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.

The wraparound sounds very expensive, about 2/3 of the cost of a day for about 1/3 of the time. I think £10 for morning and £15 for afterschool is reasonable.

We pay our childminder £4.60 an hour in Shropshire. We have to provide meals but she gives snacks. She’s an ex teacher and is absolutely fantastic. I think you price people out if you’re charging more than £5 an hour unfortunately.

The wraparound care cost jumped out as being high to me. I pay £27 a day for wraparound care (7:30am to school drop off and school pick up to 6:00pm) in London. The school offers breakfast and after school club even more cheaply (£20) per day. Unless there’s a real lack of wraparound care in the area I think your friend would need to lower her prices.

I'm in the midlands and I pay less than that per day at a nursery. Childminders are generally cheaper than nurseries around here, so given the choice at the same price, I'd choose nursery for a few reasons- including sick leave being covered there, not having ti use annual leave when staff take holidays, more staff being there for security, amongst others.

Wraparound costs seem crazily high compared to what you pay here, and day costs also on the expensive side. Something is only worth what people are willing to pay and I can see why they won't pay that.

The wrap around care sounds dreadfully high! My childminder charges £10 morning school drop off, £10 afternoon school collection, or £15 for drop off and collection.

I'm not sure on the daily rate, but the wrap around care does seem on the expensive side. I'm in the Midlands and our CM charges £6.50 per before school session (drop off from 7.30am, includes breakfast). After school session is £11 (pick up by 5.30pm, includes snack or light meal).

I'm a Yorkshire childminder I have an early years degree and am curiosity approach accredited.

i charge £40 a day for 7:30-6 and include all food drinks meals and outings.

Oh just seen that doesn't include all food either! No I'd definitely go for the nursery then, cheaper and includes food.

I would only ever pay 60 quid a day for a child minder if it included a decent warm cooked meal for either lunch or dinner, plus two other meals and snacks. So I think it's quite expensive given that food isn't included.

Midlands. DDs school charges £12 for after school club a day including a light hot meal and it's open till 6pm, breakfast club is £4. There's nurseries nearby that charge about the same amount as your friend is suggesting - big plus for nurseries is that you don't have to worry about days off sick because nursery always cover it either with their own staff or with agency cover.

I almost mentioned school wrap around, but wasn’t sure if that was comparable to a child minder dropping off and picking up. I started using the school breakfast club as it starts at 7.15 (earlier than any childminder I know), and it’s only £2. I consider my afterschool wraparound extremely expensive compared to other local schools as it’s £10 for 3-5.30pm. Most of the schools round here only charge around a fiver. But they get a full dinner, dessert, and have unlimited access to a fruit and biscuit table and a hot chocolate station. They also have a theme every day (arts and crafts day, baking day etc) so a hell of a lot of that money goes back into the kids.

I paid £6 an hour for my childminders over 10 years ago (South England)

As others have said the wrap around care for before and after school is expensive As really that's only £18 -24 depending on the actual hours and if childminder collects at that school anyway. Breakfast and after school clubs tend to charge £14 (with snack food) for afterschool til 6pm and £8 for breakfast club from 7.30am which works out cheaper overall

I live in the Midlands, that looks comparable to the childminder I approached about childcare to me.

Just outside Bristol for preschool age only - £5.50 an hour, snacks and all activities included, lunch not (although that's a recent thing). Your friend seems expensive for West Midlands.

She seems to both be charging on the high side and requiring relatively early afternoon pickup unless her parents all work within 15 minutes of her house. For me to collect at 5.30, I’d have to leave by 4.45 at the latest.

If she doesn’t want to drop her prices, can she increase her times? She could then aim for the sort of parents who can’t always leave on the dot of 5 but will pay for a child minder who doesn’t require that.

I pay less than that IN London for full time nursery and including food. For a childminder I would expect to pay about 20% less than the cost of a full time nursery.

Food was included by childminder but not a full meal or afterschool snack usually pasta or small tea or toast and egg or something - so it meant I had time to cook big meal when I got them home without any hangry DCs!

We pay £6 a day for scholl drop-off here (East Mids)

I think it's a lot for someone new branching out. People want someone who's reputation precedes them for that and the fact she's losing clients suggests there are other, cheaper options locally too.

For £35 I'd expect a proper dinner to be included in the price.

The agency have told her to price herself high to justify their training costs, this happens all the time in business consulting, tell you friend to amend her prices

I'm eastmidlands, £4 PH is standard rate here

Expensive, plus end time of 5:30 is too early. I just checked the prices for before and after school club at my kids old primary in London, and it's £15 for breakfast club and £43 for afterschool per week. So £11.50 a day, it includes food and finishes at 5:45.

Her day rate is good, but her wraparound rate is unattractive. If she can get enough full time babies and toddlers, she would be better off just doing those.