childminding and retainers

[PaulaMummyKnowsBest]

wwyd?
I am happy to offer term time only contracts as that means I have more time for my children over holidays.

Today I saw a mum who "may" want some of the holidays. They would be full days obviously and not just the 4 hours she normally needs (before and after schoo). I said "that's fine but you would need to pay a retainer over the holidays to keep your place" She seemed suprised.

Am i being greedy? I said that she would need to pay for half days as a retainer and if she uses more than that, she would then need to pay for a full day. So for the first 5 hours, the retainer covers it and any more, she tops it up. Does that seem fair?

i am going to be working holidays as I have 3 other children coming for the holidays. She doesn't know which days she needs over the holidays, it may be 2 or 3 or it may be all 5 (hence charging a reatiner). There may be weeks when she doesn't need any childcare.

How would you charge for that scenario? Would you just have a term time only contract and then ask her to pay if she uses a day?

I would charge a retainer fee or as Reality says - do ad-hoc.

You would have to impress upon mum though that unless a retainer is paid then the space is in no way guaranteed. She may not know what days she wants but i would agree with her a minimum of two days retainer at least between the hours of x-xx and with a minimum of 48hrs notice.

I don't think a retainer works unless you specify which days are being reserved. You would also need to be available (with reasonable notice) to work those days at extra cost if required. In other words you could not include days/weeks when you will be away on holiday, and they might have other weeks when they know they will be away so won't want to reserve a place. I think if you are reserving a place five days a week then it would be reasonable to set a half fee retainer, assuming the child(ren) are under 8 and actually count in your registration numbers. I think if you explain that they can either reserve a place but pay for the privilege, or take their chances on availability of space on an ad hoc basis, most would see that was fair.

so how does this sound:

We can offer full year or term time only contracts.

If you have a term time only contract, you can pay for ?ad hoc? days through the school holidays but we cannot guarantee that your child(ren) will have space. If you want to guarantee a day through any of the school holidays, you will be expected to pay a retainer of 50%

So if you ?book? 8 hours (and pay a retainer for 4 hours) and then only use 6 hours, you will still be required to pay for the 8 hours of childcare that you ?reserved?. So if you ?book? 8 hours (and pay a retainer for 4 hours) and then decide you no longer need childcare on that day, you only pay the retainer.

That's not quite what I would do. The first paragraph would be the same, but I would then say "So if you reserve a place for, say 8 hours a day throughout the holidays or whatever other period we agree, you will be expected to pay a retainer fee amounting to 50% of the normal rate for those hours. For the days/hours you then actually use the place you will be required to pay the balance i.e the remaining 50% of the usual hourly charge"

thank you all for your help

I love mumsnet!