Childminder costs

[Gonzo33]

Hi all,

We are going to be moving back to the UK early next year and I would like a rough idea of childminder fee's. One of my DC is old and ugly enough (he is gorgeous really) to sort himself out, but the other will be 3 and in pre-school placement 5 mornings a week until 12:30 is it?

What hours would I need to arrange with the childminder bearing in mind I would need my dd there full time in school holidays as well? and how much is it roughly going to be? Will be Norwich area.

Well as regards cm fees - I'm in Cambridgeshire and pay £3 ph for one child (£5 for two) Our nursery costs a bit more, but they include food and the CM doesnt.

I'm a bit confused about what you're asking regarding hours? Is that not dependant on the hours you work - and are you asking about funding for your 3 year old? Or do you know about that. Are you saying you already have a pre-school sorted for your 3 year old and you want a childminder for the remainder of the time?

Blimey that's cheap. Mine currently costs £5.50 ph but that includes food. Prior to that I was paying £7 ph. I am in South East.

Flipping heck thats a killler for a full day (DS2 does 10 hours, 8-6, so costs me £30, and £50 when it used to be both of them which did seem like a very good deal)
The nursery charges £38 for an under 2, £35 for 2 year olds, and £33 for 3-5 for a full day.
My childminder is completely flexible. All of her kids are part-time, and she'll take them in holidays if necessary and if she has the space. She doesnt do school runs though which is a whole different story!

In case youre asking if there is a set procedure for preschools/funding Gonzo - there isnt. Its entirely dependant on venue and local authority policy, although I think everywhere gives 15 hours of funding a week now (during term time)

Where I am, you are entitled to 15 hours per week in term time fro a 3-4 yo which has to be spread over 3 days. This is paid by the LA to the nursery, although my CM does accept vouchers (you can give them to multiple venues in my LA). As my DS1 currently does almost 4 full days at nursery (36.5 hours) what they do for me is calculate the paid hours he does in a full year, and divide it by 12 so that my monthly fees are the same rather than going up in holiday time and down in term time. They have am and pm sessions, 8-1 and 1-6 and also I think they will split it into shorter sessions if you want to do 3 hours per day, 5 days a week (so 9-12 for instance)

We also have a few pre-schools in the area that only function term time and on restricted hours i.e mostly cater for the free funding children. These arent as flexible.

Thanks ladies, my eldest is long past needing childcare so I have forgotten almost everything about it!

Yes I pay £55 for a day plus extra for my other two school age children, who go to a different CM.

It's about £4 an hour where I am - but most childminders will charge for the the whole day regardless of whether your child is in morning pre-school or not if they do drop-off/pick-ups, have the child if pre-school is shut (inset days etc) and holidays.

I charge £3.50 an hour and would offer afternoon slots only ( and charge for afternoon slots only).

I also include meals in my fees.
The cost and flexibility varies from area to area and CM to CM though as we set our our rates and ways of working :)

What area will you be moving to? I am in Birmingham

I charge £3 for under 25hrs a week and £3.50 for over in Suffolk but if you're in Norwich it will be more expensive. If you want to keep the space open for holidays I would charge from the time you'd drop off in the holidays as that is a space I cannot fill with another child who isn't at preschool. That's the norm in my area though

Thank you everyone. I thought it was the case we'd be paying for a full day whilst the minx is at pre-school. Does this change when they start school? I think my cm only charged the hours she had my ds during term time and full charge during holidays.

Yes it would with me as that space cannot be filled by anyone else as any other non-early years/over 5 will be at school too. Just charge before and after school term time and what ever they are here holiday time.

We pay 3.60 an hour. With regards to the nursery up north we can pick to have whole days or half days as not all CM wil pick up from your nursery of choice unless its their local one

i'm near Norwich and i charge £4.25 all in.