age kids only.

My heart says CM for babies, but you really are their mercy, mine had a fair few sick days too and it killed me everytime. Nursery is completely stress free and feels much more professional (my cm has never done any progress tracking/paperwork for example) whereas the nursery are much better at that stuff (important in my case because my DC has development delays and other issues so paperwork is needed to prove this to get funding/support/DLA)