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.

Salad, what was your commute like when you did that? DH and I had no desire to take the DCs in on the train every day so we've always had childcare near home. It might have been different if we drive to work, though.

I'm in Hertfordshire and pay £5ph not including any meals/nappies etc so I don't think it sounds unreasonable. I had people quoting me £5.50 as well.
My cm would charge more ?not sure if double but significantly more ph if asked to work before 8 or after 6 so you could consider this or consider having a day rate which covers the hours you think your parents may want, then you are directly comparable with nurseries etc

Re- National Minimum Wage, I'm assuming you wouldn't be catering for any parent earning that (poss no one in Wadhurst does?). An example here rounding NMW up to £6.20 for ease:
Job working 9-5 = 8 hrs less 0.5 hrs p/day as most NMW jobs deduct this for lunch break = 7.5hrs x 5 days = 37.5 x £6.20 = £232.50 before tax/NI deductions (gross). Childcare costs = 45hrs pw allowing for 0.5hrs x 2 per day travelling between CM and work and vice versa, so 45 x £6 = £270 less up to 70% Childcare Tax Credit (£189) = CM costs to parent of £81 = Total gross wage of £151.50 for the parent. Hmmm...not bad for working a 40hr week?

I didn't use a calculator so apologies if my sums are wrong but I think it illustrates why so many LPs are stuck on benefits, no room for error at all.

Where I live, in London zone 6, the going rate is around £7.

Float - sadly this is exactly why so many people are stuck on benefits. The 70% is also only under 8 (ish) I believe. Once they are 7 or 8 the childcare tax credit is about 45%.

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread so apologies if this point has been made. 8am - 6pm is not long enough for those that commute to London. I say this as someone who does it with a pre-schooler. My DD is at nursery (her fees have been £50ish per day going down a bit when in pre-school due to staff ratios) and it's open 7.30am - 6.30pm. This is a long day for the little ones BUT (and I live in an easily commutable bit of TW) this gets me into the office (on a good day) at 9.15 and having to leave for the 5.00 train to ensure I'm back before nursery closes (or get someone else - usually DM - to pick up DD). As anyone in a professional city job will tell you those are not career conducive hours and this is with a long nursery day. Thankfully my DH now works from home and I have had other local support (and my employer isn't into presenteeism so working from home is the way I do enough to keep my career on track) so don't have to do daily battle with network southeast (who are SHITE) to get home in time. I would consider being flexible on drop off

I think OP intends to open 7-7 but charge a higher rate for 7-8am and 6-7pm?

I think it sounds like a lot because a childminder can look after several children, and for £6 an hour you could almost employ a nanny - certainly a nanny share where your child would only share the adult with one other child would be less than that, even including tax.

I live in TW and all the mums I know who commute into London earn plenty enough to pay for a nanny to get round the old nursery/childminder 6pm cut-off problem. As someone up thread said, you've got to remember these mums live in TW where property is expensive AND they're paying at least £4k for the train.

The mums I know who work more locally would probably baulk at paying £6 an hour. I paid £5 an hour for 2 children up until 18 months ago. That included all meals.

Ginberry - thank you for your feedback. I am now thinking £6/hour is too much, especially as a new start up. I think I will start at £5.50/hour and wait and see who comes forward.

Pilgit - thank you for your feedback. I too considered going back to working in the City but the current childcare options in the village are rubbish as they are 8-6 so you can't commute. I wouldn't even work in Crawley or Maidstone on those hours!

I do wish to be flexible 7 - 7 was my thought process, but I would ask for a premium of time and a half for the hours 7-8 and 6-7. The reason for this is that quite a few local mums I have spoken to have said that actually they don't want a 'session' fee that starts too early or too late for them, as they would pay for hours they don't need.

Pingu - I think the rate is fine, but charging time and a half for before 8 and after 6 is unheard of to me. Recently I looked for a childminder in London recently and of the fifteen or so I looked at (!!) none charged a premium for those hours. If I were looking in your area, the premium would put me off as I'd feel it was greedy. I drop dd at 7 but pick her up at 4. Fair enough if a cm doesn't want to start that early (some don't) but to charge a premium would put me off using you. Just my opinion though :)

For £8-9ph you could get a nanny, tbh, who would come to your house to look after the kids, do the kids' laundry, clean and tidy their bedrooms and cook their supper as well, on top of what a CM would do.

I think you need to think through what your clients want to buy in terms of a service, rather than what you want to sell, IYSWIM. Part of it is also having nice clients who will give you continuous business looking after children you enjoy spending time with, rather than people who drop in and out, and fuss, because your charges are high. Some of the happiest CMs I know charge middle rates but really like the families they work with.

A nanny around my area is way more than £8-9 per hour. A nanny is an utter minimum of £10 per hour, many are even more £12 per hour.

If I could get a nanny for £8 per hour who would do all the laundry, clean etc. I would go back to my original profession and pay a nanny. This is why I'm looking into childminding.

Plus that nanny rate is net. You pay gross as tax on top. So a £8hr net nanny still costs you approx £11 ph gross. Which is nearly double the childminder rate.

Crazy, same for me.

I live in worsc and charged as you did but had 4 kids a day full time.

Best earning ( claim expenses) and best fun business to run. Loved it.

Loved kids and lucky to have had generally great parents who are now friends. Sad to finish.

I can't believe you're being called greedy, OP, for enquiring about rates that aren't ridiculous at all for the SE.

How can we on one hand argue that looking after children is an important job (the most important job?) and that it is overlooked because it is traditionally a female role, but then also complain when someone wants to be properly remunerated for undertaking such work?

Pingu I think the biggest issue you have where you are is finding parents who want to use a childminder (at whatever rate). Do you know of any childminders who have started up and packed it in? There aren't any CM's in your area - why not? That would be my biggest concern and until I had the answer to that, I woudn't be doing anything.

Well I live in one of the villages around TW (not in property porn sadly) and £6/hr food, outings etc sounds ok to me, but it is all down to your facilities and how lovely you are
CMs in this area vary hugely, when I was looking one of the more expensive ones didn't even get to open her door to me when I arrived for our appointment. I heard her swear at her own kids to get out of the way and I was gone!

I live in sevenoaks and I used to be a CM. In those days 1992-1999 I charged £1.00 per hour.
I know the cost of living has gone up but £5/6 per hour seems expensive to me!
I have several friends here with babies, toddlers and primary age LO's that have au-pairs at £80 to £100 per week that do all the childcare, childs laundry, cooking, babysitting, school runs, doc/dentist app etc.
I don't think CM can compete with that!!!

fatnfrumpy

You realise what you have written is highly incorrect?

An aupair is meant to work 25h or similar for pay of around £80.
They are not meant to have sole care of small children.
So they certainly won't be doing ALL the child are if you are in the market for a CM.
They are meant to have time to go to college or similar and should be treated as part of the family, like a helpful older sister/brother.
You need to have a spare room and be happy having someone live in.
They will not be doing all the children's laundry or cleaning.
They are generally unqualified with English as a second language.
They are not a CM or nanny substitute.

what you have described is slave labour

I'm surprised by the number of people who think £6 p/h is too high. If the CM is only caring for one child, why should they be expected to work for sub MW?

Pumpkin because a CM is not a salaried employee - they are expected to run their business such that they can pay themselves min wage. I pay nursery £5 per hour for care, it's up to the nursery manager to arrange rotas and market to parents such that the business can be run.

YANBU, I payed that 5 years ago for DS. That was in South East Englad, but definitely not in a rich area!

The childminder's contract even stipulated that the rate would still be paid if I made other arrangements. For example during school holidays my mum (a teacher) would look after DS, as he prefered it and I was happier less guilty about being a working parent about him being with family. I still had to pay the childminder £250 for NOT looking after him on those weeks. I wouldn't have minded paying a smaller fee to keep my place open, as DS was school age anyway, so it didn't usually cost £250 per week. However, I was still charged £250 for the school hols, even though he wasn't there.

OP might like to do this! If people really need the childcare, they will pay.

I'd love to be able to charge someone £250 for not doing something.

£250 per week that is. She charges £250 per week even if you went away on holiday during the simmer etc.