Looking after friends' children after school

[chicaguapa]

I have 2 friends whose children are about to start school in Sept and can't get them into the after-school club. So I was thinking of helping them out and getting a few pennies in the meantime.

DD is also starting school in Sept but a different school. Times work out ok to drop off and pick up at both. Both friends work Mon-Weds so it would only be 3 days a week from 8am to school time and from school time till 5pm. Plus DD is friendly with both and they are nice children. I also have DS who's 2 in Nov so I am a SAHM.

So my questions are: Is it as simple as picking them up and looking after them till their mums collect them? Do I have to register and how much would I get for doing it?

i do it informally
mon to wed till about 4 30 but not before shcool

the deal is this that she does what we do - if the boys are off to hte dentist she comes too etc
i said to ehr mumt hat i woudlnt be doing " activities" they woudl just haev a snack. play and wathc tv
best to be honest adn up fornt and also put in trial period in case it trunes out to be a pita

do you charge?

ahem

mayeb

My next question is: as I have DS 20mo I am only able to look after another 2 under 5s. One child will be 5 on 9th Oct and DD will be 5 on 24th Oct. The other child will be 5 in April. Is that something I need to check out? I would only have 4 under 5 for one month.

If you're doing it "informally", who knows?

If a 4 year old child is at school for 10 sessions a week(that is Mon -Fri mornings and afternoons)then they count as a 5 year old in your numbers .
HTH

If you are doing it for less than 2 hours a day you do not legally have to be registered as a childminder. Sounds like the hours would be more than 2 per day, so I would look into registering asap - I doubt you will be able to register by sept. It is Ofsted that inspect and register chilminders - enquire at your local childrens information service for details. even if you are doing less than 2 hours I would recommend registering - you can then get insurance to cover you if anything went wrong while the children were in your care. Regarding the numbers - yes cm's can only have a max of 3 children under 5 (may be stretched in special circumstances ny ofsted), but if a chuild is attending 10 sessions a week at school s/he is considered as 5 for the purposes of numbers.

Have now put my name down for an info session on 21st Aug. It's a bit annoying as I've already attended one of these but it was a couple of years ago so I have to go again. How much can it have changed? Can I apply for the OFSTED interview before then? CIS says no but I wondered if there was a way around it.

Obviously won't be registered in time for start of school anyway. Could I do it unofficially until I'm registered or is that a complete no no? Or maybe I could arrange to just cover 2 hours a day until I'm registered and get the parents to sort out the extra 45 mins in the short-term.

Can I also just check what to charge and how much after-school clubs cost?

Think you will have to do the info session first, I had to do a 10 wk course, too, sometimes you can do an intensive couple of weekends instead of 1 night a week. you could do the

OK. Thanks for the info. Would the parents get some rebate on what they pay me and would they also get this if their kids went to the after school club instead? I won't be taking on any more children so would probably just charge £3 per hour for 3 hours, rounded up from 2h45m to 3h. Would that be reasonable? I would also like to know what proportion of what they pay me, they'd get back anyway as it may equate to the same as the after-school club.

Would depend on what the parents earn as to whether they could get anything back - could get some % back from govt if they use minder or anhy other registered source I think - can be up to 70% of costs - they would have to look into that. I think £3 ph is perfectly reasonable. HTH

Thank you.

you need to register to do paid childcare

Having spoken to the mums we've agreed that I'll do it for free until I'm registered and they'll pay me a bit more when I'm charging to make up for it. Problem solved.