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

She isn't my friend's employee though, that would be a nanny. And she can charge for drop offs, pick ups and food as I understand it so it's not like she's losing out on the money for 2.5hrs, she still receives money in top ups and has less to do in those 2.5hrs with less children? Am I really missing the point, sorry 🙈 xx

Yeah, you are missing the point.

The childminder has bills to pay like any other person.

The childminder needs to work X number of hours to make the money she needs.

She can't afford to take 2.5 hours in the middle of the day off because your friend wants her DD to go to pre-school. She obviously isn't going to find someone who wants 2.5 hours a day of childcare to fill that space.

Whether it's unreasonably expensive overall is hard to say, your friend needs to work out what it would cost at nursery/another childminder and compare to the overall cost of this childminder. Obviously, if you use a nursery you're paying for staff holiday and food etc, but it's just all included as one flat fee, so you need to compare total cost of each.

The bring your own food thing is really annoying though and I would look for another childminder who provides food.

She is losing out in money for those 2 and a half hours as instead of taking your friends child she could be taking a child for the full day and be paid for the full day. . She isn't likely to be able to fill the place for 2 and a half hours in the day to compensate . Drop offs and pick ups are irrelevant and she wouldn't be doing that during those two and a half hours. And regards making money from food. She won't be making a profit on that she has to buy the food.

I'm a childminder.

The funding is for education. You can't educate a child not in your care.

I take a week at Christmas and occasionally a week in summer as my holiday and I don't charge for my time off. Basically if the space isn't available I don't charge. Parents pay for their holidays as the space is still available.

I know of some cm who have started charging for 2 weeks holiday. Or who don't charge and take 4 weeks but they are not common around me

But she is getting money in lieu effectively because my friend is expected to pay for food and transport. She can set her own fees for these things and no doubt they'll be higher than what it actually costs her, so she isn't suffering any loss that would need to be covered with funded hours or paid for by my friend, that's what I mean.

I'm not saying anyone is expecting her to run at a loss, I just can't see where that loss is in the above scenario? It's the same money in total that she'd have if somebody just paid for her full day of work?

I don't think I can explain it to you anymore clearly than I have, so you might just have to accept this is standard policy for childminders (and would be the same with a nanny or a nursery). You pay for the day, even if your child is missing for a small section of that because the child carer can't find another child to fill the space. Transport costs and food costs obviously cover transport and food, not the childminder's time.

If your friend isn't happy with this policy or any of the other policies this childminder has then she should look elsewhere. I think she could find one that provides food and I think she could find one who takes less holiday. It will be a struggle to find one who doesn't get paid while the child is at pre-school/an activity.

To work out value for money she needs to look at the overall cost of each and worry less about how it breaks down into individual cost.

Ultimately it is your df choice to send her child to a preschool. She could just use the cm, but if she wants the flexibility she has to pay for the place as if she were using it. Some cm might reduce the rate for those hours the child is not physically present, others won't.

Full day fee: £58.50
"Funded day": Funding received for 6.5hrs ×£5per hour = £32.50 + food £9 + transport £18 (£9 each way) = £59.50

On a standard day she goes out anyway to the park etc, so uses the car.

Where is the loss?

So food and transport is included in the price on the full days, but not the funded days?

And I thought the childminder didn't provide food? So she's charging for food but your friend has to send food as well?

I thought df was providing food?

I see what you're saying, I'll tell my friend to double check what happens with food.