CMs please advise:after-school - different rules?

[pinkdelight]

Hope someone can clarify for me. I've recently moved. I used two different CMs where I previously lived and paid for my younger DS to go full-time and for my older DS to go for tea after-school (3.30-5.30) on an ad hoc basis. One CM charged £12, the other £15. It was one or two nights a week and, although it tended to be regular, it could change and that'd be fine. They didn't charge me if he didn't go, or apply the same rules as they did to my younger ds i.e. I wasn't charged the after-school fee when we went on holiday for instance, even though I'd get charged for the full-time ds. This worked out well.

So now I've moved and found a great new CM who has my younger DS full-time and is also happy to have the older DS for tea once or twice a week for £15 per session. However, she want to apply the same rules as for younger DS i.e. charge in advance for the same days every week, even if we're on hol or he's off sick or I just don't need him to go that night etc. Is this right?

I was hoping for the same ad hoc arrangement as I'd had before, and it wouldn't leave her out of pocket as there are no other after school kids so he's not taking up someone's place. It's more just some extra help for me and some extra money for her, or that's my way of thinking anyway.

So please can you advise - have I just been lucky previously? Is this how it normally goes? If so, I guess I'll have to make other arrangements.

Sorry for the length!

I think what your new CM proposes is the norm. You have been lucky to find someone in the past to have your older one on a pay as you go basis and hold a space for him. I would offer either a permanent place (paid for whether or not you use it) or ad hoc care, but with no guarantee of holding the place, and you might well lose the place when a "permanent" child came along. That is the same as everyone else I know.

You've just been lucky, if they're under 8 they are still taking up a place meaning she can't fill that place. Each childminder sets their own rules.

Each childminder makes their own arrangements and their own contracts - if it was me I'd also want it set up that way (charging in advance for two teatime sessions per week) so you may just have been lucky before.

Ah, I see. Fair enough. Like I said though, she has no other after-school mindees so he's definitely not taking up a space that someone else could use.

We didn't move far, so think I might just take the older DS back to his old CM for after-school sessions, which is a shame, but I just can't afford the losses.

I think the point is that she may currently have no regular after-schoolers, but what is to say she won't get some? You could suggest she have him on an ad hoc basis until she does.

That's what I was thinking, minder. After all, he'll be breaking up for hols soon so will only have been doing the after-school thing there for 6 weeks by then. Seems a waste to be paying for unused sessions. Will try to get ad hoc for now and start again properly in Sept. Failing that, will revert to previous CM.

Thanks for your help.