How is everyone else managing child care when they work full time

[FrazzledandHappy]

And how much is it costing you?

Breakfast and after school club are full, there are no nursery's or childminders near by which offer wraparound care for the school DD attends. I am incredibly lucky that family help me out massively, but it is costing £120-£150 a week in taxis which I cant claim anything towards from universal credit. I'm not a high earner and it isn't small change to me. I work full time and don't really know any of the other parents so I cant ask if they can help.. and it would probably be very cheeky of me to even ask them to be looking after DD at 7.30am anyway.

How is everyone else managing it?

I'm seriously regretting DD's school choice as the options for wraparound are so limited but she is really settled and happy there

When you get accepted into a primary school at reception age, the school usually sends a form which you complete stating if you need breakfast/after school club. Which then gives parents time to arrange childcare if there are no spaces available, did you originally have support & it’s changed?

You can usually ask schools for a list of childminders that drop off/pick up from there school, I’m assuming you’ve done this & there is no availability.

It’s also important you ask to be put on childminders wait lists, as families move etc so space becomes available.

It’s tough, can your DH/partner, DD dad help?

Have you spoke to work about Flexi work?

why is it costing you so much in taxis? Is this for family to collect her from school?
where's her dad in all this?
It sounds like exhausted most options, is there a waiting list you could join for breakfast / after school club?

How is everyone else managing it? we chose the school based on the wraparound care needed, contacted 2 childminders before ds1 started to see if they had space and also checked the breakfast club and afterschool provisions, Ds1 went to one of the childminders 4 days a week from Nursery - end of year 4. (~£10 per day) Now he's in year 5 he walks home on days we WFH and on other days does clubs afterschool until 5pm.

DS2 goes to the school wraparound, I book it in September right through until the next July at £10 per day (£8 really as we use tax free childcare)

I use flexi at work where possible and that keeps costs closer to £120.
It's costs so much for taxis as the buses don't align well with school pick up and drop off and also the weather is terrible right now. Family do uses buses more in summer but I feel cheeky asking them to do that in winter whe. They do so much for me.

Her dad has her weekends. Doesnt/ won't assist mid week and only offers completely unworkable suggestions.

When she started reception she did go to breakfast club, but there was a staffing issue towards the end of summer. I've been on a waiting list ever since. I've joined waiting lists for the two child minders that do offer school pick up and drop off.

I really wish I had chosen a different school now. DD's friends from nursery were going here and I naively assumed having breakfast club up the road would have been fine.

So the school has no breakfast club anymore because of staffing?

Surely if that’s the case all the parents are having the same issue…

The school doesn't have a breakfast club (it did when I applied but I closed that summer)
There is a breakfast/afterschool club 2 minutes walk away. When DDwas in reception and email was sent around that they had staff issues, number would be reduced and we would not have a place the next school year. I've been on the waiting list since and DD is now in year 3. I'm not sure what other parents are doing.

I realised I had to have a different plan when putting one single child into childcare cost more than my household income/ more per hour than my earning power per hour.

So I did a combination of night shifts, taking children to work with me, side hustles, self employment, casual work, home working, babysitting swaps, and more creative solutions, things I just had to do as we had to eat. I was very lucky to qualify for some benefits in the short term at one point.

I feel you on the shock of realising that childcare cost way more than I could earn, and as the only potential earner in the house at that point there wasn’t much I could do about it.

I work 4 days a week and DH works full time. One of our main reasons for choosing DDs school was the good wraparound provision. I wouldn’t have sent her to a school which didn’t have this as we need it for work.

If you're not sure what other parents are doing have you tried asking? Do you have a class whatsapp group, or see people at birthday parties, school functions, at the school gate? There might be other people really struggling too who'd be more than happy to buddy up and share the morning/evening childcare.

Wrap around care + nursery/childminders + both parents doing their share, utilising compressed working hours.

We would have definitely moved schools if no childminder available. I couldn't have carried on working without it. The before and after school clubs didn't cover my hours and we needed holiday cover too (which the childminder provided). It is shocking how much it costs, but for us was a bit cheaper than full time nursery at least.

Like others I chose the school based on availability of wraparound care, it's simply non negotiable for me as I'm a lone parent with no family support. If I was in your position my child would have to move to a school that did offer it.

It cost £250-300 per half term (depending on length of term) which I think is reasonable.

is there a school that would be more convenient for family to help with or that has wraparound care / available childminders? If so, I'd seriously consider moving her because you've got nearly 4 more years of this and it doesn't sound sustainable. What do you do in the school holidays?

I’m really sorry because it’s not what you want to hear, but I lived in a childcare desert, so I moved before making the primary school choices, to a part of town with schools with good wraparound care and lots of childminders.

I know it’s not that easy, but as a single parent it was the only way I could make life work, so childcare was a non-negotiable for me.

School holidays i have to rely on family, hokiday clubs local only run to 5pm and i cant guarentee being there at that time every day. Her dad does have her some days in the holidays which helps.

Thanks all, I think im going to have to seriously consider moving schools

Can her father subsidize the cost of the taxis, rather than uproot her?

Maybe you need to look for a nanny if you’re on universal credit and as you know they’ll pay 85% of CHILDCARE fees to a certain amount. If ofsted reg

There must be other parents with the same situation so maybe you could do a NANNY share

I did consider this as there were nanny's advertised on the site i was searching for childminders on.
The nanny's were ofsted registed but I assumed universal credit wouldn't contribute the full 85% as the average rate was £17 per hour. I assumed most would be looking for a more full time position.

Does any one have experience of using a nanny for this situation?

As long as ofsted then uc will pay 85% of wage - up to a limit a month

you would pay 15% of wage which depending on the amount may be less than 150 a week on taxis

Most nannys want full time work, because only do a before /after school shift doesn't pay the bills and it's hard to find work to make the hours up elsewhere. There's adverts for "wrap around" hours on our local childcare forum that have been there unfilled for months and months.