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 think £400 a week is a lot to earn, if you work 8am till 6pm (min) 5 days a week with the massive responsibility of another person(s) child(ren).

I should say that £400 min is what I would want to earn from 3 children - not 1 child!

I think you're being greedy, OP. You are hoping to get £18 per hour! And yes, you did get some CMs in the past who were crap and I'm sure you do now, but most people could see through them. Filling in your health and safety booklets doesn't take that long and that alone doesn't make you a good childminder.

I don't know how people can afford to pay out £6 ph when you think that is after tax.

And for the person who compares it to rinsing out a bin, for god's sake I pay £2 once a fortnight for that - if he gets hundreds of pounds per hour then good for him, but I seriously doubt it. That is very different to joining together with two other families to pay someone £18 ph when she has no training in that area.

its £20k a year for a non graduate job that you are just starting
that's quite a lot TBH

I mean that's what NURSES with people's lives literally in their hands get paid!

"booyhoo
My kid is in childcare for 48hrs a month
My window cleaner does about an hour for me a month if that!! "

so your childcare provider should earn less because you need her for more hours than you would like to pay for?

"Booyhoo most childminders look after 3 children during school hours and another three after school. They are being paid £6 an hour by several families. It is sharing the costs with a family. "

that's up to the individual childminder. not all childminders do. you aren't sharing costs with another family (if you want a nanny share pay for a nanny share). when you have a builder doing work for you (self employed like a childminder) you are not paying them a rate you think is fair according to the fact that they will get paid for other work by other clients. you are paying them their rate for the work they do regardless of how much other work they have on. as far as you are concerned you are paying for care by the hour at a rate of £X/hour for looking after your child. this may be during time other children are in the same setting or it may not be (think of antisocial hours or overnight care)

And it's alright saying "I want to earn £400 per week" but if you take on three children and work 8-6 then you'll get £900 per week. Do you really think that's right?

Aren't window cleaning and bin washing (never heard of that) optional whereas, if you want to work, or have to work, childcare is optional so the cost is very, very important?

childminders have people's lives in their hands!

and as for the paperwork not taking long! ha!

childcare is massively undervalued.

the type of childcare you chose is optional.

it's salaries that are too low, not childcare costs being to high.

Childcare in south east of England is expensive - that's what the market rate is- it's not the OPs fault!
London rates are even higher - nurseries round here charge £85 per day per child for 11/12 hours.
That's why I have a nanny - it's cheaper for my twins and personally I think 11/12 hours is too long for a baby to be away from its own home

"so your childcare provider should earn less because you need her for more hours than you would like to pay for?"

"should" "willing" "prioities" - all redundant words in this really because I CAN'T pay a CM more than I will earn during the period in which I am using them and that has to include drop off and onward travel to work etc. That's all there is too it really

it's not about prioties, or how much resposibility the CM has or even how nice the settings and activities are. If you charge £6 an houre there will be people who can't consider you, and if you're okay with limiting your market, then do it! but do be aware that you are limiting your market!

"I CAN'T pay a CM more than I will earn during the period in which I am using them "

that isn't the CMer's fault. her rate should not rise and fall according to your salary.

To be a childminder you have to take 4 different qualifications at minimum before you can even apply. It is NOT a job without training. This is at minimum. Once you are qualified as a childminder, you are expected to continue your studies and take NVQ level 3 and beyond.

To be a childminder you have to do a lot more than filling in health and safety forms. You have to learn all the areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage and plan and prepare for each child on an individual basis. You have to observe the child against each of the areas of the EYFS and take notes according to their age and age/stage and them as an individual. Then plan and prepare in relation to your observations ensuring that each child is developing in each of the EYFS areas. Each child has their own individual plan that you have to prepare for and evaluate on a regular basis.

Like a teacher, for everything you do, including just the school run, there has to be a fully completed health and safety form. Just like a school, there needs to be parental consent forms for trips out etc.

A childminder has to put together a pack of information that is to be handed over to the school or next childcare setting. It is a lengthy document that can be held against you should anything be amiss.

There is utterly no difference in what an infant school teacher has to do for each child, and what a childminder has to do.

For each and every child you have, you have to do this work. This is why it is not a nanny share (a nanny is no OFSTED registered).

Also, whilst a childminder may have 3 or 4 children, it is rarely at the same time. On a Monday they may have 2 children all day, on a Tuesday have 1 child in the morning only, on a Wednesday have 2 children in the morning and 1 in the afternoon etc. The doubling or trippling of the hourly rate depending upon the number of children etc is not across the whole of the opening time.

"it's salaries that are too low, not childcare costs being to high"
again, irrelevant, because be that as it may, it is what it is and £6/hr per child (would be earning more!) will make the OP too expensive to be considered by a lot of earners

Which is fine, when providing a service or selling anything you are under no obligation to sell something everyone can afford

but don't say that people are saying no to £6/hr because they don't "value" the setting their child is in, in most cases its just not an option We all want the best setting we can afford for our kids, but we can only consider the ones we can afford. The rest just aren't in the running!

I pay £7.50 an hour in SE London, (and am originally from T.Wells), so I think £6 is indeed reasonable!

"To be a childminder you have to take 4 different qualifications at minimum before you can even apply. It is NOT a job without training. This is at minimum. Once you are qualified as a childminder, you are expected to continue your studies and take NVQ level 3 and beyond"

its not a lot compaired to a FT 3 year university degree, which is what most people earning what you want to earn have done

My job also requires an NVQ3 and lots of training, but that's doesn't make it comparable to a graduate job like teaching or nursing.

I think your salary goals are unreaslistic. You want to earn what a teacher earns, be a teacher! you do NOT have comparable qualifications or responsibilities.

i was talking more generally than just the OP. but yes i accept that until things (mindsets) change people are restricted as to what childcare is available to them.

I paid £4.80 an hour in Sevenoaks.

I'm really surprised that people think £6.00 per hour is too much to pay for looking after the most precious thing in their lives. Teaching them, feeding them, caring for them.

I'd be willing to pay that easily, I think the only thing that might put me off is that you will also be looking after children of your own. I know that it shouldn't be a concern, but I would worry that there would be some favouritism when the children had little disagreements, and I'd worry that my child would feel sad that their friend gets to be with their mummy all day but they don't.

OP i can tell you now that your salary goal is not unrealistic at all. very acheivable for a CMer. my 1st CMer made this per week caring for 3 children all on a part time basis. remember that is a pre tax and NI figure.

ILoveSalad* "you want to earn what a teacher earns be a teacher" If you want earn more than a teacher earns be a tube driver (C46K) if you want to double what a teacher earns be a plumber. Earnings and educational qualifications are not as correlated as you appear to think. OP is being quite reasonable.

and her rate was not £6/hr or even near it. but i would have paid it for her, she was amazing.

I totally understand exactly what IloveSalad is saying. Quality childcare is sometimes too expensive for those on a limited salary. At one stage I considered going back to the career I had before giving up when my youngest was born. However, the only childcare in the village and surrounding villages where I live is a before and after school club (which has a 3 month waiting list). Childcare for 3 children would mean I would have to earn a minimum of £30k just to break even using the before and after school club.

The before and after school club wasn't even that good quality childcare in my opinion. I wanted childcare that would pick my child up from school with flexiblity to allow my child to go to the clubs after school should they wish. To feed my child a proper meal at 5 or 5.30 when they were hugary so that when I picked them up I could have an hour or so with them in a calm environment before bed, rather than having to rush home and cook and feed them, pushing bed time back to gone 8pm. I wanted someone to read with my child a little (or listen to them read) at 4 or 4.30 when they weren't too tired etc.

The only childcare (where I live) that will do I would want is a nanny. Except a nanny is really expensive. I would need to earn a minimum of £45k but I can't earn that.

I wanted to become a childminder to offer the service of care for school aged children that I would want for my children. In looking into becoming a childminder I was quite shocked at how much I would have to do for the under 5s and it has taken over 6 months of consideration before deciding this route because of the HUGE amount of paperwork.

This is paperwork just to be a childminder, let alone the paperwork for running my own business and tax requirements etc.

Childcare is expensive and there are a lot of mums that stay at home because they can't afford to work. The childcare is just too much. However, that is not the fault of the childcare providers.