Finding a CM but with weird criteria/circumstances!

[fuzzpig]

Background here

To sum up we have DS, nearly 3, and DD, nearly 5, they will be in nursery (15hrs) and yr1 respectively in September (I doubt any operation will be scheduled before then, obviously if it's an emergency it's a whole other matter). School is 8.30-3, and DS' nursery sessions are 12-3.

As I have the option to reduce my hours I should be able to do at least one school run but not the others.

So we may need to have somebody either drop DD in at 8.30 (although I'm looking into breakfast club, I could then drop DD myself before continuing to work), or pick them both up at 3 and keep them until some point later on (depending what time I finished). The other option I was considering is to have a CM mind DS in the morning and then dropping him to nursery.

This CM thing is totally new to me as it's not something we've considered before. I have no idea how to go about finding/choosing etc or even how much I should expect to pay, or how I deal with tax credits etc (can you use childcare vouchers like for daycare?). And of course there's the problem that right now, we don't have a clue when this could all happen, or how long it will be needed for. Even if I found somebody we liked now they couldn't guarantee they'd be available when we needed it, I couldn't exactly ask them to keep a space! We are also quite limited for location as it needs to be accessible by public transport.

Where do I start?

Try childcare.co.uk or your local families information service. You need to know which school runs you'll need really as these may be space dependant and if you need drop off and pick up at nursery be prepared to pay for the hours in between for your youngest.

Yes I wondered that about paying while he was at nursery :(

Work is open 8.30-7 m-f, slightly less on sat. I need to do minimum 24hrs PW to keep tax credits. The 4 options I've thought of (in terms of reduced hours) are:

• 9.20-2.20, which would mean I could do drop off/pick up. But would need somebody to drop DS at nursery at 12 and maybe mind him in the morning if I could drop him off there before work. Bus times mean it would be a close call though.

• 8.30-2, which would mean I'd need breakfast club for DD or put them both with CM from 7.30 if they could drop DD at school and then keep DS til 12. I could then pick up both at 3.

• split shift of 8.30 (which would be ok if I used breakfast club) til 11, then go home and take DS to nursery, look after DH/housework etc for a bit, pick both DCs up at 3 and drop them home, go back to work for roughly 4-7. So in that sense I may not even need a CM unless for the morning instead of BFC. But not being back for bath/bed might be rough as it is physically hard for DH - currently I do 2 lates a week and that is hard enough.

• 1-7, which would mean I could do do morning and midday drop off but would need CM to pick both up and I guess keep them until nearly 8.

There may be another option I haven't considered

Any rough idea on what CMs charge per hour?

where in west sussex are you?

You can use childcare vouchers for CMs and you might well find someone who doesn't want another child long term but would be willing to do it for a few weeks/months.

I am freelance and work from home mostly but sometimes I need to travel for meetings with clients. I have managed to find a CM who will take DS on an ad hoc basis once a week/every couple of weeks which is bloody marvellous.

Mine charges me £15 for 3.5 hours including dinner and school pick up (we are in rural Kent) if that helps.

Your county council website should give you a list of registered CMs in your area.

Hope you manage to sort something - I know how awful the anxiety over childcare can be x

Fudges, I'm in crawley

Thanks for info, dowagers, that's all very helpful!

Why not look for an accredited child minder who already collects from dd's school.

An accredited childminder can use the 15 hours government funding so your Ds would not need to attend nursery as well this may be much easier for you all to adjust to. I would say do 8:30 drop off then decide a reasonable time to collect.

I am accredited and it works out cheaper for parents as I can not afford to not charge for the 15 hours term time as it is highly unlikely the childminder can fill those hours as you would need them in school holidays. I do not know fees in west Sussex but here in Hampshire they are £3.75 ish per hour.

Good luck with your search.

Meant to add look now as you may find somebody who is perfect but has no space
Til September if not somebody who is perfect may hold spaces for a deposit or what's called a retainer fee so you pay something to keep spaces until you start tax credits etc could be set up to pay as you could start settling the children in now then increase hours from September

That price is definitely better than nurseries!

I'm not sure I get what you mean about the nursery hours though - do you mean that because I would have to pay CM for the hours DS would be at nursery, it would be better just to have the CM look after him the whole time instead and use the free hours on that?

If so, I'd have to beg the nursery to keep his place (I was going to ask about that anyway when I see the Head on Tuesday) as this is only going to be a temporary thing and I definitely want him to be in nursery eventually.

I guess I'd only have to pay the hours in between if the CM was doing the drop off and the pick up? In which case I would need to try and do one of those myself (so if I was working until 2 then we'd only need a CM for the noon drop off)

Is it feasible that I could drop off both with a CM in the morning (say 7.30), she would drop DD at school and keep DS until noon when she could then drop him at nursery? So I would pay 7.30-8.30 for DD and 7.30-12 for DS?

Sorry if these are all stupid questions

I'm a childminder in Horsham & know several Crawley childminders. Lot's of the Crawley minders are used to odd hours because of the Gatwick shifts and you should be able to find someone who could help you. If you ring West Sussex Family Information Service on 01243777807 they will be able to give you a list of local childminders in your particular bit of Crawley, e.g. West Green, Maidenbower. Do you work in Crawley because if there isn't anyone near you there might be near where you work.

fuzzpig you may be able to get somebody just til 12pm as long as you can cover school holidays yourself. I would not be able to let you use up til 12pm in term time if you expected all day places when school/pre-school closed.

I did mean you could use nursery hours at childminders or you would have to possibly pay for all day sessions at childminders and use your free hours at nursery or use your free hours at childminders to reduce your bill.

I'm not sure what we would need for school holidays TBH as it depends when DH has surgery. I think if it happened during summer I would have to just take leave for longer because although he wouldn't need to do school runs, I'm not sure he would be able to cope with the DCs running riot at home all day when he will be even less mobile than normal. DD will be ok but I would probably have to put DS in daycare or with a CM, obviously then my reduced hours wouldn't need to fit around school runs so I could do say 9-2 and use childcare for DS for that time.

Not knowing is horrible - I will try and find out as much as possible though. My mind is going crazy even more than usual just trying to think up all the possible situations :(

I'm in East Grinstead so not that far from you!!
Have you tried googeling childminders in Crawley? Quite a few of them have web sites

am going to search on the family information service thingy. not quite yet though as I'm snowed under with OU assignments