To charge this much for childminding

[Anothertiredmom]

posting on behalf of friend who’s not on mumsnet

friend has recently qualified as a childminder. They’ve been working out their fees with the agency who qualified them.

The feedback from a lot of enquiries has been that it’s too expensive and she’s now lost 3 potential customers due to this.

so she wants to know a general opinion on costs please

If you use one, how much do you pay for your childminder? Per hour/per day/wrap around care

she’s been advised to charge around £6 an hour, £52-56 per day(7.30-5.30), and £35 for wrap around care. Snacks are included in wrap around, extra food cost is added for hourly and day rates or they can provide their own.

do you think this is unreasonably high?

I understand it changes based on location, this is for outside of London, midlands town.

Also Midlands based. One of our more expensive local nurseries is £54/day. Childminders are often suggested as a cheaper option on local social media groups though so I’d consider your prices expensive

Given your friends's qualifications I would say, steer well clear of anyone cribbing on costs at this stage and not lower her fees, as I suspect she will in any case end up doing a lot more. Better to have fewer quality clients than an excess of those that want to undercut on service being offered. Within 12 months she will have proved her worth to any doubters and built her client base.

Last ye

My fees last year were £4.00 per hour - didn't matter whether this was full days or part days and food was included.

I finished having a childminder May 2022.

I live North Lincolnshire.

£35 for wrap around care feels extortionate to me (disclaimer: I haven’t paid childcare for 3 years now). School wraparound cost me less than £10 per session.

Way too much in my opinion. If she’s charging £50+ a day for a child and the parent is only earning £100 a day ish?! Appreciate she’s in business but they can have numerous kids right? So let’s say she has 6 - that’s in excess of £300 a day. £1500 a week. What person unless highly skilled earns that a week?! That’s ludicrous. I honestly think she needs to figure out what she’s happy earning a day and think about the hourly rate or the business will end before it’s begun.

East Midlands and my previous child minder was £4 or £4.50 an hour depending on how many days you’re in and she has been a childminder for 18 years so very experienced. Now nursery is £50 a day for 8-6pm if you’re in Mon to Fri or £55 a day otherwise, all meals and snacks included and you don’t need to worry about a childminder calling in sick or maybe her child’s sickness or their holidays.
School breakfast club is 4 a day (open at 7:30) and asc is £11 a day and closes at 6.

I pay £40 a day for 8 hours. Extra hours are charged at £5 if I’m late picking up or need to drop early. All meals, snacks and days out are included. I think she’s reasonable. I found other childminders a little bit cheaper (£32-£35 a day) but this one has outstanding ofsted ratings going back years, she’s honestly incredible. We’re in the midlands

Nursery here is £50-55 8-6 all in. CM are cheaper, I used one at about £40 a day inc food but had to send nappies. After school club from 3-6 is £10 here. It’s very localised though so she needs to look at what others are charging and fit with the norm. I am a bit bewildered that she didn’t do that before training for this career!

My childminder was excellent, became one of the family, but in wrap around care, there was no extra issues about whether my children were walked, taxi or taken in child minders transport
I paid a set fee for wrap a round And was from 7am until the latest at 6pm
all snacks, home cooked lunches and Teas were provided and all the kids who attended were welcomed to join in with their family breakfast and food times.
I chose a childminder to have the family feel and especially at meal times because ours were a rushed lot of getting ready and breakfasts as I was a single parent to 4 children. That our early 6am breakfast at the table was supplemented with another family breakfast with my childminder and her teenage children before school
I was always told an extra slice of toast, a crumpet or a bagel or serving of yogurt and cut up fruit and milk or water did not amount to an extra few pounds a day on top of what was already paid and that a a family meal is made anyway.

The prices are high for a childminder but if advertising as an ex teacher who will teach then I would pay that but not extra for meals as a small group of children don’t eat the amount that is going to be expected of parents
Plus i like the idea of ‘family dining’ that is expected of lots of educational establishments that cannot be found if every child brings a different meal.

But if this person is the childminder I had for all my 4 children, inc of one with extra special needs and education I would have paid the Earth and more for them. She was the definition of everything I had expected and wanted of a childminder.
It was never about the cost but that as a single parent I first started using her my oldest children were 3 and 5 and have only just stopped this last year in using her and those 3 and 5 year olds are 26 and 24 and their siblings would have been 17 and the very youngest is now 14
but the 17 year old had additional needs and passed away so she kept her door open to my oldest children to this day to talk to
my youngest had officially stopped using her but due to his parent passing away unexpectedly a few months has also started taking him in after school ‘to help’ though I pay for this time. He would not access if he thought it was like before but will because she said she missed him and his ‘now deceased’ sister
But this I would not get with a nursery and would pay for as a childminder

but the payment of extra fees i would not pay for even now

I understand where you're coming from, but OPs friends has had 3 families walk away as it's too expensive. Having a small number of quality clients is a great idea on paper, but at the minute it doesn't sound like the childminder has any clients at all.

We live in Hertfordshire.
There's only one childminder in the village who is very experienced. Lives opposite the school.

She has my two girls before and after school three days a week and in the holidays she'll have them the whole day.

Prices have recently gone up to £6 per hour and she charges £1 for breakfast, £2 lunch and £3 for evening meal (just meal, she doesn't do puddings).

They have breakfast at home. So it's 8-8.40 and then 3.15-6pm. I've just checked my invoice and we pay £22.50 per child plus the £3 meal charge so £25.50.

It's not just about the hourly rate it's also about the other conditions, I.e bank holidays, sickness, etc.and flexibility.

Our previous childminder who we had to change because she was in another village and couldn't do pick up/drop off when they started school was cheaper and much more flexible. Her terms and conditions were better too, we didn't pay for bank holidays, we didn't pay if she was sick, we didn't pay when she was on holiday, the only time we paid if the kids weren't there is if they were ill.

Our current childminder operates more like a nursery. We basically pay whether they are there or not for whatever reason and we pay her when she's on holiday. She's also very inflexible and strict, but she has a monopoly and is a good childminder so she can really operate as she likes!

You pay when she's sick or on holiday?! I've never heard that before! Seems bloody cheeky to me! What if she's frequently sick on days your DC are there and not others? How's that fair?!

Whatstheproblemguys

Yes it's very annoying, but she is the only childminder in the village so we have no other options.

We both work full time (but compressed - hence only needing it three days) in London, we need childcare in the holidays too so before and afterschool club wouldn't work and also they are still very young and I like that they are in a home rather than at school for 10 hours

Our childminders work 7.30am to 6pm charge £6.50 per hour during time, this includes meals. During school holidays, they charge £25 per day for the families who's children attend school, for the hours between 8am and 4pm, but no meals are included. During term time I get charged regardless if she goes in or not, but during the holidays, I am only charged for the days she attends. They are very flexible as well and their rates are competitive to the area.

Its not cheeky- parents will be made aware of her charges before they even sign the contract.

We pay £5.50 an hour and all food is included. We provide nappies etc.

We don't pay if she's sick or on holiday. We only pay if ours are sick. If she's sick we get hours in lieu next month.

What stops her taking loads of sick days and big long holidays? Or does she give you a max number of days for holiday each year?

I used to pay around that for 7am to 6pm, which was reasonable but included all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) as well as any trips out.

Perhaps including food would help? And maybe distinguishing between early and late hours and standard hours.