Childminders - what’s normal?

[lornathewizzard]

So I’ve been a SAHM for nearly 4 years and thinking about getting back to work. We have DD 3.9 and DS 1.9

I’ve no experience of this and don’t really know where to start. DD is in preschool til August 2019 5 days a week for 3hrs a day. I don’t want to move her because she’s settled and it’s attached to the school she will go to.

I contacted a local childminder via fb today to get an idea of local rates, all good but wanted to check two things -

1. she said she can do nursery pick up/drop off etc but will need to charge for the 2.5hrs she is away to keep her place - is this normal?

2. no mention of any sort of sibling discount - I’ve heard this mentioned in reference to nursery’s and kind of assumed childminders would offer something - how common is it?

I obviously don’t know hours needed or anything until I’ve actually got a job so just trying to scope it out and feel a bit blind about it all. Any help would be appreciated.

1. Absolutely normal IME. How could they fill that space for 2.5hrs? They are also on call if child needs to be picked up early for any reason.

2. I've never had a sibling discount at a childminders. They tend to be (much) cheaper than a nursery so I wouldn't expect one.

• Have you researched if your DP/DH/DW or you can get any tax saving on childcare fees? This saves us £78 per month.

Everyone sets their own rates. Contact a couple more to see what's standard in your area

point 1, yes it's common practice. When your child is at pre-school, the childminder can't get an extra child for that specific time, nor can she get gov. funding as the funding will go to the nursery (funded 15 hours of childcare).

Point 2 - it depends on the childminder. I do offer a 10% discount to siblings, but each childminder and nursery is free to set their own fees.

We are private companies and there is no universal standards. Every childminder is free to set up her own terms and conditions.

Everyone’s different but I would be the same as the cm you contacted.

Reasons being- I can’t fill those 2.5 hrs, you will need them in holidays or when preschool is shut, also it is far more hassle to do drop offs and pick ups than just to have a child all day.

I don’t give sibling discount, they cost the same to feed, entertain and they take two spaces. They are often harder work (arguing etc) and more of a financial risk if they leave. I’m not amazingly paid anyway, I can’t afford to discount just because you decided to have two children.

Ok thanks everyone, makes sense. As I say I’m a total newbie to this.

And yes Charityhallet I’ve had a quick look at a benefits calculator and we should get something back (based on my estimates of pay/hours etc) so that will help as otherwise I would be in the negative. Thanks

And I hadn’t thought about holidays so yes that definitely makes sense

I don't offer siblings discount for preschoolers no. I only have 3 preschooler places due to ratios. I really can't afford to discount one of them. I offer discounts for older kids though where I can have more of them.

Hiya Lorna,

I don't mean benefits you would find on a benefit calculator, I mean that many employers use childcare vouchers or a newer scheme called tax free childcare (I'm not as familiar with this) which are salary sacrifice schemes. Basically £243 per month from my DH's salary goes into a pot to pay the childcare but the difference to his net salary is £165 but we have £243 to spend on childcare. However if you are eligible for working tax credits childcare element, you may have to work out which is best for you as I don't think you can claim both.

Ah thanks Charityhallet I get you now. It’s such a mine field. I think I would need to apply for universal credit to get the equivalent of working tax credits so you’re right I’m not sure if the tax free scheme is applicable. But yes I will definitely check it out

If you can do drop off, and are prepared to be the one on-call during nursery hours, your childminder would only do pick up and only charge for the hours they have your child. Depends how feasible the arrangement is for you, plus obviously there are the holidays to consider. I expect it might be harder to find a childminder for half days - although I did, and several friends did too.

I'm also looking for the infos about this one, thank you for posting this and for those who replied their advices on this thread :)

I would charge for the full day and not give a sibling discount. As others have said, you might find another CM with a different offer.

niceberg ....If a child was dropped at nursery I would still charge from 9 as the parent wants those hours to be available when nursery is shut and the time can not be filled by another child. The only answer to this would be to use funding with me not sending to nursery.

Fair enough jannier but I’m just making the point that not all childminders do that. Mine didn’t. And others who pick up from nursery at my school don’t either. So it’s worth OP putting feelers out if that would be better for her.

Thanks everyone