Childminder fees

[NickNacks]

A little bit of research about how much you pay (or charge) for childminding and where you live -if you can help that would be great.

I'm in Berkshire and currently charge £43.50 per day fully inclusive. I have a new boy starting with me and he's moving from a nursery that charge £66! I'm gobsmacked and started researching locally to find cms only 3 miles away charging £58. I've hardly changed my rates in the 8 years I've been doing in and when I last did my research I was on about the same as my competitors. When did they all start shooting up and what should I do? A friend has suggested people might feel I provide an inferior service and won't even bother coming to visit.

I'm in South East London and our cm recently increased her rate from £50 to £60. Nurseries around here are about £74.

Nurseries are always going to be more expensive than childminders. We pay £4 an hour here - SE - and we provide our own food and when they were younger we provided nappies/wipes.

I charge £4.25 ph (no day rate, just however many hours they need) but I only look after over 5s. You could not pay me enough money to look after toddlers

North west here:
My DS's former CM charged £25 per day - we provided food/nappies.

Local nursery charges £31 p/d for preschoolers and friend of a friend charges about the same for CM

What would you all think about a cm charging considerably less than others? That it was a lesser quality service?

£6 an hour including all food is the average in Herts (London commuterville)

I had a CM before that charged less but she was new, and I think we ended up staying on those rates, and she didn't provide food.

I also had a phone conversation with a potential CM who charged such a low fee (I think it was about £4ph) and something about the whole set up just didn't ring quite right for me.

If you're full then its clearly not a problem - but then you could also be missing out on some more money!

This may not help you but my 10 and 6 year olds have termtime before and after school care that costs £6 per child per hour in the morning and £4 in the afternoons. In school holidays it's £25 per child per day. We are in Warwickshire.

I'm not that precious as they are a bit older but if I had a toddler and you were markedly cheaper then I'd wonder why...but I didn't base the whole decision on money and I'd consider other things as well.

When we used to use childminders I would be suspicious if one was much cheaper than the rest. As it was, there used to be a quite a range. I would meet any who could accommodate our needs before taking the DC to meet the ones that I thought were possibilities. Price alone would not be a deciding factor

I am a childminder.. I tend to keep my children on the same rate and increase my rates with new children in line with other Childminder increases..

Why do the job for less than the going rate ?

Youngest DD left nursery in 2013 so couple of years out of day. Nursery was £63 a day, childminders about £50 a day (standard hrs, more if you want flexibility).

We have an after school nanny now and she's £10 per hour.

I think I'd just ask the question as to why your rates were lower but I wouldn't automatically assume you offered an inferior service.

I'm in the NW.

I think people do equate cost with quality. My DP will never buy the cheapest thing on an Amazon search, he goes for highest ratings! I'm sure he'd be the same with a CM, he'd presume there was something wrong with a cheap one, that nobody wanted to pay the going rate.

he goes for highest ratings!

Ironically then I was graded ofsted outstanding this year and have been full for 4 years. I don't have any very local cms to compare rates too as I'm only one in our village. I socialise with cms in the next town over where they have obviously kept up with each other's rises and I've been left way behind and not noticing. I couldn't put it up for current mindees but won't get any more new ones for a while. I would then feel guilty that one mindee is paying more than the rest! I'm so crap at the business side of this job!!

I'd put in a small, across the board increase. Maybe only up to £45 if you really don't want to put things up massively.
Everything has increased in price over 8 years. You need to increase prices, as your making less now than you were (paying more for food, supplies etc).
It would depend how much cheeper you were how I would view it. Nurseries are nearly always more expensive, but if you were £43, most people in the £50-something and nursery £66, I would wonder what you weren't doing.

Berkshire £60/ day all inclusive. I put it up for new people, not existing ones. I did this once before when I changed from hourly rates to daily rates. It naturally balances out over time, as children go off to school etc. The new family know they are paying a higher rate and know it will be the same for anyone else who is coming along. They saw it as a positive that I didn't suddenly hike up everyone else's rates. I think it gave them security that it wouldn't happen to them.

I do carry out a rate review each year though, so hopefully I won't fall behind market rates.

When I was in sw London it was £90 per day for nursery (per child). The childminders round there charged a similar price , maybe slightly less like £80 a day.

You do need to review your prices even for current mindees though, nothing wrong with saying in the new year, or in April that you are increasing by xx amount in line with inflation (work out what that is if you feel more comfortable or just add 25-50p an hour to bring you up in line with others. I agree that your OFSTED rating says more about you than your rates, but in that case there is even more reason to charge a higher rate.

It varies hugely according to area, as previous postz have shown, so maybe check your local competitors?

We are in deprived inner London and childminders are around £50-60 per day, including food, but not nappies or wipes. Nurseries are cheaper (but mostly grim)

In south Wales, childminders are actually more expensive than nurseries. Eg nursery is £35 a day, childminder £45 a day

I'm in West Sussex and put my fees up in September to £5.20 ph from £5 ph & hadn't increased them for 3 years. I usually give around 3 months notice for increase of fees, so you could either put yours up across the board in April in line with the tax year or in September in line with the school year. I tend to do mine in September as I care for quite a few school age children so review and or take on new children around that time most years. I include all food, wipes, nappies outings etc in my fees.

South east London. My childminder charges £65 per day all inclusive of everything except nappies and wipes.

Currently charge £50 per day from 8am-6pm includes nappies, wipes and snacks and meals are extra. Have just sent out 3 months notice of fees increase to £55 per day includes lunch and morning/afternoon snack and wipes and nappies. Will not be providing breakfast or dinner anymore as it is too much of a rush and too much food wasted! Am in East London

We're in Surrey and charge £6.50 an hour.
We provide everything: meals, nappies, wipes etc. There are no charges for outings or extras and we don't charge late fees or overtime if a parent is running late.

This is all really helpful thanks!

I can't really put my prices up until next September as they've just gone up this past September from £40. Next year I'll put them up to £45 and any newbies will go on £50/£52 depending how I feel I can justify it at the time.