Finally going to register..a few questions

[Auntymandy]

How much an hour is the going rate?

Do you charge when you take the children to softplay,pictures,farm etc or do you pay for it?

do you charge for holidays?

Do you charge while they are at school/nursery?

1. there is no such as a going rate over the country - you havent said where you are?

2. You would charge for the hours worked normally the parents would pay for trips or you would include in your hourly rate. How often are you plannign on taking the children to the farm/cinema?

3. I charge while the parents are on holidays but not myself, some minders do charge for both, it is your business so you can do what you want but that doesnt mean that you could be full so you have to be reasonable.

4. Genreally charge whilst at nursery as it would take up a space of your but not for school as if they are sick you cant take them so no point being emergency contact unless parent work miles away etc.

Thanks Jelly
I am in Leeds.
Kind of doing a straw pole of charges.
Would do toddlers and soft play each week, I would expect to pay for it, but seems some child minders charge the parents!

Have you looked on cis? to give you an idea on cost. Some people who know that they will be full go to the childminders clubs which are alot cheaper so they can afford to pay for it out of thier own pocket, others cant because they could cost up to £3.50 per child.

what is cis?

Go to this site \link{http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp\childcarelink} and click on your area.

You will be able to see most of the registered childminders where you live and hopefully what they charge (some just say to contact local cis)

CIS is Child Information Service, the number for your local one will be on there as well. Once your registered they will send you a form to fill in and then they'll put your details on

Good luck with registering - what stage are you at?

www.childcarelink.gov.uk try this. Put in your postcode and follow the prompt. It will give you a list of childminders in your are so you can see what they charge and what they offer.

Im about to register in Leeds also whereabouts are you in Leeds?

Don't rely on all the information re. childminder charges listed on CIS lists being up-to-date or necessarily reflective of what the going rate is in your area though!

I don't charge parents for taking mindees out and about unless we go somewhere ultra-expensive and a child is only coming for that particular day (some of my school holiday children deliberately book the day parents know I plan a big outing!) I don't charge parents for any of my under 5s who come during the week (toddler group, soft play, music etc).

I certainly don't charge when they are at school because schoolchildren wouldn't be using a place you could otherwise "let".

I haven't yet charged whilst a child is at nursery as all my mindees have only ever done a full morning or full afternoon session, and I've not been responsible for both the drop-off and pick-up (just one or the other, and parents are happy for me not to keep the space open).

Fees
can be up to £6 per hour in London/city centres, much lower in more rural areas. Here in Cambs its around £3.20 - £4.50 per hour. Best to phone around, cis site can give you an idea but it probably won't be accurate.

Trips
If I do a trip I give parents a permission form listing cost of the day (eg, I might ask for admission fee but provide lunch), where we are going, what transport we are using, what time I hope to be back etc. For regular things like toddlers I pay and I choose when & if we go. If a parent asked me to go to a specific group I would ask parent to pay admission fee.

Holidays - I charge 1/2 fees for bank holidays, xmas & easter, full fees for parents holidays, £no fees for any other holiday I take. Some people charge 1/2 fees for all holidays.

Over fives School
I don't charge while at primary school.
Under Fives Preschool
If i take child to preschool & collect then I can't take anyone else in those 3 hours so parent pays me for the morning.
Or parent can have a half day & I charge from when I pick up at preschool but this means they don't have a morning place when the preschool is shut.

Thank you all for your help. I havent yet rung the under 8's to start the ball rolling, but promise myself I will do it before the end of next week!! :)
Life is hectic at the min!!!

\link{http://www.ncma.org.uk/\fees}
found this.
I was thinking of charging 3.50 per child and 2.50 for siblings what do you think?

where abouts in Leeds are you AM?

I don't do a reduction for siblings, some childminders do (and I charge £3.50/hour) Again, it is probably worth trying to find out what happens in your area. If work is scarce and it means the difference between getting work or not getting work, then I guess it's something you need to think about.

I get charged £1 less for second child - but it is made clear that the reduction is for the older child and not the younger, thus once eldest goes into nursery I can't say well you only charged me £2.50 and that's all I'm going to pay.

I'm grateful for the reduction as really can't afford the full rate, if I want to feel like I'm earning some pocket money too and not just working to pay the bills and childcare.

AM - I too do not give a reduced rate for a sibling - I have given this alot of thought recently as have had a couple of calls from families with two children. I came to the conclusion that if I did offer a reduction, I could not stretch to more than say 25p to 50p an hour for oldest child. If I were to give reduction of £1 ph for a child using a full time place based on a ten hour day, for me that would mean a loss of £200 per month. This is a big loss.

It can be very difficult for a parent to afford to pay for childcare for two children but equally difficult for a chilminder to afford to give a reduction too.

I can't even consider it

I can't say to m staff well fred & sam come from the same family so I'm only going to pay you £4.20 to look after them rather than the £5.20 you normally get - they'd leave

two children from the same family often need more supervision than two separate children as they have their sibling quarrels etc. And when they leave (which can always happen) you suddenly have 2 vacancies to fill (so you are on very little if any money at all- in a normal minding situation)