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.

My DSis and DBro each pay £60 a day (same childminder) for a 10.5 hour day (7.30 - 18.00), including food and one outing a day (some of which are free). In London.

I agree with pp: your friend's day rate might be ok, depending on the area, but her wraparound is way too high. And she finishes too early, until 6pm is normal.

Not here (West Mids). I've just looked at DD's wonderful old nursery for their current fees out of interest. For care 7.30 - 6pm, 0-3 years they charge £56 / day, including meals, snacks, and nappies.

But how would she get any full time children working just term time? No one would use her! I don't know any childminders who do term time only, they do a full year with around 4 weeks holiday spread through the year. People who specialise in wrap-around could obviously do term-time only (I don't know any who do), but they're unlikely to make a living from it.

We pay £7.50 for BC and £15 for ASC!

It will be very dependant on region. What do nurseries in the area charge? Nursery is generally more expensive than a childminder so if it’s more than that maybe that’s why she’s struggling to get clients.

Mine charges £35 for full day (8 hours) and 5.5p/h there after and £3 per day for food.

6 is very expensive and might as well go to a nursery at that price 🤔

I pay just over £7 an hour (or £60 per day) for DS at nursery and that includes snacks but no lunch, nappies or wipes. That’s for 8-5:30. So for DS that would be reasonable.

For DD at primary school breakfast club at school is £3 and after school club is £9 so there is no way I would pay £36 for wrap around.

I pay £17 a day wraparound which includes breakfast and after school snacks.
Full days care was £35 but that was quite a few years ago so not sure if that rate has changed.

£we pay £100 a day for two children (twins) no snacks or lunch included. South east.

I pay £60 for day with CM (7.30-5). She is highly experienced. I provide lunch. If I had wanted to send this child to the same nursery as my previous child it would have been £80 a day (they go until 6pm and provide lunch). We are just outside of London in an expensive area.

I'm SE England. My childminder is very experienced, has a VERY long waiting list and is the best CM in the world.

I pay currently:

Morning school drop offs 8am-9am - £6 per day
Afternoon school pick up 3pm - 5.30pm - £15 per day

School holiday cover - £51 per day

The fees above include all snacks, I provide lunch on the full days. It does include trips in the holidays - Cinema, Zoo, National Trust Visits etc.

£35 for wrap around care? She is ridiculous

My DD goes to a nursery and I pay £6 an hour, snacks are included but I then pay an extra £2.50 per day for a hot meal. I'd happily pay what she's being told to charge for a childminder. I'm moving my DD to a different nursery in a few months and they have a set fee per day which is £55 for full day (8-6) and £33 for half day (8-1 or 1-6) x

I’m in Scotland, pay £5.50 per hour, everything is included.

I charged £6 an hour when I was childminding but that was a long time ago so I think that's very reasonable! My friend pays £40 a day where she is in the north west but she provides snacks and lunch etc, and obviously she pays extra for days out that they do. He's dropped off at 8.30 when her partner goes to work, and picked up at 5.

On childcare website it says on my area the average hourly rate is £5.12
Some do a discount on a full day (for example one hit near me is £7 an hour buy only £35 for a full day)
Or here's another one:
£4 per hour
£40 per day
Breakfast club £6 7;30am -8:40am
Afterschool club: £8 (3.15-5.30)

Great experience can get away with charging a little more but if the price is getting close to nursery prices people just won't use her

The childminding is on the high side, but just about doable. The wraparound is crazy expensive - I pay £16.50 for 7.40am-5.15pm on school premises with breakfast, snacks and a light tea included. South eastern county

in 2018 affluent Midlands town:
£45 + £5 for food per day (10 hours)
after school pick up and a meal £17

this was almost 5 years ago. She was always full and she had an assistant too. So the kids had two of them.

I'm in the midlands and our childminder charges £4.80 an hour, £6 sounds very high.

And that £4.80 includes food, trips out, everything except nappies really.

Agencies generally take a cut
She'd be better off directly under Ofsted.

Lots of people do term-time only. My DH is a teacher so our DCs are in term-time only.

Regardless, if she works full time (not term time only) then she'd get over £65,000pa so I think you've actually managed to counter yourself.

I think £50/60k for looking after 3/4 babies + extra kids after school is reasonable. It sounds like bloody hard work! Plus, she will have some outgoings too (heating on all day, trips out, qualifications that need to be kept up with, replacing materials etc).

We pay £5.50 for breakfast club 7.30-9am then after school provision is £9 per day through school and that includes snacks (Cheshire). So yes, £35 is silly money for wrap around.

I pay £70 in London, inc food