Do all childminders charge for hols?

sheepgirl - know entirely what you mean ateotd you have to sort something out for work etc; was in that situation with current CM as hobsons choice none others in our area have vacancies. i do like her, but am nonetheless grateful for fact am not paying for her hols (though not much help to you i know).

We are london/kent borders, cheaper than london prices (ie £3.50 rather than £5+ per hour) but there are few CMs with places particularly for school age children like mine. My colleagues are much further from london and i think it does make a difference as there seems less demand for services hence parents have more room to bargain.

hope it all works out for you in the end...

Hi
I'm a childminder and i charge full fee for parents hoildays and bank hoildays and for sickness on parents side. I don't charge for my hoildays or sickness .Listening to this thread maybe i should but all my parents are happy with me and the kids are brill so i think i will stay as i am !

sheepgirl - just wanted to add my 2ps worth and say I dont pay for my CMs 4 weeks holiday a year (3 wks summer, 1 wk at whitsun or easter) though i do generally pay over xmas when she is away.

I've had 4 different cms over the last 9 years and the most i have ever been asked to pay was half fee on hols (and that was 7-8 years ago when - amazingly - I was paying less than £1.50 an hour!)

I do pay for bank hols and for any time the children are off when shes available. my work colleagues all only pay their cms for the days they use them, no holidays retainer etc so are forever telling me i'm being ripped off! god knows what theyd think about holiday pay

just to come back to the 'pay' issue. in school hols my CM has my 2 full time, plus 3-4 others. we all pay £3.50 ph. so thats £17.50-21.00 per hour in total, for a 10 hour day, 5 days a week. sorry but i think thats a lot of money by anyones standards. expenses - ok, food (2 meals a day- cant see it could be more than £100-150), they dont all fit in the car so just do local trips walk to park etc. i like my CM, my children like her, and I'll pay what she charges. but i certainly dont think she is poorly paid, nor that she 'deserves' holiday pay!

i give my parents my holidays the first week in January, (well slightly different next year as we have to move Army Quarters for refurb, but will give parents as much notice as I get, and they already know about it)

I take Christmas and BH paid and 2 weeks unpaid, parents get 4 weeks on top of Christmas and BH at half pay.

Most of my parents take the same holidays as me, (may and October half term), and save the rest for the summer holidays, most dont take all their holiday that they pay half for.

your right sheepgirl i am not from london i live in lancs.

Some arguments for both sides here! I personally charge half fees for my holidays, which I believe is fair.
I do try to work out my holidays to match that of parents so that they are not forced to take holidays when they don't want to.
I only take three weeks holiday off per year. i only charge £2.50 an hour . i have been doing it now for 3 years and not had anyone question about money

I started another thread on this

Anyway, I've just started with my CM and she charges £2 for her 5 weeks holidays, our 5 weeks holidays and bank holidays. Frankly I am happy with this arrangement as I had already budgeted for the payment and a happy CM means a happy DS.

However in practice I am concerned at how we manage a potential 10 weeks between us. Clearly some of these would need to be at the same time (I get 6 weeks a year) and I feel I need to sit down and agree some dates with her in advance so that there aren't any nasty surprises at the end of the year.

I guess in the eyes of the taxman she is self-employed but I think from a principled point of view, any employment rights I enjoy as a permanent, full time employee should be shared by any worker. Traditionally childcare has attracted low pay, low security , few perks, long hours and is mostly undertaken by women. Now I'm certainly no expert in feminism but I think anything that helps secure more financial independence and security for these sorts of peripheral jobs is a good thing.

I'm not a lawyer, and I am not a childminder. But my view is that where a contract states that holidays are to be paid, then they are to be paid... regardless of when those holidays start and regardless of how long a period of time has passed from that contract being signed.
As an employee, my holiday entitlement is built up over time... but I don't see why that system has to apply when it is a User/Service Provider relationship. I feel it is up to the User and Service Provider to agree on what the situation will be - so they could pro-rata it if that was what both sides wanted to agree.

nannynick you want me to believe that if you take 4 week holiday per year and my child is with you only for 2 months, the first of which is your holiday, you are entitled to have them all paid????? every contract says 4 (or whatever one choses) holiday per year. so in order for you to qualify to have them pay you need to work in this contract for the whole year. if you do not, the holiday are pro-rata.
I am not a lawyer but trust me I had my lawyer check all the contracts I was offered and explain the law to me.
If you charge all your holiday to every parent regardless how long the child has been with you, well well done to you for getting all this cash!

BTW, I am pro childminder getting holiday pay, BH pay and even sick pay.

Oh God no I wouldn't let it put me off - I know that maybe I've been a bit foolish and naieve and should have spoken up ages ago - its just me not wanting to cause waves that's stopped me.

I know this is a bad experience and that most childminders are excellent and your hearts are totally into what you do - you're not just in to earn money. I think that in this case, she's been doing it for a couple of years, and her hearts not in it any more - its just become a way of being able to earn money while she can look after her son

I really hope I haven't made out that I think all childminders are like this because I know you aren't - mine is an exception to the rule!

I grew up going to childminders, some great, some not so great, but I have some fantastic memories of my childhood thanks to these ladies!

Remember though mumatwork, most of us childmidners are decent hard working people, who care passionately about our jobs and the children we care for, we all have insurance - to protect ourselves and our mindees and we all have contracts for the same reason. Don't let a bad experience put you off

Thanks for your help guys

I went to the nursery which is literally 2 mins from where I work and its fantastic there - really nice people and they do so much with the children which he doesn't currently do with the CM (arts & crafts etc)

At least now the only time I'll be having off is if he's sick - not if someone else's kid is sick and I won't have to waste all my holiday allowance on someone else's schedule.

The whole thing stinks and it's sad because I'll have lost a friend out of the whole thing - we were really good friends even before I had my little boy, so its a shame, but never mind...

xx

mumatwork, have you tried www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp

Somewhere on the chidminders section there is a vacancies thread, there might be someone on there.

I live near to Buckingham..... anyone who knows of a CM with vacancies - do let me know!!!!

Let me get this straight. You pay her in cash four weeks in advance, and she's not even a registered childminder?

And she let's her son hit yours?

AND you took the day off work and paid her anyway cause er son had a "shitty nappy"?

Oh my...

Where are you? Maybe we can find you a new lovely childminder. One who operates within the law.

See, I'm not the only one who says she needs a contract. You are perfectly within your rights to leave now. On the last day you have paid her for just say "Oh by the way won't be back on Monday". She can't do anything as you ahven't signed to say you would give her notice
I wouldn't leave my children with another CM who didn't have insurance either, if anything happened then she wouldn't be covered

Thanks guys

Problem is I pay her 4 weekly in advance so she's already been paid for the next 3 weeks. I'm tempted to just cut my losses and leave straight away.

I'm going to see a nursery this afternoon, and another childminder later in the week, so hopefully it'll all get sorted.

I feel bad though - I don't want to leave her in the lurch....me just being a softie!

Sorry if I seemed a bit callous calling her child a 'little angel' - he's a lovely boy but can be such a brat and takes toys off my son when he's playing with them & if my son holds onto them he'll hit him until he gives it up! Seeing that is like someone stabbing me in the heart! (I'm not of course saying that my son is perfect, but he doesn't hit!)

xx

Hey mumatwork, I suppose that technically, you don't have to pay her either since she is operating illegally. (just kidding)

But, I probably would leave and would only pay for services rendered. You have no contract. What is she going to do about it?

She is not allowed to work without Insuce, and you cannot be registered without Insurance. It is illegal not to have a contract!!! Leave now and find another CM.