CM Club: Raising fees

[CallaCate]

Fellow childminders, what do you do when you want to raise your fees? Do you wait for a six-monthly/yearly contract review and raise each parents' charges then, or do you tell everyone at once you're putting your fees up? Seems unfair for different parents to be paying different amounts but surely you need a new contract any time you change fees so maybe it should wait for review...? Thanks.

I review my fees each year and implement any raise in April. parents all (should) know this as it is in my terms that they sign when starting but i always advise of the review and any changes in my Jan/feb newsletter so they have plenty of notice. I advise if I am NOT making changes too so they are aware when I do for example that its been 2 years since last increase.

hope that makes sense

Hi

I 'review' my fees in Sept/Oct each year and notify them of my decision by the end of October. The change (if there is one) is effective from the following February. This is part of the T & Cs in my handbook and therefore I do not update all contracts at that point, I do those when they are due for renewal.

I update mine every Jan 1st and confirm the amounts at the end of Nov. Parents know it is coming. At the same time I update all permissions, confirmation of hours/days/etc. I get parents to sign to confirm all the changes and that it is an update to their contract.

If there are any other major changes, then I do new NCMA contracts, otherwise all the other info about notice periods, etc is the same as on their original contract.

I'm never quite sure whether I should do new contracts for every change, but the children I look after seem to change their hours/days so often that I would be spending a fortune on contracts and wasting a lot of time and paper, not to mention how full their files would get!

Thanks very much that's really helpful. I think I'll update my parents to include when fees are reviewed and from when changes will be effective, then raise everyone's at once.

Sounds like if we have something signed saying they understand this, then something else signed saying they understand and accept the change, that should be sufficient (i.e. no new contract needed if this only change).

Thanks everyone. :)