CM - what would you think of this?

[DooDumms]

I'm thinking of using a CM for 2 days and putting dc2 in nursery for the other 2 days. The reason is because while I thought the CM was lovely and the setting fab, she is really expensive and will have 4 weeks full pay of annual leave (previous CM did 2 weeks paid, 2 weeks unpaid which I thought was fair).

I asked if she would take dc2 part time and she said yes but she may have thought this was due to me going back part time (long story but I will start back part time but will probably have to return eventually full time)

Would you be massively offended, should I be honest with her and say it's the expense but also the leave (in this instance it would actually be that she said she takes 4-6 weeks but it's generally only 4 weeks per year, I can't be left paying two lots of childcare for that duration)

I think honesty is the best policy. And if I am honest with you I think that four weeks' full pay of annual leave is taking the micky. She is paid for not working? I am a child minder and self employed and I wouldn't dream of charging for my time off.

I would just be honest. One setting would be better though. Why not just use nursery. I understand you're not using just cm due to cost.

As a cm, I'd rather you be honest and give me the chance of maybe being a little more flexible with the fees. X

It's up to you what you tell her, it's not really any of her business why you only want to use her for two days a week. However, I would probably just be honest, and say it's because of the expense, she may be willing to negotiate a little if she knows the reason.

However, I don't agree that it's taking the mickey to charge full pay for holidays, after all, most people who are employed get paid leave, I don't really see why CMs should be different. It's probably swings and roundabouts anyway, those who don't charge for holiday may possibly charge a slightly higher fee when they do work.

I'd just use the nursery, especially as she is expensive anyway (the argument for self employed childminders taking paid leave us usually that their hourly charges are lower than those who don't.
Self employed people don't get paid holiday - it's taking the mickey.

Childminders are different because they are self employed. Employees who get paid holiday have colleagues who provide the service to clients/customers whilst they are off or the business/factory closes during shutdown in which case clients are not being charged.

A parent is a client, not an employer. If they wanted to be an employer & pay holiday/sick pay etc they would employ a nanny not use a childminder.

I thought the deal with CMs is that if you take holiday you still pay, because they can't fill the space, but you don't pay for their holiday. Having paid holiday is one of the criteria HMRC look at for self-employment.

You do need to tell her you intend to use a nursery as well as there is a requirement for settings to work together so I would tell her.

Holidays she can charge for them in anyway she likes there is no debate about it. Annualise the cost and work it out as a weekly charge to see if the positives about her offer outweigh the negatives. As a rule of thumb 8 days paid at a full time 40 hours a week works out at around £2.50 on a £5 ish hourly rate....less than a cup of costa. Only you can decide if its value for money
There is no law that says she cant charge as she's self employed, in the same way any other self employed is not bound to only have a set number of clients a day, compete with free childcare offered by the state or accept state determined rates lower than the living wage (some areas pay £3 an hour funding which after costs is less than the £7.50 rate even if you have 3 children on it), Nor do they compete with illegal uninsured workers...child-minding has nothing in common with any other self employed business.

Childminders are self employed - therefore not entitled to paid leave. Writing as a childminder!

I would definitely be questioning the paid leave.

My cm charges me full pay for any holiday I take but nothing for her holidays - I try to take mine at same time as her most of the time

I don't charge for leave. Others do. You can't really question it if it is their normal terms of business. You can simply decide whether the cost over the year is acceptable or not.

Generally speaking, if a CM doesn't charge for their AL, then their hourly/daily/weekly/monthly rate is going to be a bit higher to compensate. So you end up paying {say} £10,000 spread over 12 equal monthly payments with one, or,, with the other, you still pay £10,000 across the year, but it's a bit higher each month with no holiday, and then you only pay 1/2 on the month they take a fortnight off with the other. Personally I always thought it easier to go for the 12 equal months, for my own budgeting, as well as theirs.
You won't get a true picture just comparing hourly or daily costs.

I wouldn't mind her being paid for AL if her hourly rate wasn't so high already. I can't afford to pay her rate and then possibly another CM if we cant overlap holidays.

This is why I stopped using CM; trying to cover 6 weeks holiday a year, always in the school holidays, providing food, shorter working days than nursery.

Ended up using nursery care for a 51-week service & same cost as CM, plus food, nappies included. It was a no-brainer.

In your situation, I would just go with the nursery and that's coming from someone who had her DS at a CMs and was very happy with it.

I think it would be hard for your dc2 to adjust to two separate forms of childcare - there will be different rules and ways of doing things in both places, so if you're a bit reluctant due to the CM expenses then just going with the nursery seems the obvious thing to do.

rookiemere - 6 weeks my I wish never had more than 4 including Christmas and bank holidays in 20 years...do your children really do more than 12 hours a day in childcare ? Its not unusual for a cm to work 7am to 7pm so often cover longer hours than the nursery.

I have heard a few cm's say they don't charge so they can have as much holiday as they like, but I do think its very rare as who would want to use someone who was never available....unless its term time only.

Firstly work it out over a year... I do term time contracts for those who want it because it suits me... I don't charge more but do know C.minders who charge more to cover holidays.
I would also want to know..Ofsted want communications between settings....I also want an honest relationship with my parents..

Jannier - not sure why you're asking me my working hours, but when DS was in the CMs it was from 8 -5 most days. I think you may have confused me with sauvignon

Our CM didn't charge for holidays, but I suppose it's dependant on what part of the country you work in and what the other CMs are doing.

FWIW I was very happy with our CM and pleased that DS was not in a nursery setting. The point I was trying to get across is that I think it would be the worst of both worlds for OP's DCs to be in two forms of childcare - she'd be better opting for one or the other and as the nursery appears to be cheaper and she has some misgivings over the way the CM structures her charging then the nursery in this instance seems to be the way to go.