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.

A few years ago I used to pay £35 a day for a childminder. School drop offs used to be £5 and after school would be £10 I think. It used to include snacks but not food.

Those charges are really high in my opinion, I used to pay £40 for nursery and that included food!

I appreciate this was about 3 years ago x

Our CM charged the same hourly rate for wraparound as for daytime childminding. It was more per hour than your friend’s daily rate but we are in Surrey. Wraparound is a different market I think - but worth remembering she may be asked to have them full time in holidays.

If people are walking away then that probably is a big indication. For £6 an hour I'd expect a low ratio to be honest, generally speaking as well never known childminders to be more expensive than a nursery. Wraparound does sound expensive especially as doesn't seem she provides dinner- if there is the demand then sure I'm sure people will pay it, but if they're enquiring but not taking it up I'd say time to lower it.

Mine has just gone up to 5.75 per hour. Lunch £1 per day snacks included.

i would say that’s high for a newly qualified childminder. Advise her to start at £5.50 and then once she has an established reputation and families who trust her she can gradually increase.

wrap Around care seems a bit steep too. Assume she has only one school she picks up and drops off to?

I paid £54 a day for nursery, 7:45-6:15, 3 meals + snacks and absolutely everything included, until September. Middle class part of a city centre (not London). Breakfast club is £5, after school club is £10, including breakfast and a light tea. Again, middle class area. I would expect a childminder to cost less than these settings.

So yes, I think she’s pitching way too high especially as a new provider who hasn’t yet built up a good reputation.

Wraparound care seems high. My childminder charges £6.50 an hour and she's the most around here. I work for a childminder and she charges £6.25

Friend charged £5.50 per hour (London suburb) 10 years ago.
That was for wrap around care only. Drop off at her house was 6.30am or 7am. She gave them breakfast then took them to school (all at one school) Then collected them, supervised homework and gave them tea and collection was 7pm or 7.30pm in the evening.

£5 per hour per child even outside of London sounds quite low. You would need 3 children to make even minimum wage after taking expenses.

I pay £50, no food included, for 7.30-5.30 pm if that helps. Nursery here varies from £55-63, includes food and is a 6pm finish.

Oh and wrap around care is £20 for those hours.

The hourly rate is low for where I am (South East), and the wrap-around care is similar to what I would charge. However, I'd include an after school snack and a full evening meal, the schools I collect from are at a distance and I don't charge extra if parents are running late. The children arrive from 7am and some stay well after 6pm.

It's no good an agency trying to set generic rates. Your friend needs to look at what the local childcarers are charging and what they offer for that charge.

I don't think any of the childminders here charge as low as £6: we live in an expensive area and we couldn't pay for activities etc. if we did. I saw that one of my local nurseries is charging around £10 per hour and has a waiting list, so we're still cheaper than the nurseries.

The wraparound rate seems high to me. I pay £2/day for breakfast club at school (7.30-8.15), and £6/day for after school care (4.30-6), both with a small meal/substantial snack included. I’m in an expensive area (Surrey). Obviously I’d understand paying more for more individual care with a childminder, but not 4x more

East Midlands I was paying £36.50 a day (7am-5pm) including lunch.

You would expect someone to look after your child for 1.5 hours, give them breakfast, transport them to school in a properly insured vehicle using their own petrol for £5. I thought breakfast club was supposed to be cheaper than a childminder as it is probably subsidised by the school. Also no idea when it opens and when after school club closes but a lot of people I know would struggle with getting children to breakfast club and pickups without being late for work or having to leave work early.

Thank you so much for the responses this is all really helpful!!

I’ve sent her a few posts and she’s said she’s aiming to charge £25 for combined wraparound care, which is a lot better than the £35 suggested to her.

this is what she said:

”I am charging £10 for the 1.5 hours in a morning to cover the hourly rate as well as providing breakfast. Then it is £18 for the pm pick up because it is a 2.5 hour session from the first pick up and includes snacks, drinks, a light tea meal, activities and the chance to help with homework.
I wanted to give a discounted combined cost of £25 which includes 4 hours of care (usually £23) as well as breakfast, snacks, tea and activities.”

£42.50 for full day 8-5 incl snacks

£18 wrap around (different provider to the one above) £6 for the morning )£12 for the evening - including light tea of sandwiches and fruit

I think also it’s hard to compare it to school wraparound care as it’s a completely different thing going with a childminder. I suppose you pay more for them to be in a home setting, more one on one time, plus her bills, insurances etc pushes the costs up. I know schools have costs too but it’s split between a lot more kids if that makes sense

No I would expect the childminder to be significantly cheaper than nursery, sorry if that wasn’t clear. I would deliberately not use a childminder who drove the school run, and as a result the costs of a vehicle wouldn’t come into it. I use the school breakfast club (not subsidised by the school, it’s a separate company) which is from 7:30am drop off, pick up by 6pm.

That said, the other local option for wrap around where the children are walked to and from our school costs £6.50 from a 7:30am drop off, including breakfast. This is all very typical where I live.

I wouldn’t expect someone to look after just my child for £5, but childminders will have multiple children particularly when you’re talking about school aged kids.

Regardless, I’m not sure how much value this thread and my opinion adds, since actual potential customers in the OP’s friend’s market have specifically said no on the basis of the cost being too high. If your market (particularly when there’s a shortage of childcare!) says the cost is too high, then the cost is too high for this to be viable. I wholly agree childcare workers are underpaid. I still wouldn’t deliberately pay considerably over the odds for a brand new provider where I couldn’t get a personal recommendation from someone who had used them.

My point was not that she couldn't theorically make a living from term-time only, on the hourly rate, but that there wouldn't be enough demand for that to make it a viable option. Clearly there are some parents who only work term time, but it's drastically limiting your potential pool of families if they're the only ones you can offer childminding for. It's less than 5% of the working population who are on term-time only contracts, so even if you added on people like teachers who are largely free during the holidays (or at least more flexible) on full-year contracts, most working people who have pre-school aged children need year-round care.

That sounds much more reasonable re the wrap around care.

I think she needs to think about what her niche is.

It could be hours - if the school after school club closes at 5:30, offering till 6:30 could be a big selling point

It could be more of a homework club type focus given she is a teacher

Or something else

If she's just the same as the school after school club but more expensive, why would anyone go for her?

I pay £54 for the day (9-5) which includes snacks but we send lunch. She charges £7 per hour for wrap around care (we only used after school wrap around which included a snack). She’s brilliant and our children love her so happy to pay. Nurseries around here charged £65/70 per day and that was a couple of years ago so I’m sure it’s more now!

I’d advise to go on childcare.co.uk website and check what is an average rate for the local providers (you can do it by post code). Besides their hourly rate you may find that they all have different rules.
For example, I live in Northampton and I charge 5 p/h, but I can drop it for £4.5 for siblings attending full time every day.
my school is really round the corner, it does take only one minute to get there, so I don’t have set figure for the pick up and drop off. I charge one hour minimum for that, it still does work out well for me.

Wraparound in midlands - £32 is for whole day and it includes 3 meals and all drinks and snacks.

North West, pay £35 a day, not including nappies, food etc. hours are 7:30-5:30

Should clarify - wraparound provider for whole day during school holidays 7.30-6.

£35 for wraparound only without any food is ridiculous. Wraparound for mine is £20 and it includes breakfast and hot meal after school.