all my mindees were collected about 15 mins late today.

[ekacpuc]

What do other childminders do about that ? Do you charge late fees ? They all blamed the bad traffic which is true but it's a bit annoying.

what is in your contracts or policies about late collection?

I would expect to pay for the extra time if it was more than a few minutes. It does sound like it was bad traffic locally to you though, if they were all late and all said the same thing.

Is this a one off or does it happen regularly? Did they phone to let you know they were going to be late?

It's happening more regularly, I think because I'm very relaxed about it. They work in the city and I know its hard to get back on time but maybe if they left earlier ? They do sometimes phone or text to say 'sorry, will be 10 mins late' or whatever, which is helpfull but it's my 10 mins isn't it.

One was 30 mins late last week because of the tube strike, I know it's not her fault but neither is it mine and it impacts on my family if there are grumpy tired children here when they should have been collected.

One came 25 mins late the other day and said 'sorry I'm late, bad traffic'.

The traffic will be worse in the winter as it gets dark early etc and I'm starting to feel angry which I don't want to as all mindees and parents are lovely.

I know some cms charge £1 for every 5 mins of lateness which does seem a bit much but they're taking my relaxed attitude for granted now.

There is nothing mentioned in the contract about lateness and I haven't got a written policie on it.

It really does depend upon your policies and fee structure.

You could introduce a late fee policy - perhaps £5 per 15 minutes late (rounded up to nearest 15 minutes). Write the policy up and give to parents introducing it in 2 weeks time for example. This will give them ample time to ensure their arrival times can be adjusted.

If late arrivals continue I would however, perhaps ask the parents if they wanted to review the contract. Providing it wasn't over my end of business hours and no more than an extra 15/30 minutes I'd see if they wanted to change the end times. If it was over my official close of business hours I would be charging my enhanced rate (time and half).

I would also be explaining in a newsletter that is attached to the new policy the impact on your family and the minded children of late pick ups etc. and that you would appreciate a call/text to check that late pick is going to occur and that it is ok with you. Perhaps a little fib that you have missed a couple of appointments due to the late pickups......

Does one particular day of the week seem to be more of a problem? If that is the case, maybe there is a tendency for more traffic on a Friday night so their contracts need to be altered.

I do almost always charge for late pickups - I have found in the past that if you ignore 5 minutes, they slip to 10 minutes late and so on and then it becomes more difficult to apply the charge. As soon as it more than about 5 minutes, I add on the extra charge according to my schedule of fees.

Thanks Pippin.........Would they have to sign a late fee policy ?

I think if I charged late fees then they wouldn't bother phoning me to say they'd late as they'd think 'I'm paying latr fees anyway ggrrr so why bother phoning'

Thanks Millenium, what do you mean by 'schedule of fees' ? I just charge an hourly rate.

One dad said the other day 'sorry I'm late (15 mins) I kept trying to leave the office but people kept grabbing me for things'

It's not always traffic.

It may be a bit confrontational but my nursery has the (v reasonable) policy that they charge £10 for every 15 minutes late and if you don't turn up or ring to explain then they will ring Social Services, assuming you're not coming for the children. I would be surprised if they've ever done that - but the point is made. These are you children not ours
In all the years I've had kids at nursery I've only ever been late once due to work emergency and then it was less than 5 minutes. I rang as I hurtled along to get her and they were fine and didn't charge me.

my contract (and seperate policy) say that I charge £5 per extra 15 minutes per child for both early drop offs and late collections

I would ask the parents if they would like to extend the contracted time so they have a buffer if they are running late, at the same time I would mention a late pick up fee of £5 per 15 minutes. They then have the choice to choose which option suits them best.

Thanks Northernlurker,

Paula, Does that mean that if they are 7 or 10 minutes late you still charge the £5 ?

no the parents wouldn't have to sign (always a good idea to get them to sign for any P&P's that way they can't say they haven't had them) - you just inform them that you are changing your terms and conditions.

yes if they were 7/10 minutes late they'd get charged for the 15 minutes.

I just charge double time for lateness (or earliness), but I make it clear that I might be going out and would have to leave their children with someone else, as specified in my policies or get an emergency contact to collect them. I also make it clear that my policies state that I should report them as abandoned children, but I have never done that. I have in the past taken children with me to my DD's activities and had parents chasing me all over the county trying to get to their children and paying double time for the privalege.

As some others have said, if you have the flexibility to extend their hours, then consider that. If not, then don't. When I first started, I had a fee of an hours money for late pickup and that just seemed to make people think that if they were going to be 5 mins late, they may as well be an hour late, so I soon changed that one.

Im a cm and have always been very relaxed about this. I have had some parents being very very late but it has not impacted on us as I'm open all hours anyhow. But parents do have to pay extra, the max was £30 once. As far as I'm concerned the late fee is easy money for me. I always make sure I warn parents if I have something special to get away for and they have always come up trumps and got there on time when it mattered. The mindees are like part of the family anyway and it is no hardship to have them around.

If you need to clock off at a set time, then do put a late fee in your contract. But tubes and transport will still ocassionally happen. (one of mine used to sometimes decide to do her food shopping before she collected- her choice, she had to pay the fee.)

As a parent £5 per 15 mins sounds excessive to me. Mind you, i think we have been late once in about 3yrs IIRC so maybe we are pretty good!

I wouldn't mind paying late fees, but double time would seem more reasonable to me, especially if it was not a regular thing (ie: pretty unavoidable)

when dd was at nursery they charged £1 a minute past 6pm. I was never late except once for a genuine emergency, for which they didn't charge - I always assumed the charge was there as a deterrent.

It may seem unreasonable to charge so much, but I think it is rude, disrespectful and unreasonable to just assume the childminder will be happy to have your child late.

Maybe you could have a policy or fees in place for late collections that are not previously arranged. Ask for 24 hours notice of late collection and prepare to be flexible and understanding in real emergencies.

I am a teacher and several parents constantly pick their children up 10-15 minutes late - I sincerely wish I could charge them late fees!

ekacpuc - my name for my fees/payments policy.

After the contracted end time, e.g. 5.30pm, if the pick up is late, I charge double time in 15 minute increments rounded up. Therefore if a child due to be collected at 5.30 was not picked up until 5.50, the parent would be charged until 6.00pm at double time which is effectively one hour.

My overtime rate starts for each child individually according to their contracted end time.

Hope this makes sense!

I have it in place to discourage people from being late.

In one of my nanny jobs, the dad was late home evry single night and it really annoyed me. He once called me to say "can I be home an hour late (7pm instead of 6pm). I said no as I had plans that evening. He strolled in at 7.10. I was so cross but what could I do?

If i have any families (as a childminder) that seem to be frequently late, the charges will be imposed but for "one off"s a bit of flexibility is called for

I'm obviously unusual for the parent, but I hate to give myself the stress of being late so I've always had it either when using nanny or CM, that my contracted time is an extra half an hour on the day. (15 minutes start or end of the day). I then explain to the carer that is what I have done, and always hope to give them 30 minutes a day extra, but if life doesn't work out that way there's no hard feeling, or the annoyance build up that the OP speaks of, because I've already factored that in.

just a quick question, if you charge for occasional (obviously, there will be some parents who take the mick and are late all the time), late collection, does that mean you offer a reduction if a mindee is collected early?

why would there be a reduction for early collection? the childminder is contracted to be available for the hours stated in the contract

There are no reductions or refunds for arriving late or collecting early; the contracted time is reserved for the sole use of the child and this time cannot be used for anyone else. Charges for early arrivals and late collections are usually high to compensate for the inconvenience of having to work longer than expected which has a detrimental effect on our family lives and can make us miss other obligations - evening training, time with our own children before they go to bed etc.

I charge £5 per 15 mins (or part thereof) but I waive this if the parent is usually early/on time and its a "first offence". If it happens more than once then I discuss with parent if its appropriate to agree a new contract to reflect the new working hours required. If I can't work the longer hours or the parent declines then they will be charged the late fees each time they are late and if it keeps happening I may give notice.

I have the £5 per 15 mins thing but have never charged it. I've now notified them that all lateness WILL be charged from now on (because me being nice about it was making people not try so hard to be on time, the regular person causing me to write this note on my newsletter wasn't even working). I get on great with all my families and they are always very sorry, give me chocolate etc etc. BUT it's really important for my family that I finish on time, my own children have had 11 hours of no quality time and I think it's only fair they get some one to one time before bed! I did once have a parent who arrived 3 hours late and they work about 15 mins away. I didn't charge for this and just put mindee to bed in spare babygrow as I knew the traffic was bad due to flooding. And if this happened again or it was a proper emergency then I wouldn't charge but I've told parents I'm charging every time now, to deter them from being late. I've been late for courses in the past and sometimes I DO have appointments after work, this is why I choose for my closure time to be 6pm! (well, unless mindee staying overnight).

Back to the OP though, it sounds like on this occasion there was a traffic problem for everyone.

p.s. I like the £1 per min late thing that the nursery did - not sure I could do that myself, wish I could. My problem is if they are 13 mins late, they don't get charged as it wasn't quite 15 mins - need to look at that I think!

Our nursery had a £20 per 15 minutes late charge and this is going back 9 years.

The only time anyone was ever late was when the police closed the dual carriageway as there was a jumper on the bridge

The whole area was gridlocked so the nursery staff couldn't leave anyway but we were still charged.