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.

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

Oh ffs, OP! Do you REALLY think that?

An infant school teacher doesn't take the children to the park, to the library or to the shops! She has to teach them! You're not a trained teacher and I can't believe you think it's comparable. Your goal is an NVQ 3 - a level 3 qualification which is what a teacher has in equivalence (A levels) at 18.

The planning that is involved in infant teaching is far and beyond anything that a childminder does.

I don't see what difference it makes to anyone other than the people who might use the service how much is being charged.

If someone is willing to pay £6 per hour then thats ups to them surely?

Childminders restrict their business in all sorts of ways. Some people won't use a childminder with pets, some wont use one if they have other children, people wont pay the £6 if they cant afford to.

I wont use a plumber or a garage who charge more than £12 per hour but I know plenty of people who willingly pay double that.

"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"

Oh FFS its posts like these that are getting up my nose!
Do you really think any parent's don't give a shit about where their kids go when they're not with them
Of course we all care!
People think its too much if it's literally to much to even be an option!!! not becaue they care less about where their kids go than you do!
By "too much" I mean that the OP (who is perfectly entitled to charge what she likes) WILL be narrowing her market if she charges that, and if that's okay with her then fine, but there's no argueing about what good value she is and what qualificiations she has because it makes no difference to people who don't have that much to pay!

And FYI I've seen no correlation in price-quality when viewing childcare, some of the most expensive were the worst so you don't always get what you pay for in that respect

and err, booyhoo, all salaries are quoted before tax, nurses earning £20k/yr don't take that home either so what's yer point?

She is trained to teach things that an under five year old needs to be taught.

I don't agree that being a teacher and an Early Years practitioner are the same, they are not, but there are quite a few similarities! I'm a early years professional working in a reception class alongside a qualified teacher, so I'm in a fairly good position to judge.

My job is a world away from what a year six teacher does, but it's pretty much the same as what a qualified teacher teaching in a reception class does. And the things we have to ensure that children learn are the very same things that a CM has to ensure their mindees learn.

I have done a search on the qualifications of childminders in Tunbridge Wells and surrounding areas. Many have degrees but have given up their original chosen career to retrain as a childminder.

I too have a degree, a masters and I have a professional marketing and a financial services qualification, both of which are the equivalent to a degree level.

There are many childminders who are able to teach but select to be a childminder for various reasons - ironically often because the childcare costs of going back to their original job!

There really isn't a difference in the process of planning for each child between a reception teacher and a childminder - except a reception teacher has 30 children at a time - a childminder has a maximum of 3 under 5!

As for whether qualifications mean you earn more money or whether more money means you have more worth! Well a banker earns a lot more than a nurse, but I think a nurse has more worth. A nurse may have a degree but a tube driver does not, but a tube driver earns more than a nurse.

my point was very clear, it was that the figure she quoted is pre tax and NI. not sure how you struggled with that really.

having a degree in something doesn't make whatever job you then do equivalent to a graduate job!

I have one too. I don't have a graduate job.

IloveSalad, I appreciate that not everyone will be able to afford to pay that much in childcare, but some people clearly can, and do. I'm not sure why you are getting so irritated,no one has implied you don't live your children because you can't afford to pay £6.00 per hour in childcare. Of course no one thinks a parent that can't afford that doesn't give a shit about their kids

But the fact is, that there will be parents willing to pay that much so that their children have 'home from home' style childcare with someone who would be doing the same things (plus extra) that they would be doing if they were staying at home. Not everyone likes the idea of nursery care, and will be willing to pay more for the type of care OP wants to offer. Clearly she is Ok with narrowing her market, and if it doesn't work then obviously she will have to re think her charges.

"my point was very clear, it was that the figure she quoted is pre tax and NI. not sure how you struggled with that really."

I didn't struggle to understand that the figure she quoted was pre tax, because EVERYONE'S hourly rate is quoted pre tax, I struggle to understand why you felt the need to point that out and what it has to do with anything? everyone understands that if someone gets paid X/hr they then have to pay tax

IloveSalad. I would have gone back to my financial services marketing work and taken the nanny option - if I could have afforded it - but I couldn't.

The only other childcare option was affordable but it wasn't one I was prepared to give my children.

The amount of women I know where I live and in other areas of the country (where childminder fees vary wildly) are in a situation where they can't work. They gave up work for a few years whilst their children were small. Their husband's salary pays for basics but they want to work to give themselves luxuries like holidays etc.

However, if your childcare is £900 per month but your salary is £1200 - and you have to pay for your commute and parking costs etc, many of my mummy friends have decided not to work at all.

well you never can tell who understands what, can you? someone who gets all hysterical about what CMers earn might be thinking that OP was quoting a take home amount whilst getting all caught up in the outrageousness of it.

"I'm not sure why you are getting so irritated,no one has implied you don't live your children because you can't afford to pay £6.00 per hour in childcare."

because, yes they are! There's plenty of examples of exactly that on here!

People can buy things I can't afford! Including childcare. But when people say they can't afford it there's no point in then retorting with what good value it is and why you should care enough to pay more

(I think the OP gets what I mean, it's others who are posting shitty replies on her behalf to those who wouldn't be "willing" to pay £6/hr)

x post with booyhoo well in that case, just incase you didn't understand, the nurses salary I quoted was before tax, just for you I'm sorry I didn't specify and potentially confused you!

It's really not about saying that you shouldn't care enough to pay more. That is honesty not what was in my mind when I wrote the posts you quoted earlier.

Obviously, if someone can't afford £6 an hour then they can't afford it, but my point is that people who care for and teach children are worth more than that, so personally, I find it hard to understand why anyone would begrudge paying that. I can see that people might not be able to afford that, but I can't see that people don't think that the person they trust their child to is worth that.

I'm just looking at it from a different perspective to you, and I think childcarers are undervalued and underpaid for what they actually do. I realise I'm biased, and I realise that the same is true for many other jobs. But cleaners get paid more than childcarers FFS, so what they do is undervalued.

not sure about anyone else but i'm posting on my own behalf. Op appears to be quite capable of responsing on her own behalf.

The educational difference between a childminder is that they have a qualification equivalent to 2 A Levels at best and GCSEs at worst in tariff terms (very few having studied for even a foundation degree), whereas an infant school teacher has studied for 3 A Levels, a degree and a post graduate qualification, and done placements in different settings with a broad range of children.

Whether you value a degree and post graduate qualification for this role is another kettle of fish entirely, and open to debate. But most non graduate jobs pay a lot less than £18 an hour before tax (assuming 3 children are cared for).

CloudsandTrees, the cleaner wage is often quoted, but most of them only work a few hours a day in term time only, as it's pretty tiring, so it's not a fair comparison with a job you can sustain consistently for 40-50 hours a week over 46 weeks a year. Most cleaners make less than £5000 a year overall.

i think most caring roles are undervalued TBH. just look at what care assistants are paid for looking after some of the most vulnerable people!

I am concerned that if I set my fees at £6/hour that I will end up with not enough business. I may be limiting my market too much. I would then have egg on my face when I reduce the hourly fee.

However, I really don't want to charge less and find out that I could have charged more - well nobody would, would they!?

I would rather have fewer children to look after at £6/hour though, than more children at £4 or £5 per hour. Without wishing to state the obvious, the amount of work increases for each child you have, there are few 'economies of scale', so it may well be better for me to charge more.

I don't know any cleaners who are on £20k a year! I don't think there are many!

I do realise that Boffin, but looking after small children is pretty tiring too if you are doing it as a job!

I don't mind cleaners getting £10 an hour, that's what their employers think they are worth so that's what they deserve. But I do find it odd that people don't think their qualified childcarers are worth more than their cleaners.

what about pricing according to ratio
I'm not sure how it'd work in practice.. but if you say that if someone wants you to keep their child's day at a low ratio, its a higher rate, and if they're happy for you to run at full ratio, then it's a lower rate day?

could be hard to match days with people who want the varying ratios, so would depend on demand levels in your area?

It would depend really I suppose on what the first few mindees families wanted? then the others who choose you after them would have to fit in with that?

Op i think it would be easier to set your rate higher and then reduce it than set it lower and then raise it if that makes sense. you wouldn't have egg on your face. most SE starting out are working by trial and error when it comes to pricing.

BoffinMum - I think teachers are underpaid by a huge amount, rather than childminders being overpaid in comparison to the current teachers salary.

Someone can have no degree etc and earn a 6 figure salary in the City, but a teacher or nurse earns bugger all in comparison and has far more qualifications, years of study and important job in society!