Parent already getting shifty on my fees.

But the child never goes a full day. He goes before and after school. So why would holiday weeks be charged for full days if he never goes full days. Sounds really weird to me.

If there were other cms out there with spaces who didn't charge a full day for holiday weeks when it's just before/after school during regular weeks, I'd just go with one of them. Sorry I know that sounds horrible. But there's no way I could afford to pay - what it looks like is £130 per week instead of £45 per week that is usually charged. That's more than doubling childcare costs when he won't ever even be attending! Crazy! I'd still pay the rate I paid every week (in full) if it was my holiday time, no problem. But not more. And say that the same hours before and after school are available since she's paying in full for that time, I guess.

I'm assuming the £45 is before/after school care (so around 3/4 hours a day?), not full day care, for a 5-8 year old, unless they need to be collected from school. But then that depends why they're being collected from school - surely you'll have to send them home if they're ill enough to come home from school?

Therefore it's fair enough to charge a higher daily rate during the holidays as the child is present for more hours and entirely reasonable, I'd say, to insist that either you sign a term-time only contract and the space might be available in the holidays but it might not, there's no guarantee OR you sign a contract where the hourly fee is £x, so £45 a week for before/after school and £y a week in the holidays regardless of whether you use the space or not and the care is there OR you sign the term-time contract and pay a holiday retainer and the care is there (which is possibly the best compromise). If you want the space reserved for you then you have to pay for it and it's the CM's choice whether it's full rate or half.

What I don't get is when the child, being 8, is out of the ratios, at which point it starts becoming unreasonable to charge for a space they're not taking up.

I see that, looneytune, but if she's charge £45 for a week during the rest of the year, why doesn't this just stay the same for the holidays? or 50% of that? I don't get why it costs more?

I'm sorry I'm also a bit confused. If the child is taking up a full time space then why aren't you charging during the day during school time? If he/she is 8 surely he/she doesn't count into your numbers any-more. Unless a school age child comes to me during the holidays I don't charge. I only charge retainers for under 5's if parents don't use me during the holidays. If I were charging at all I would probably charge 50% of their normal weekly fee if they didn't attend during the holidays.

Apart from that, if that is what you have discussed and a contract has been signed, its your business so you need to make it clear about your charges before she starts to save any problems later.

Well my min charge for before and after school care is £12.90 per day (1 hour before and 2 hours after - £4.30 per hour). If they come say from 8-6 (earliest I start is 7 but most do around 10 hrs) then it's £43 for the day.

So if the OP has fees similar to me, her day fee in the hols sounds like it may be around half? So she's kind that she's not charging a full day fee.

Am I right OP?

But wouldn't a retainer just be your normal weekly fee or part of that? as to why the retainer fee for holidays is a higher weekly rate?

Agree you should stick to your guns and if you charge a retainer (presuming that's what this is) during holidays then that's the deal and if they don't want to sign, they don't have to. I presume the signed contract has the details about retainer?

Star - I don't charge a retainer but I AM usually able to get work for Holiday Only mindees, some people just can't get this so charge a retainer, quite common.

I don't understand - will the child normally be going to you in the school holidays? Or will he never go to you in the holidays and you're still charging £26/day for him? If the latter, I think it's a bit odd since you only have him before/after school and it's £45/week other weeks... I think I'm just by your post. Probably not your fault, btw

The rates sound more than reasonable to me...she can either sign the contract or not.