To charge £6/hour for childminding in Tunbridge Wells

[pingu2209]

For those of you in the Tunbridge Wells area/villages around. Would you pay £6/hour for childminding?

This would be between 8-6.

Any time outside these hours would be time and a half, based on half hourly increments.

I don't live in Tunbridge Wells, I live in Wadhurst, a village with a train line to London (that goes through Tunbridge Wells). It is between Tunbridge Wells and Crowborough.

There is a nursery but it opens at 8 and shuts at 6 which is limited for those who commute to London or to towns that are over an hour away. Also, it is for age 2 and up. I would intend to offer longer hours and be flexible so if a parent needs to work late then they can but they would pay more than the hourly rate after 6pm or before 8am.

My target parents would be people who live in Wadhurst or the surrounding villages. It isn't a huge population, but it means parents can drop off to me before going to work, which could be London or towns that are over an hours commute away.

In Tunbridge Wells the average price of a childminder is £5-£5.50 but in Crowborough the average price for a childminder is £4.50-£5.00.

Good Idea TheDoctrineofSnatch. I need to consider all the timings. I want to ensure the before and after school children will get a proper meal at either end of the day so that the parents don't need to go home and cook for their child.

I don't want to sound money grabbing but I need to try to work out the finances. There are high set up costs with training and getting the house ready. However, the paperwork is extensive - childminding is no longer a 'low quality' childcare option.

This enhanced paperwork and red tape etc means that LOADS of childminders have dropped out of the industry and there are fewer that want to go into the work. The village I live in has had no childminders for years. I wondered (hoped?) that this would mean the hourly rate I could charge would be higher - hence £6/hour.

How many DC would you like to look after? The problem with charging the max you think you can get away with based on the fact that you will be the only childminder in the village is that your clients may feel you are exploiting them. I would drop the rate slightly so I was in line with other childminders in nearby towns. The goodwill would be worth it.

Pingu it is partly about competition but also about affordability.

I think you being prepared to do 7-7, or 7:30-6:30 or whatever is a good selling point. If the nursery won't take under-2s (which is odd) then I would expect a lot of demand for 0'.5-2 year old spaces for you so you will need to think about your ratios and car seats etc for school pick up - what happens after school at present, is there an after school club? What about before school?

I think that's a lot. Im in Lewes down t'road from you and the CM's round here charge £4.50-£5 an hour. Im planning on CMing in the next 18m and charge £5.

As someone whos used a CM in the past, Id avoid a £6 one.

I would like to take care of a maximum of 3 children at any one time (as I have 3 of my own - aged 6, 8, 10.

I don't think that £6 is a lot of money. The government has 'professionalised' child minding and has placed a lot of additional demands on child minders. It's only fair that the wage reflects the level of work involved.

That said, I would charge £5 per hour, because otherwise you are restricting your market to very high earners, only. It still has to be economically worthwhile for the parent to work, once childcare has been paid. If the government still do childcare vouchers, then the parent can recoup some of the cost.

People often get hung up on how much per hour a CM earns overall, but this is irrelevant imo - if you look after 3 children then you are doing 3x the work, than if you were just looking after one. Parents should consider whether they think the service they personally are getting, is worth what they alone are paying.

I wouldn't take on too many children though, if I were you - you might be able to charge more per hour if the parents feel they are getting a service which is more like a nanny service, rather than a creche and also if you are new at this it is better to build up slowly, rather than over promise and then discover it is too much. You need to factor in your own children's needs and if you are going to be working these hours then you are going to be knackered by 6 pm and will still have your own family to see to. I know I sound like I am telling you your own business, here, but as someone who has done this job in the past, I would honestly advise that you only take on 2 children at the start.

Three charges plus your three is a lot . It may put some people off.

If I was paying top whack I would want to know my DC had lots of attention.

I live in the London Borough of Bexley, so not million miles away from you. When I was looking at childminders, the "best" one on paper was a level 4 qualified, network childminder, and she charges £5 an hour. Which included all meals, apart from baby food jars, and all holiday day trips. She also charged for the 3 hours your child was at pre-school if she did pick up and drop off. I think her unsociable hours was outside of 7am-7pm.

So I think charging £6 an hour under those circumstances would be reasonable if you think clients would pay it.

Sowornout - Ofsted told your SIL she could no longer provide meals?

12lynon - Agree with nokidshere, I think it depends on area, Im registered with Enviromental Health they didnt come out to see me.
I also did the Food & hygiene course of my own back too, no one told me I had to do it. Although it may be statutory now?

You need to be careful you don't price yourself out of the market for people who would consider a child minder in your area. Those that can easily afford £6/hour may well choose alternative care - nursery/nanny share/au pair.

I paid a lot less than that in zone 2, central London.

I also wouldn't pay £6/hour for someone who had 2 other pre-schoolers plus 3 older kids to look after before and after school.

I pay £4.50/hour in the north west (not a fancy, Alderley Edge type part of the north west either...) which is considered fairly expensive around here - you can get childminders for £20 half day, £30 full day in my area (but not as fabulous as my CM obviously! ) This includes meals (CM provides toast mid morning and lunch and a hot early dinner/tea at around 3.30pm, I normally give DD beans on toast, scrambled egg, cereal etc at 6.30pm too).

I would imagine it's like anything else - people will pay what they can afford and what they think you're worth. My CM is about the same cost as most of the local nurseries but the nurseries charge 52 weeks a year whereas CM doesn't charge when she is closed for holidays/sickness (she's never sick anyway) and we pay half if DD doesn't go because we're away or she is unwell. I think if your charges work out much higher than local nursery places and you are not offering something 'extra' such as longer antisocial hours or flexibility in terms of payment for hours you use rather than fixed hours 52 weeks a year, you are going to be a less attractive prospect.

of course you can! you can charge what you want as a CMer. you may not get any families if you are too high but at least you then know to lower your rate.

in my town alone the rates vary between £2.70 an hour (with a reduction for siblings!) and £5.00 and hour.

pingu I live near Wadhurst/TW. You are right there is a lot of big money in this area. However there are also a large amount of private schools with nurseries that provide full day care.

There is a big divide here between those with a lot of money and those who are in the welfare system. In our cluster of villages there are very few childminders also. This is because here is not he demand for them anymore.

Those that live in the houses that cost £1m plus round here use the independents. There are also a lot of nanny/au pairs.

I think for £6 p/h you won't get many takers round here. but if you have nothing to lose give it a go

I think that sounds reasonable.

It's worth calculating the relative cost of two places with you as compared with the cost of a full time nanny I think. If it's the same cost or negligibly more to pay a nanny (who comes to your house, so no pickup/dropoff inconvenience) as it is to pay for two places with you, that might be relevant. When I go back to work in October, my older DD will be at preschool so it's not worth getting a nanny, but if she was a little younger then it would probably be about the same cost to pay a nanny as it would to pay 2 x £4.50ph for childcare at CM.

Wow, amazed how cheap childcare is outside of the SE bits of London!

When in London, I paid £6 per hour for 8 to 6.30, 3 days a week. We did the pick ups and drop offs and it included all meals and outings (1yo).

Now in a commuter village, we pay £5.50 for 7.30 to 6.30, 3 days a week, sometimes 4. my lovely childminder does pick ups and drop offs for us as she lives about 15 mins away by car.

I thought both rates where reasonable TBH.

Childcare costs me about £800 per month, and train/tube fares about £340 per month.

I pay £5 an hour. Including food etc, but not including nappies and wipes. Zone 4 in London.

And they will only do 8-6, which is unhelpful. I would pay more for someone who went on until 7 or started at 7.30 say.

Mind you, with two littlies, it's cheaper to get a nanny - £2k a month for F/T childcare that doesn't even allow me to work a full day.

Sounds reasonable. I'm in London zone 2 and they are £7.50-9 an hour

I am in herts and charge £6 per hour for a fully inclusive service (minimum of 8 hours a day). For less than 8 hours, the fee is £7 per hour. That includes food, snacks, nappies, toddlers, farm trips, music classes, soft play etc. the only extra charges are late fees

There are families that want excellent childcare and will pay for it. I have over 20 within childcare and excellent refs

Ofsted told your SIL she could no longer provide meals?

I wonder whether the SIL was offering the meals as an "extra" rather than inclusive of the day's rate. Therefore she would be seen to be selling the meal.

eg at our Church, we cannot serve a glass of wine at a social event. and charge for it, without getting a licence. We can, however, avoid this by selling a ticket to the social event, which promises a "Free glass of wine!"

i dont know about your area but i know i wouldnt dream of paying that in lichfield/four oaks area of west midlands!