After school care

[bumblingalongway]

How much do you charge per child per hour for after school care? We are in Hampshire if that makes a difference. And do you give a sibling discount?

No sibling discount. I charge the same as during the day per hour but with a two hour minimum from 3pm regardless of when school finishes.

I charge £7 before school inc breakfast, £18 after school inc tea or £21 for both. Some children use the full hours ie dropped at 7:30 collected after tea at 6pm and others come after breakfast or leave earlier but all pay the same - I'm always full despite being more expensive than after school club.

@Mymadworld is this until a set time after school?

I'm open 7:30am-6pm and if parents want to collect earlier they can, but it's the same price. Some always come at 6 others sometime after 5pm when they finish work/whatever they're doing. A few years ago I went part time but knew it would only work financially if I was at max capacity those 3.5 days. That means EYFS pay for minimum 9 hours & my 3 school places can't be taken up with the odd 1 or 2 hour slots. When my youngest starts secondary school in September I'm hoping to take on another school child to enable me to stay PT.

It took me a few years to get to this point so luckily built up a good reputation and there's reasonable local demand so usually have a waiting list or I probably couldn't afford to be so rigid and if I have to go back to more hours in future I will but it's bloody amazing having some time for myself and my own kids.

I’d strongly recommend using a flat fee for wraparound care for various reasons, otherwise you might get silly requests and arguments over different rates for holiday care, etc.

Never seen the point of sibling discounts, unless it’s just to cut your own throat. OTOH I could think of a good case for a sibling surcharge.

Please don’t get into the "price matching"game. It only serves to hold down fees at their current unsustainably low levels. Take a look at your costs and the income you need to achieve, and set your rates accordingly.

For wraparound care I recommend a flat rate. Adjust your rates accordingly. I would recommend my childcare provider but I know she does not want to travel outside Surrey. Her prices are reasonable so we don’t pay a sibling discount.
Forget about saving money here. After a careful examination of costs and income have realistic expectations. In my opinion a flat price eliminates any issues from the outset.