Thinking of becoming after school childminding provider?

[Flowersonthewall]

Hi
Looking for a bit of advice I keep coming to the idea of becoming an after school provider. I know a lot of parents near me struggle to find after school care. The school does provide an after school club but it has its issues!
Do people think this is workable? I already do some work at home for a small business but this is admin and is doable during the day. I have 3 children who are all at primary/nursery so have good links with many parents and school.
Does anyone else do this? What would I charge? I was thinking £5 an hour per child.
I think I'd have to set up as a childminder because I'd imagine I'd have children under 8 and for longer than 2 hours. The other thought is I wouldn't do holidays as there are lots of options around here.
Any thoughts would be gratefully received! Thanks
Oh and I'm a trained primary school teacher!

Well, I am sure that you will be full! A few quick thoughts:

Transport: how will you be getting children home?

Will you provide food?

What will your hours be? Policy for late charges?

Will you take children to after school activities?

Look at your local authority website for details of any training they offer for childminders. Also PACEY website.

Ofsted website for registration info.

Hope that helps.

The other thing to consider is going bigger and setting up an after school club in rented premises, possibly on a school site.

That would be ‘childcare on non-domestic premises’ for registration purposes. However, you would need to employ and manage staff to make this work.

Most childminders charge per session for after school rather than per hour.

Otherwise you may get someone who only wants say 3:30-4:30 and only pays you £5 but takes up a space that you could have had someone 3:30-6:30pm fill and earn more money.

Also bare in mind your own 3 children count in your ratios. You can only look after 6 under 8’s at once and only 3 can be under 5.

Thanks for the quick replies

I live within a 5 minute walk from school so that wouldn't be an issue as I'd just walk them there and back and I'd expect parents to pick them up from mine.

I would be happy to provide a meal probably keep it straight forward and feed my own children at the same time!

I'd pick up from school activities which would mean 2 pick ups so could be disruptive to other mindees I suppose?
I don't think I'd take them to other classes though...

Good point re charging... what sort of flat fee?

Lots to consider!

It can be viable. In many ways it's more cost-effective than EY care because you'll spend far less time doing unpaid hours on paperwork.

A lot will depend on the supply/demand balance in your area. This will influence if it will work, and what you have to do to make it work in terms of price, Ts&Cs, times, etc.
eg. You say there are a lot of holiday care options near you. That might mean people will use you in term time and go elsewhere for holiday care, leaving you with lots of time off (heh, don't look now, but your Inner Teacher is showing .) But, conversely, it could mean people don't use your service because they can get the whole package, including holiday care, from someone else.

Half the childminders in my village only do wraparound care; although this does include holiday care. Another quarter do mainly wraparound care, but will consider providing some EY care for a younger sibling as this can often be a deal breaker for parents with one child at school and a younger sibling.

As others have said, you could have 3 more children under 8. Don't underestimate the challenges of walking to and from school with 6 children and keeping them all safe. A sessional fee is sensible. I would avoid doing 2 pickups including after school clubs, otherwise when will you fit in tea. You could consider offering an after school snack rather than a meal so they go home for tea.

I started last year providing wraparound care with my other half and live 5 minutes away from the local school. We are fortunate that we both took early retirement and have small pensions.We charge £4.50 an hour and provide free snacks. The upside of working together is that if one of us feels ill the other one can cope alone.
The demand is huge and there are not enough childminders to do drop offs and pick ups -- we already have a waiting list for September '19 and despite there being an after school provision it isn't popular with a lot of parents and children. We have avoided getting in to doing a second school pick up as it would be one hour later and apart from causing mayhem if we are on our own it couldn't be done. I do spend a lot of time in the shops buying after school snacks but it's part and parcel of the role. At times we feel like referees,child psychologists,marriage guidance counsellors and safeguarding officers (nothing serious) but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Have two of your children invite a friend over for after-school play... so you have 5 children to get from school to home. Bit like a trial run, see how that goes. Do that a few times and you can then decide if it's viable to do as a business. There can certainly be quite a lot of demand for after-school care, also before school.

In theory it sounds like a good idea, however in practice....will it work as you already have your own 3. I would not like to have the responsibility of walking more than 3 across roads on busy mornings, but I am assuming you wont have to.
How will you get DBS checked as you need one and I think I read somewhere that it takes many months to go through the registration process and you need to do a first aid course etc.

Thank you for all your comments lots to consider! Xx

@nannynick I like the idea of trialing play dates that's a very good idea! X

What would you do if one or more of your kids was sick? Proper throwing up so you couldn't do pick up for your own well children, let alone others. Do you have a contingency plan?
I'm assuming you could ask a friend or relative to get your kids but it would be tricky with others.
Also if you were ill?

Childminders must have a way round this but no idea what.

Similar issues with appointments after school, doctors, dentist, opticians etc. You could take all your kids but could you take another 3 too?

Also if you are full, your children can't have friends over to play. I always used to keep a spare space for friends.

I could probably make this work in my area. There is an after school club at our school, and although it is popular with parents, a lot of the children don’t want to go and I have lots of enquiries from their customers. However, my general rule is if they haven’t used me for the eyfs, I won’t take them once they get to school and I am happy with that descion.
I would think you are more than capable of keeping 6 children safe walking to and from school. I walk back some days with 2 over 8s, 3 school age and 3 under school age. So 8 in total and it’s fine. It’s about a mile to walk home too. All the children know my rules and I keep them under control. (It makes one of the teachers laugh as I keep my 8 under far better control than some of the people collecting just one dc).
I wouldn’t worry about appointments, you would just make them for during the day time.
I only pick up at school finish time. I don’t go back, not even for my own children (who get their grandparents to collect them if they do a club). It’s too complicated to go back out and disrupts the whole session I’ve found.

I find after school quite stressful, but it really helps financially which is why I still do it. If you can get the children, and don’t need to make a full time income, I can’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work for you.

What are the problems with the after school clubs do you think? Could you do what you think they're not doing better? Would you charge the same as them?

Flowers, my childminder does before/after school and holiday care only. I pay £26 per day for before/after school which includes breakfast and a hot meal after school. In holiday time it's £5.50 per hour + a charge for meals on top.