Retainer fees- should I be able to use those hours?

[egginacup]

My CM charges a 50% retainer fees over the school holidays, which I do understand. I use her term time only as I am a teacher.

However I've asked her to do a couple of days in the holidays and she wants to charge for this on top of the retainer fee- that doesn't seem fair to me as I'm already paying her for way more than the hours she's actually doing. Does that sound right?

I would think you would pay the extra 50% on the days you usr

My cm charges a retainer for the holidays too, and has always encouraged us to send dd for a day or two each week covered by the retainer fee.

I have no idea if that's normal though, sorry.

Surely a retainer is usually to keep the hours open, so they should be available for you to use, but the key here is what your contract says about this.

The hours should be available, but you should expect to pay the other 50% for any hours used. It isn't your childminders fault you don't use all the hours and ultimately you are taking up a space.

You are paying 50% for each day/hour as a retainer fee. So, for example, if you normally pay £5 per hour,, you are now paying 2.50 per hour, so technically although over the week, you would be paying enough to cover enough care for 2 days, because you are retaining a place for the whole week, you would need to pay more.

I'm happy to pay the 50% but the extra hours I have asked over the holidays add up to way less than 50% so I don't see why I should pay the 50% and then more on top! Can't find my contract

It's exactly like Maryann1975 said.

You are missing the point egg. Say for example you are paying for 5 days a week, 8 hours a day at £2 an hour (50%). During that time, the childminder is keeping a space open for your child. So whilst she could get another child to fill that space and pay £4 an hour 8 hours a day, 5 days a week she is actually accepting a much lower rate just to keep it open for you. The benefit is that she obviously isn't often required to look after your child, however she still can't fill the space.
She is ALREADY doing you a big favour by reducing all those hours to only earning £2 when she could be getting £4.
Personally I charge full free during holidays and then whether the parent wants to use them or not is up to them.
She is giving you the option of using them, but then obviously she couldn't be expected to still be working for £2 an hour.
The point is she can't fill the space, whether you use it or not so no matter how much it adds up to, she could be getting full fee from someone else.

Do you mean you are paying 50% of usual hours ( so let's say usually 15 hours a weeks at £4 an hour but you are paying £2 an hour retainer which is equivalent to 7.5 hours.). You are asking for 7 hours a week and she is charging you more? Or are you meaning you are asking for say 10 hours and being asked for more?

Normally she does school drop off and pick up. My contract ended in June so didn't need her in July so she charged me the retainer fee for July and Aug. However she did a couple of ad hoc days for me in July when I needed to go into my new school where I am starting in Sept. Same hours she would normally do. I thought this would be covered by the retainer but she says not.

Doglikeafox I think you have misread the OP first message. She says the CM wants to charge her per hour plus the retainer in the holidays so she would be paying 150% for the hours she uses.

Change, when I read her posts further down this didn't appear to be the case. And she didn't disagree with those mentioning the 'other 50%'.

If you are using the retaining fee to pay for actual hours used, then the cm is no longer receiving enough money to cover the retainer for the hours unused.

You are entitled to use the retained hours if you top up the fee, but this isn't a 'credit' for you to choose any hours you want to use as long as it comes to less than what you are paying. It doesn't work like that.

I have a term time only client and I charge a 50% retainer in school holidays too. I am kindly keeping the space open for half of what I could charge a year round client. The space is there for them to use should they wish but then normal service (full fee) applies.

Should my term time client want me to mind hours outside of the ones contracted one's then full fees apply for those hours too. However it would be unusual to have space because of full ratios.

If you normally pay £4 per hour for 30 hours then in the holidays your retainer is £2 for 30 hours. The CM is keeping those 30 hours available for your child.

If you want to use 8 of those hours you will pay the full fee of £4 for the hours you use, plus the £2 retainer fee for the other 22 hours you're not using

It's not about whether the total amount of full time hours is less than the total amount of the retainer. The CM is still retaining the place so needs to be paid the retainer fee for every hour she's retaining for you. Then any hours you do use need to be paid at full price.

I would charge you full fee for the whole holidays. With the retainer, as others have said, you need to pay full fee for the days you use.

If its a Pacey contract this is clearly explained on the notes for retainers.

If you start at your school but term is delayed for any reason such as your DBS not coming through so they offer you half pay leave until it comes through then call you in for a training session meaning you then incur costs like childcare and travel would you be happy to do it for no extra money? Particularly if it meant that you would loose money for the hours you were in working due to your expense?

A term time only contract means 14 weeks on reduced pay for a school child that also means 14 weeks of the normal increased earnings for full time care are lost...so if you normally use 15 hours a week her keeping that space for you means she is unlikely to fill the rest of the weeks space....6 hours a day 30 hours money a week.

£5/hour & 15 hours normal week = £ £75
£5 for addition 6 hours school holiday cover £30/day = £150 a week
Income from your retainer = £37.50 a week

Loss of earnings if she takes 4 weeks term time ££1875 a year .....

She may of course be able to fill the space if she does she cant ask for a retainer.....but this has happened to me for 2 weeks in 25 years .

I guess its why term time only is so hard to get in many areas.

My ten cents: I think retainer fees are fair and needed. Might not be affordable for all but a good nanny needs this security - talking from experience