Charges while at school/preschool

[SeamusMacDubh]

Do childminders charge for the hours their charges are at school/preschool? I heard someone talking about this and it would really change my future work/childcare plans if this is generally how things work.

They do yes because they can't fill the place for a few hours whilst your child is at preschool

At school generally no, they will have a before and after school rate.

At preschool for just a couple of hours, generally yes. If you were called to collect your child from preschool, would you go, or expect the childminder to go? Each childminder sets their own charges though so you'd have to ask each one individually.

Some do, some don't. Our childminder didn't, she was hugely flexible.

Okay thanks

I charged for pre school not school. The children can do their funded hours with me though, so that makes fees cheaper.

Often they will charge for preschool as the child is taking up an under 5 space whether they are there or not. Also pre school is often only a few hours, not an entire day like school.
I’ve never heard of a childminder charging for the entire day whilst a child is at school as they count into different ratios.

Some do.Some don't.
I charge half fees because;
I can't fill that space with another child for such a short amount of time
Parents will still expect me to keep a space for them on teacher training days and school holidays
An hour of the time they are at preschool is actually spent walking home, then back again to collect them
However they claim funding so it's not much to actually pay out of their own pockets and I only charge before and after school once they are there full time.

Pre school is not compulsory and does not effect the acceptance into full time school. If money is an issue and your cm charges you consider using the funding with her as cm's can provide everything a preschool does.

When my son did half days at preschool I paid the childminder for those hours. When he did whole days she charged just for the before and after school hours.

I wouldn’t charge for a school age child while they were at school as I couldn’t fill the space as all the other children are also at school. If a child were at preschool and you wanted me to drop off/collect, I would probably want to put in some kind of fee for the time your child wasn’t with me as I could fill that space with someone else.

I have to pay while my little one is in school because I need the place to be there when the school is closed for holidays