Wibu if your childminder did this....

[Neverhaveenoughmoney]

Said they couldn't offer a term time contract anymore.
I've NC for obvious reasons. I'm a CM and work with my husband. We are very busy but with all the increasing costs the business is really struggling. The main reason for this is in the school holidays we lose about two thirds of our income due to the fact that so many of our children are term time only.
When we first opened we had some older children in the holidays and some little ones and it was all ok. We earnt less but because the normal months were better financially we could always save for the lesser months.
However now this is not the case. Despite cutting back as much as we can without it effecting the quality of care most months we go overdrawn. I've done some costings for the summer hols and we are not even going to have money to pay half our bills let alone shopping etc.
I've been so worried this week I've barely slept and we have both looked for 2nd jobs.
So the term time parents only pay £15 per day during their contracted days in school holidays to retain the space for term time weeks. So instead of a daily rate of between £43 - 47 it's a big loss for us. All our school children are also tto and no one needs school hol care as they are teachers.
I'm considering saying I am going to have to stop this off and start charging half or full fees all year round.
I imagine this will cause so much upset but I don't know what else to do. We tried having older children in the hols last year and it was a disaster. They were so demanding and it took 1 of us to look after them and the other left with the little ones. Outings were a nightmare too when we could get out as it was hard to fit in the car.
Would really appreciate other parents views on this.

When mine were growing up there were a couple of term time childminders that were used by teachers.it worked because it was not their only income and they enjoyed only having their own kids in the hols

My CM has my daughter before and after school TTO, if she started charging for holidays I’d stop using her

so your regular term time children happen to be sorted for the holidays, but there must be lots that aren't - advertise short term summer holiday provision - you could well find people will welcome cover in other school holidays too.

Parents struggle so much for school holiday cover, I would look to that older demographic. If a local childminder said I could pay her to have my kids at an adventure park for the day or similar I would cheerfully pay £40-50. Or hillwalking or a bike ride, den building in the woods type stuff. Kids are not keen at sitting in someone else’s house though.

It is perhaps better to consider paid jobs for at least one of you.

You don’t say whether you do wraparound care? That is my friends biggest source of income. They do cover 2 schools (her husband works with her part time). But it’s a fixed rate for the sessions - I can’t remember, but £15-20 after school for instance and she had quite a few. By the time they all walked home it was getting close to 4pm so there’s not much time to fill.

She had 2 weeks fixed holiday a year as well.

This could be an option or charge a retainer fee during the holidays

OP says she does charge £15 per day retainer for holidays for children who are term time only. But if invoices are done on a monthly basis and you have one month where people are paying £40 per day for most of the month vs a month where they're only paying £15 a day, your monthly income is going to vastly differ depending on if it's March or August. But working out the whole year and dividing it to give an equal monthly income at least solves the cash flow problem in summer.

The problem with CM for older ones in holidays is it's a much more expensive option - if I can use a holiday club for £25 why would I pay twice that for a CM? Unless you've got a real shortage of clubs locally, I'm not sure a CM is people's first choice, unless they're already using you in term time.

How does the £15 retainer compare to your normal wraparound fee? Is it a lot less? Surely charging the wraparound fee all year round wouldn't be a huge increase for those parents?

Could you run a holiday club? I'd stop with the term time only kids too. Or charge a higher daily rate to cover the holidays?

Gosh that's harsh. There's a real lack of childminders currently, so hounding them out of business isn't ideal. Good luck OP.

I used to Cm. One way I got round this without charging outwith term time (except for retainer fees) was a small overall hourly increase (50p/ £1) and change the way you bill. Instead of monthly invoicing, work out how much each family owes over the year and then divide by 12. That is then your monthly set fee. Any additional charges accrued can be billed separately if need be. Much quicker on your monthly paperwork and admin too.

Your terms should be what works for you as a CM, I’ve had CM that have had to change their offer and prices and that’s been fine by me. Sometimes it’s meant hasn’t worked to continue but still grateful for the care they gave my children and having facilitates me to be able to work.

I pay my child minder all year round. It’s a retainer fee for the place, rather than how much he goes.

I pay full price, even when she’s on holiday. Obviously I’d love to not have to pay for time I don’t use but I understand it is her income and I wouldn’t expect to not be paid for my AL etc in my job so same rules applying

Can you change payments so their fees are worrked out over 12 months? I have 2 teachers children and I work their fees out over 12 months so I have money coming in all year.

I think you’ll need to advertise for new clients who want year round care and give notice to the term time only ones as you find new clients.

Thanks some good points to consider. I don't want older children in the school hols as they are too hard to manage with the younger ones and eat so much I spend even more money!
I am qualified but nursery work is minimum wage. I guess my husband could look for a job but it would be a shame for him to pack it in. The kids love him. I also don't want to give notice to my term time little ones but might not have a choice. I suppose the decision will be there's.

@luckylavender - it's a business! There being a dearth of CMs is neither here nor there. If the OP's business model means she's running at a deficit, she either need to change the model or do something else.

At the moment she is getting into debt which is not sustainable.

I'm a teacher and we chose our child minder because she offered term time only contracts. However, we paid a premium for this and were contracted to pay in full for all dates on our days in term time, whether we used them or not. We paid the same every week for 39 weeks even if dd did not attend for any reason. This was fine for me as a salaried teacher, and it meant the childminder knew exactly what she had coming in from us.

She was fab though, and I'd have been happy to pay her a retainer/fee over the holidays if it meant keeping our place.

I think you have to do what you need to, to make your business financially viable.

I'm now a private tutor and have a similar set up as I can't afford for people to just come and go as they please.

Older children’s parents are completely used to providing a packed lunch, copious snacks and a fiver for an ice cream though. One of you could take the older children, one the younger. Have you got any holiday places/ hotels close by? A childminder friend does wedding childcare at a nice local hotel, mainly Saturdays but she charges £££s. Also does babysitting at the same hotel for £25 an hour whilst Mum has a massage in the spa. She only does wrap around childcare now as makes more money not having dc during the day.

Older children’s parents are completely used to providing a packed lunch, copious snacks and a fiver for an ice cream though. One of you could take the older children, one the younger. Have you got any holiday places/ hotels close by? A childminder friend does wedding childcare at a nice local hotel, mainly Saturdays but she charges £££s. Also does babysitting at the same hotel for £25 an hour whilst Mum has a massage in the spa. She only does wrap around childcare now as makes more money not having dc during the day.

No idea why that posted twice. Sorry!

It sounds as if the problem is that you've ended up with almost all teachers, attracted by the term-time only contract (and probably word of mouth). In the longer term, you probably need to charge more for the term-time only contracts, or restrict the number of them you are prepared to offer. I knew a nursery that had lots of teachers' kids - being larger, I think they could accommodate that more easily - the lower numbers probably enabled their own staff to have their holidays in the school holidays.

I don't think it will go down well if you say now that you're charging more over this summer, but giving notice now of a change from September will give people time to look at other options if need be. Depending on the market locally, they might find you're still the best option.

I am a childminder. Mine is the only income coming into the house so I have to put a limit on the number of TTO contracts I offer otherwise I cannot afford to pay my bills over the summer. Can you do some bank work with a nursery over the summer to keep you going until September. From September you can perhaps put up your TTO rate and any new parents coming on board need to pay all year round until a TTO space becomes available. You can then decide how many TTO spaces you would like to offer and have a waiting list for those places.

So you're currently charging for 39 weeks of the year but want to start charging for 52 weeks. If you charge for those weeks at the same rate as your usual weeks, your fees will go up by a third.
Can your customers afford that? And will they pay it? How much are the alternative options where you are? If they can't or won't pay the increase, will you be able to fill your places easily at your new rates or might you struggle?
Also, do you want to work the school holidays? Are you going to shut for any period each year and do you want to be paid for that?
Depending on your answers to those, you can then re-visit your business model and decide how to proceed.
I'm sorry to say it but I think you're probably already screwed for this summer. You'll have to give your parents 4 weeks' notice of this (or whatever the notice period is in your contract)?so that they can give notice. If I was one of your TTO parents, I'd give notice 4 weeks before the end of this summer term, not pay anything to anyone for childcare over the summer and start a new childcare arrangement from late August/early Sept.

Time to do some childcare agency work in the holidays. You can pick where and when you work.

But there's no need to be so rude