Childminder fees

[PurplePansy05]

I never used a CM and have no experience so thought I'd ask for advice. My best friend is about to start working with one and she said her CM is charging her for 6 weeks holiday pa (she doesn't 'collaborate' with other CMs eg to recommend another one for when she's away), plus all bank holidays, and that on days when her 3yo (who receives 30 funded hrs) will be with her CM, she will be applying the funded hours to cover her time when the little girl is in preschool because "otherwise she'd be worse off". My friend will also have to provide food for her little girl. She's a single mum and has no idea how to arrange cover for all this time off as well as pay her CM for it, and she's not sure she should be paying in funded hours for CM's downtime (she thought she'd have to pay for pick up/drop off and food on top of funded hours, but now she's not sure if she's misunderstood the government funding). I looked at this and it seems to me the CM is self employed yet she is expecting my friend to pay for absolutely everything (apart from CM's sickness) whether she's working or not. I also don't see how she can use funded hours to cover time when she isn't actually looking after my friend's daughter?

Can anyone with a CM shed some light please as I'm trying to help her out? Is this common or should she look for a different CM? xx

No experience with a CM but the points you raise can be fairly common and that's why we chose a nursery instead

Plenty of staff so they don't close except for BH

Food provided

No worry about CM sick days etc

She can’t apply for the funded hours for care she is not providing. That’s just a way of getting extra money,
besides the funded hours will be used for preschool

it’s standard to charge for closed days, same with nurseries.

I also went with a nursery as there was no way I could be worrying about childminder sickness, proving food, holidays … ugh. Too much hassle!

Also while there are exceptions I do think generally three year olds are better in a nursery or preschool setting. Not always popular view on here but I’ll admit I’m not a massive fan of the childminder setup.

Surely the preschool are using the funding so CM can’t also be claiming it?

this is also the reason we went fo nursery- holiday sickness cover for a cm on top of when child is actually sick is way too much

Some places let you split it between two settings.

If she needs full year cover then a cm cannot offer that and take holidays themselves. Surely your df and her dp will have annual leave to cover some? If cm is the emergency point of contact on preschool days or the space required during school holidays a fee is often payable to keep the place open(as they cannot have another child in lieu), although they should not claim funding as presumably that goes to preschool

That's what I undestood too!

Thank you for your replies, my LO is not receiving funded hrs yet so I'm trying to navigate the rules to help my friend.

Sadly nurseries around are full atm, she's on a waiting list. xx

Yikes, that's awful. Mine doesn't charge for holidays, sick days or bank holidays as she knows we need to money to pay for alternate childcare when she's away.

So yes you are correct, preschool nursery would be using 2.5hrs a day of "free hours", 5 days a week.

What CM is saying is that the remaining 17.5hrs will be applied 9.5hrs per day to cover her full days (which is nearly 2 days) and my friend will have to pay full fees for the rest of the week to her?? But she isn't looking after her DD for full days, her DD spends 2.5hrs a day in preschool which is funded separately as you say. It's like she's trying to apply funding twice to the same hours IMO?? xx

A childminder cannot fill the 2.5hr gap with another child while this child is at preschool. It is common for childminders to charge for this period to maintain the place.

My child went to school nursery 5 mornings a week (term time) for his 15 funded hours and we had to continue to pay the childminder for those mornings so effectively we did not get any ‘free’ hours, but we wanted our child to attend pre school nursery.

However, you usually pay a lower hourly rate for childminders than nursery and for us it was a better set up for us and our child.

We also paid for 4 weeks holiday. I receive paid annual leave so don’t think that’s unreasonable. We would tie our holidays to those weeks or we would have enough notice to cover it.

There are pro’s and cons to all aspects of childcare but these terms are fairly standard for childminders.

It isn’t unusual to pay for childminder holidays. Though ours charges half rate for hers and takes four weeks. Our previous one charged half rate for her and our holidays. And in terms of preschool, if the childminder is taking her and fetching her, it’s not unusual for you to have to pay for the place during the preschool hours if it’s just mornings or afternoons.

But I’ve never had to provide anything other than nappies with either of our childminders - meals and snacks included.

I would suggest your friend keeps looking as it’s very much a relationship when you use a childminder and you need to feel comfortable working with each other.

Oh, and I think our childminder has taken sick leave once in seven years when she had Covid. Our previous one never took any in a year. I wouldn’t worry about that unless it turns out to be a problem.

My childminder charged me for 4 weeks holiday each year plus bank holidays but gave me 12 months notice of the days so I could book the same times or arrange alternative cover.

I arranged for my ds to go to pre school 9.30-12.30 with his funded hours but child minder also charged for those hours because she needed to do drop-offs and pick-ups, and be available to collect if he was poorly. She had him from 8.30am-6pm.

To be honest, my childminder was so brilliant and so supportive that I didn't mind.

But the childminder isn’t exactly free to take another child for those few middle of the working day hours is she? Of course she wants paying, she’s effectively holding the space for your friend’s child instead of taking a full time, not going to preschool, child. Would your friend be happy if her employer asked to not pay her for 2.5 hours in the middle of her working day because her work will be done by someone else at that time?

If it’s financially difficult to “double pay” then your friend should just keep child at childminders full time and then childminder can claim the total funded hours.

Your friend will probably have to pay the cm for the 2.5 hours her child is at preschool out of her own pocket - it sounds like the cm was trying to help her by saying she could use funding to cover it but it isn’t actually allowed.

Your friend should ask a few different cms and nurseries for their prices and work out what is actually cheaper over the year - for example some might not charge for holidays but have a higher hourly rate so are more expensive overall.

I think that's fair enough you might pay for the hours in preschool (but isn't that accounted for when she sets hourly/daily rates anyway? She charges £6.50p/h with no meals or nappies etc included), but can she apply funded hours to these hours? I don't think that's right? xx

She can probably use the funded hours before and after preschool and just pay the £16.25 herself to keep the place for that 2.5 hours.

Forget about this Child minder would be my advice. A nursery is far more reliable and at least don't take holidays. There are too many unreliable chidminders who want everything their own way and screw every last penny out of the parents, you are lucky if you find a good and reliable one.

If nurseries are unaffordable and have no spaces then the OP might not have a choice.

It’s up to the childminder what they charge and what’s included and then it’s down to the parents to make the decision about what option of childcare they go with. £6.50 per hour is a low rate compared to a nursery which will be more per hour and may not provide food either.

Some childminders can accept funding and you can split funded hours with more than one provider so it could be possible that she can apply funded hours to some.

I used to use a childminder for 30 hours a week, term time only and we didn’t have to pay her anything as we had the 30 free funded hours.

She paid for all food and snacks and didn’t ask us for any money if she was taking the children out on day trips etc.

Prior to getting the 30 funded hours we paid £40 for 10 hours (£4 an hour) and again this included all food and trips.

I won't be using my funded at the childminder, he'll be going to nursery for that.
I pay £35 a day for my CM but provide all food and nappies.
She takes about 3/4 weeks of holidays a year and only charges for bank holidays.
Never been sick in the 4 years I've used her.

The childminder can't find another child for the late school hours so he's your friend has to pay those.

The 6 weeks holiday seems odd so I'd be looking for another childminder. Ours didn't charge for her holidays but she also didn't charge us if we took DS out in the school holidays as she preferred having the time with just her primary age kids.

Just to say this works out as 30 hours per week, which is therefore term time only funding. So your friend will need to pay full price for the remaining (school holiday) weeks they need anyway. Is it six weeks of school holiday or six weeks of funded time the childminder wants their time off to be paid for?

I understand the CM will be off mostly when the school is off as she has a child of her own in primary school. So not sure how this will work out 🙈 is it me thinking this funding is a really complicated thing when it should be easy 🙈 xx