Childminders and holiday pay, I just dont get it

[saintdorothymantooth]

OK, I have nc'd for this as I will probably get flamed......

I was hoping someone could explain to me why every CM we have looked at, including the one we chose charges holiday pay when they claim to be self employed?
Apparently we dont employ them, they are self employed, so surely that means no holiday pay? One of the downsides to being self employed surely is that if you are not working you are not earning? I just dont get it. I'm being thick aren't I?

[eastmidlandsnightnanny]

Current cm is 50% fees for her hols n ours n bank hols n if she is sick no fees if child is full fees.

Old cm full fees if we didn't go n no fees if she wasn't available.

Current cm cheaper per day not by alot n both take/took 2wks Yr plus some long weekends

we actually use cm 2 days n nursery 2 days.

[OnwardBound]

My CM charges for both our holidays and hers [2 weeks], also any days child is sick and we keep him off.

I met with a couple of other childminders when I was deciding on a care provider for DSs and they all had the same contract - that you pay when you are on holiday, when your child is off for other reasons and for 2 weeks when the childminder is on holiday.

CM charges £40 per child per day [0730 - 6pm] so we pay £80 per day for two.

I presume the paid holidays are factored in to her setting her daily rate, ie if she didn't charge for holidays she may instead decide to charge £50 per child per day for example.

We are in SE London by the way.

[OnwardBound]

Slightly off topic but would any of the childminders on this thread mind letting me know what they charge or their policy in regard to a mindee who will be starting school in September?

I am just wondering whether it is the norm to charge for the full day when you have the child from 0730 to school drop off, then pick them up at around 3pm and keep them till 6pm when parents collect?

I see this two ways, one that the childminder may need to be paid for the full day as child is taking a place in her numbers in terms of needing some care and also picking up and dropping off during the day.

However I wondered if some childminders charge a fee per hour rather than a daily rate in this circumstance?

I haven't approached my CM to ask the question yet but was just curious to hear how others work this!

[pamelat]

We pay nursery £45 a day per child

We pay if we go on holiday or if children sick, we also still lay for bank holidays when they close!!

We get Xmas free as the nursery closes

[karenflower]

When I met with CMs for my DS one of them said to me "well its nit like its a proper job for me so I don't charge for holidays"

At this point I thought my current CM who charges but reduces by 50% if we take the same hols seemed professional and organised

[surfandturf]

I am a CM and I too charge when I am available to work whether the child attends or not as this would be an inconvenience to me in as much as it is difficult to budget for unexpected absences. However I don't charge for my own holidays or sickness as I understand that this is inconvenient for my customers and they have the task of sourcing and possibly paying for alternative care.

I do think though that you are missing the point somewhat. A good childcare provider is worth their weight in gold and you can't really put a price on that. We (unlike plumbers and builders) don't get to have an hour lunch break to sit and read a newspaper and drink numerous cups of coffee. We are on duty from the start to the end of our working day and these are usually long hours. I also tend to try and be 'flexible' for my customers and regularly overlook the children being dropped off 5 minutes early or 'I'm sorry I'm late picking up - the traffic was really bad'

There are loads of hidden costs involved in being a childminder which I don't think parents consider. My outgoings are approximately £800 per month for things like food, petrol, cost of employing an assistant, craft resources, playgroup charges the list goes on. I care for children from 7.30am to 6pm, 5 x days per week and then I have paperwork to complete on top of that plus planning activities, preparing activities, additional training we are encouraged to do in our own time, plus keeping my house in order as it is also my business premises. We don't charge for any of the time we spend doing that. I understand that childcare is expensive but I don't think you can begrudge us a few weeks holiday -
paid for or not!

Rant over!

[girliefriend]

Normally I think its at a reduced rate if you're on holiday and nothing if they are on holiday.

[surfandturf]

onwardbound I charge an hourly rate for a child who is at school from 9 till 3 as once they are at school full time they do not need to be classed as early years and therefore would not be taking up a whole early years space. I would only charge for the hours before and after school. I am in the southwest and the average hourly rate here is £4

HTH

[edwinbear]

onwardbound I am looking at childminders for when ds starts school in Sept. I am also in SE London and being quoted around £25 a day to look after him from 7am until 8.50am and then from 3pm - 6.30pm.

[OnwardBound]

Thanks surf and edwin

[Tanith]

Op, you make the common mistake if assuming that, just because a child isn't physically with the childminder, that childminder is not working to the benefit of your child.

Do you know how much out of hours work we spend on paperwork, preparation, extra cleaning etc.?
Every holiday, I spend at least a week in maintenance of equipment, deep cleaning, and keeping my premises safe and up to standard.

Even if parents were to pay for my holidays, they wouldn't cover the hours I spend working.

For what it's worth, I don't charge for my holidays and sickness. I factor them into a higher rate, just like parents who raise this kind of moan claim they prefer.

Guess what? I get far fewer enquiries than the childminders with lower rates who do charge for their holidays. Which leads me to believe that all this posturing over holiday pay isn't actually the way the majority of parents prefer it.

[Tanith]

Onwardbound, so long as your child is aged 4 and in full time education, or aged 5+, most childminders will not charge for the hours he or she is at school.
You'll normally be charged either for the hours you do use, or a fixed rate that doesn't cover school hours.
I would expect you to be charged normal fee for any school holidays and INSET days, though.

[Snoopingforsoup]

Isn't it something to do with h

[Snoopingforsoup]

Isn't it something to do with holding the child's place?
It always was with nursery. They could have another child during your holiday but don't so yours can return to the same place?

[DoJo]

anothershittynickname But presumably you do set your rate at a level which means you can afford to take holidays at some point?

[anothershittynickname]

dojo - I set my rate at a level which meets with the local average, in fact, I am lower than some!

I certainly didn't incorporate unpaid holiday into the rate! I don't charge for my holidays because I personally feel it's unfair to charge for a service I cannot offer!

[IneedAsockamnesty]

I had one that charged no matter what.

On top of her normal daily rate ( over £100 a day) her 4 weeks paid holiday and any holidays and sickness my end.

She also charged me when her kids were sick or she was. I worked it out that due to sickness ( that prevented her doing nothing else) she was unavailable 25% of the entire time I used her over and above her agreed holiday at full pay.

She also used to invent exclusion periods ones that the dept of health say arnt needed and I would get texts on the the day saying oh I forgot I've got a course to go to so I'm not working today and still charge me full rates.

[DoJo]

anothershittynickname But unless none of your local counterparts take any holiday throughout the year, and you don't either, then the rate you charge when you're working allows you to eat and pay your bills when you aren't. You may only charge enough to cover the basics, but unless you actually aren't taking any holiday time, then the money your clients pay you does fund any breaks you have.

[Barbielovesken]

I can see definitely your point.

We pay our cm 52 weeks of the year, whether she's on holidays/ sick (rare)/ or we take time off.

She prob has about 6 weeks hols per year (not all together)

[marriedinwhiteagain]

Surely the sensible thing to do is to have a chat well in advance and co-ordinate the family holiday with the childminder's holiday. So that at least for the main holiday the childminder and the parents are away at the same time.

I would expect not to pay when the child minder is on holiday but to pay when my family is on holiday. Although my dc are much much older and things may have changed.

[lljkk]

I think the govt. encouraged this with standardised contracts that came in about 11 yrs ago; I think many CMs ignore it because they know customers won't stand for it.

[DeafLeopard]

Way back we were both S/E for a period.

If CM wasn't available we couldn't work, so didn't get paid. We resented having to pay our S/E CM for the day she wasn't working. It felt like she wanted the benefit of being self employed - picking and choosing her hours etc, and the benefits of being employed - paid holiday. We had to chose one or another, but as it was in her contract we couldn't complain at least not to her anyway

[Tanith]

I did realise that, Filibear, although it may look as though I misunderstood
I just think it's up to the childminder to charge according to her business needs. It's not helpful to look at one aspect in isolation - you have to consider the whole package. A childminder who charges for holidays usually has a lower hourly rate. That might work out better for some parents than my practice of a higher rate overall - in fact, my experience is that many parents prefer it.

We've heard all about Pixie's ex-childminder on the childminding board
Of course there will be some that take the proverbial, just as they would in any profession. Most, though, have looked at the business they want to offer and the clients they want to attract, then set their charges accordingly.

[ChristmasJubilee]

Our childminder didn't work school holidays but charged 1/2 fees. The other children she minded had a teacher parent so it suited them. I had to use another childminder for most of the holidays which was expensive and disruptive. However she was a great childminder so we went with it.