- Do you love being a childminder?
Yes, I do really. Obviously I’m closed at them moment and I’m missing the little people I look after a lot. It’s really hard to go from seeing them every working day, some of them have been here for years and then nothing for a couple of months. I changed my working hours a couple of years ago and do a 4 day week now which has really helped me have a bit more balance in my life. I would really recommend this to anyone. Also, be strict about hours. I work 8-5. I know some minders how start at 6.30 and do a 12 hour day. For some this is fine, but some really end up resenting it. Sometimes I might have a vacancy for a little longer, but I’ve never had a vacancy longer than 4 months. It’s definitely worth hanging on for something that really suits rather taking on a family and resenting their hours.
- What are the set up fees that i might not of thought of?
First aid course, safeguarding course, PACEY (or similar) membership (I’ve found Pacey to be really good through the pandemic), insurance - public liability, business car insurance, home/contents insurance, equipment-high chairs, pushchairs/double/triple buggy, stair gate, toys/resources suitable for various ages, fireguard, first aid box, car seats, toy storage, travel cots, children’s plates, cups etc. There’s loads of stuff you can buy, but you might not need it all.
- My area charges around £4-£5 per hour, is this profitable?
Fees for one child are £4-5, but you can have more than one child at a time, so this pushes your income up. Obviously because you have two little ones Of your own, taking up two of your spaces you can’t have more than one extra one, but you won’t be paying out for childcare so factor that in to your sums. You can also have after school children. I charge more per hour for these spaces as it’s a bit of a pain to go out at 8.30 and then again at 3, but it really makes a difference to my income. At one point I thought about finishing school runs, but they are worth over £5000 to me, so I’ve kept them on for now (I have 2 or 3 school children a day).
- Is it worth taking on an assistant?
I don’t think it’s worth it for me, no. I wouldn’t want the stress of knowing I had to pay someone else, although you could have more children, if those children leave, you are still liable for paying the assistant, they would be an employee, so you would need to be looking in to holiday entitlement, national insurance, pension contributions. Normally, I meet other Childminders pretty much every morning and then come home for the afternoon, so I get the best of both worlds, adult company and time working on my own with the children.
- Do you manage to claim anything back eg heating, water?
HMRC have a list of how much you can claim as expenses depending on how many hours you work. From the top of my head, if you work full time (36 hours), it’s 33% of heating and lighting costs and 10% of council tax and water rates.
All other related business costs can be put through as expenses, so food, milk (childminders are also eligible to claim back a third of a pint of milk per child under 5 each day), outings, petrol costs, toys, consumables such as paint, glue, crayons etc, any childminding courses you complete, any groups we go to.
- I’m confused about the numbers, at full capacity, including before/after school, how many children can i have when i have 2 of my own under 3yo?
In England, childminders can care for up to 6 children under the age of 8, of which 3 can be 5/under school age And only one of those can be under one. This includes your own children. Over 8s aren’t in the ratio, but you have to prove that caring for school age children isn’t negatively impacting on the care you can give the younger children (basically, in my case, I’m just extra organised and have things ready for when we get in from school so I’m not faffing about trying to sort stuff for the older ones to do when we walk through the door). Part of my ‘sales pitch’ is how lovely it is for children to be part of a group with varied ages. Each age group learns from the others, babies learn by copying the older ones, who enjoy playing with the babies and developing their caring skills. I never make the older ones pay with the babies, more often I’m telling the older ones to give the little ones some space because they aren’t dolls!