childminders help please

[bump6]

Hi, I am posting for a friend. she has 2dc who have been picked up from school by a childminder, 4 times a week for the last 2 years.
The Dc don't go to childminder in holiday.
-the childminder has just asked to be paid for the recent. Bank holidays. Which although in contract, have never actually been paid in last 2 years.
Childminder also saying will need payment for school holidays too. If this is the case would my friend just have to pay for the 3 hrs each day to keep her spaces for term time.
Also I know it's contracted for bank holidays but how would you bring up the fact they have never asked before.?
My friend is thinking that perhaps as her dc don't have childminder for many hours that maybe childminder wants to find more business & trying to edge friend out.
As she has said there is a big demand for childminding in area.
Any thoughts please would be appreciated.

If they've never asked before then question
It but maybe it's a recent change but they should have been notified in writing. I wish I charged a retainer for the hols, if she's asking them to pay they should be able to use the space.

Agree with last comment. It may be that she's changed her terms but that should be done in writing and with notice, not told she needs to pay for stuff that's happened before the notification (and I don't think legally she can anyway)!

No, if bank holidays haven't been charged before then they can't be charged retrospectively as it would be a change to the contract which needs to be agreed in writing. It's not unreasonable for her to ask for a retainer for the school holidays, but as wish says they should then be able to use the places if they need to.

But OP says bank holidays are contracted, so it seems her friend may have been undercharged in the past and is now being charged the correct amount. Holiday charges should also be detailed in the contract.

I see what you're saying HSMM but I personally would have thought these bank hols were classed as school hols as that week was half term here. Having said that, all bank hols are days off school so if not when it's a school holiday, I'm not so sure about payment. I just think if holidays are not contracted to be paid for then if the bank hols fall in a school hol, they shouldn't be charged. But that's just me :)

Thanks everyone much appreciated. One other quick question
. If my friend pays childminder for holiday but doesn't use the child care( friend is in position where holiday care not needed) can the childminder fill the space & charge someone else? As well as charging friend?

As a teacher, I've never needed FT care in the school holidays, but every CM has asked me to pay 50% of fee as a retainer.
If I wanted to use any of the days, then I would let her know in advance (say I wanted to do some decorating or get some school work done or anything that would be a lot easier without dc), and pay the full cost for that day. tbh, if she wanted to have someone else on those days, it wouldn't bother me, but it might be quite difficult to find someone who could fit around my days, as I retained 'first shout' at any days. (Some people send their child 1 day a week, so they are still used to going and don't have to do settling in stuff in Sept, for example).

If the CM doesn't take a retainer, then the affect that has is that her hourly term time rate goes up, to cover the fact she has no income for those weeks. Your friend has to look at it as what it is costing her over the whole year, not just that she seems to be paying for "nothing" in the holidays.

Even if the CM doesn't take on anyone else, I think it only fair that there is some agreed notice period if your friend wants to use her on those days, as she might just be arranging trips out, or even a nice lie-in, or, to be fair, doing her own decorating whilst she is not expecting her mindees.

CM can charge whatever your friend has agreed to in her contract. Very hard to answer these questions as an outsider.

(Yes looney-I agree that bank holidays may come under school holidays, but still depends on contract)

some good points people.. thank you all very much. Think my friend really needs too look at contract and go from there.

Yes, totally depends on how the contract is worded.

If they pay full whack for school hols then I wouldn't expect them to be taking on other children and being paid twice but again, depends on the contract (i.e. would always expect the space to be available for the child but maybe with a set notice period i.e. not just turn up on the day or call night before?)