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.

Mostly they just enjoyed playing with their mates.

I agree that playing friends / classmate is one of the more important aspects of wrap around care. In the case of the OPs friend, if the local schools offer before / after school then I expect most parents would use these clubs. Especially if the childminder option is more expensive, has an earlier pick up and means their child is spending time with much younger children.

I pay £4 per hour. But she has both of mine so that’s £4 for each and I pay £5 for both of them for their food ( snack and dinner)
as I work long hours it’s almost £100 in the school holidays for both of them together per day.

My CM charges £4/hour

She needs to change the phrasing. £45 8.30am-5pm. Early drop off (from 7.30 am an extra £6 and again the other end for late pick up.

The wrap around is far far too high. I'd say 100 week is the maximum for those coming 5 days/week morning and after school. That is 20/day for both.

She needs to research what others are charging locally, and then pitch herself a bit lower to get initial custom, unless there is a big local demand.

The daily rate may be high for a midlands town, but it's impossible to know without knowing the exact location. I paid similar in London.

As a parent, I would prefer for fees to include food, as this keeps it simpler all round.

I see that she has reduced the wraparound cost, but it may still be too much for many families, particularly if there is cheap wraparound care at the school. What will she offer that school wraparound won't?

Better to charge less and get more takers.

I’m reading here and I’m shocked. I’m in Ireland and I have been quoted €80-€120 a day here for 8.30-3.45. The cost of childcare here is wild compared to the UK!

We pay £67 a day which includes food (London though)

These posts always interest me. Is it ok to pay a trained and qualified adult £6 per hour? No, of course it isn’t. Except when it’s for childcare, then apparently it’s too much! I earned more than that in my cleaning job when I was still at school.

It’s a depressing fact that people pay their dog walkers more than they pay the person they trust to look after their children. The whole system needs a huge rethink.

She needs to research the local childminder rates.

The problem if she is registered with an agency rather than with Ofsted is that the agency may dictate what she charges and take a cut of any fees so she will be forced to charge more than other local childminders.

I would agree the wrap around sounds very high. It sounds like she's is treating the payment structure as if she is a nanny and only having one child the entire day. The cost should be slimmed down slightly because of the ratio- that is the whole point of ratios getting larger as children get older as caring for them is easier, so I do think its still too high.

I also wouldn't pay that for a day rate either; it is on par with nurseries who don't have pick up at nap time and who provide all food.

As she is new and needing good word of mouth, she could work towards those fees and start off as a bit more reasonable.

18 years ago in south London I paid £61.50 per day which was 3 days a week cost me £800 per month as they charged 13 days per month

£44 per day here - East Midlands

The childminders in our area are all fully booked with waitlists.

But regardless - if 3 potential customers have all said she's too expensive then presumably she's too expensive. Cause I'd have thought they'd only say they if there are cheaper, equivalent, alternatives.

I pay £6 breakfast and £10 after school, including snack. 730 drop off and collect 530pm.

day rate is £4.50 per hour. Based in Yorkshire.

so for me, it’s an extortionate rate!

Very high. I pay £39.50 per day for my childminder (north east England)

Forgot to say that's 7.30am-5.30pm, all meals and snacks included.

Around here the going rate is £4.00-4.50 an hour I think, which is more expensive than school childcare but good value. But the cm does mostly wraparound and holidays, no babies/toddlers, so I think she often has 6 kids which must make it worthwhile. There are quite a few cm around here in the school area and it's not been difficult to get one - she is 5 mins walk from my house which is fab.

Sounds like a bargain to me... but I pay almost £80 a day for each of my boys to go to nursery.

I haven't used a childminder since about 2017 but she used to be £3.50 per hour then changed to £6 for 2 children.

I can believe in 5/6 years the price will have doubled!

Most in my town charge £4/hour. Mine charges £5/hour.

Much more than that and I'd be better off using the nursery which includes all meals and has less hassle in terms of sickness or childminder's holidays.

But nurseries don’t have children once they are school aged

There are a few nurseries in my area that offer wrap around care and holiday clubs.

But they will usually be getting that amount from 3 different sets of parents, plus potentially another 3 for the wraparound care. So she will be earning £18 per hour during school hours, and up to £36 per hour for the before and after school time.