Is this normal

[Immigrantsong]

Sorting out childcare for my DC as maternity leave finishes soon and have found a wonderful childminder for both my 5 year old and baby, but she only offers full year care for the baby even though I am an academic and want half terms and summers with them. She didn't mention this until I asked and not sure what to do now as she was the best option: able to do morning and after school care for the eldest and have baby too in one place. Any advise? Her reason was that she needs to pay her staff for the full year.

Yes, it is usual. The baby will be taking up a valuable under 1 or under 3 space and it is unlikely she can fill that space in school holidays whereas she might fill an rising 5 space with a parent only wanting school holidays.

Some childminders do offer term time only, or charge a retainer, but they are not obliged to.

You are paid in the school holidays even though you don't have any pupils, so the same should happen for her. It's her job and livelihood.

I'm amazed that you would not understand this.

Totally normal.

Yes, you need to pay to keep your baby's space open year-round, or your CM will have to find another child in order to maintain her income.

I doubt you'd find a CM who would be happy to do otherwise.

Thank you all. The reason for asking is because I used a nursery with my first. I know from friends that use childminders that theirs offer term time or if not they don't charge the full fee, just 50 percent. The one I chose obviously doesn't do this, so was interested in confirming whether that's normal. That's all. Thank you again.

I am a childminder and do term time contracts as it means I get more time with my dc so works for me.
Childminders are self employed though so can set up whatever works for them.

I’m a cm and don’t offer termtime only contracts for little ones. They are the main source of my income and I couldn’t afford to loose a quarter of that pay over the year (13 out of 52 weeks is holidays).
I only offer term time only contracts for school age children, with the option of them coming in the holidays if they want too. My plan with this was because I thought they would all go to the cheaper sports club meaning my holidays weren’t as mad busy, but they all seem to prefer me and happily pay the more expensive bill (sidetracked there sorry).
We all do differently. I know cms who charge higher fees for term time only and still charge a retainer.
Personally I think it’s lovely if your dc can be together at childcare. I find they both get excited about collecting/being collected by their sibling and it’s nice for them to have the shared time together which they wouldn’t get if they were at a nursery.

My childminder works term time only because she has her own children that are school aged so she doesn’t have space for mindees in the holidays. I’m sure you will find others who work like this.

I'm a CM. I'm open all year. I've just taken on a child who only needed term time care, but I'm charging all year. I have told her parents they can use the space any time they want to in the holidays. I also made them aware I take holidays during term time. There are Childminders local to me who do term time only contracts.

Thank you all very much. I appreciate your replies and things are clearer now.