New childminder, advice on charges........

[warmsummersday]

Hi. I am a newly registered childminder in Essex. How much do you all charge per hour and for a 12 hour day during holidays for a 6 year old. Should I add on extra for food or should this be included in the charge? I had thought of £3.50/ £4 per hour before and after school and £33 for a full day. The full day will be 7.30am to 7.30pm.

Thanks for your help!

anyone?

Everyone charges differently. I am not in your area so can't tell you if your suggestion is reasonable. Have you looked at the other local childminders on your Childrens information service website? That should give you an idea

Some childminders choose to advertise a low hourly fee and then charge for 'extras', while others offer fully inclusive pricing. You need to think about how you are marketing your service, how you are making it different from the others - is offering a fully inclusive price to parents something that parents would like? Would that then make you seem expensive compared with others, if parents compare the hourly rate? What if you don't offer childcare by the hour, but instead only offer it as sessions - such as half day / full day. Lots of things to consider when deciding prices.

We live in a small rural village and when I started up I asked 2 childminders I already knew, how much they charged, they didn't mind telling me as I wasn't going to be taking business from them - demand higher than supply here! A friend who was my first 'customer' phoned a couple of others in the surrounding area to ask them and I then settled on an hourly rate (£3.50 then).

Since then I have increased it to £4 for a regular mindee (whose parents suggested the increase ) and have charged £3.75 for a baby I minded for 2.5 months on a short term contract. WHat I'm trying to say is you can advertise 'average fee of £x' and after you've got a mindee or 2, see how the income is, you can always increase the fee for new ones? Something I remember my ICP course instructor saying was you don't have to have the same rate for all mindees, it's your business so you set the rates! And you can increase yearly like most wages increase eg with inflation. Our course instructor said she put up her fee by 10p per hour each year.

Hence I have a regular mindee on £4 (for whom I do a diary too) and ad-hoc mindees who are children of friends still on £3.50 (as they don't get diaries), and at the moment I'm doing one afternoon a week to cover the child's regular childminder having an afternoon off (long story, she's a friend too!) and that's at £4 too to match the regular childminder!

Hope this helps! Good luck and don't forget Mumsnet, I've found it a great source of info 'from the horse's mouth' so to speak!

Oh and my fee includes food but only breakfast or lunch, eve meal £1 extra. Am considering making food separate charge, but this will be for any new ones who come along!

charge £45 per day all inclusive for holidays, no less (as thats a very long day !) and £4.50 ph term time. thats the rate in my area (surrey) dont sell yourself short. good luck

I charge 3.25ph at the moment going to 3.40 after Christmas, it is all inclusive apart from nappies.

I couldn?t be bothered with charging different prices for different mindees, especially as a lot have gone from being full time from babies to after schools now.

Hi

My childminder charges £8 per hour plust £4 per hour during the holidays [I don't use her in the school holidays but she still charges half fees]. My child is 5, and is collected from school & I supply tea. I'm based in Surrey.

Is this reasonable? It seems a little high to me.

Also I'd expected the childminder to interact with my child a little more rather than TV & sent out in the garden to play. I know children can be tired after school, but I thought the childminder would do a little more than just 'mind that the child is safe'. Are my expectations unrealistic? - I'm looking for a childmindr who is young at heart & enjoys having fun with the children. Am suggestions? I'm a single mum who works full time in the Farnham/Frensham/Dockenfield areas of Surrey

I used to nanny in Rowledge, so close to your area. £8 per hour seems a bit high, but if you are only having after-school care then I would expect that there may be a minimum charge. I would have expected local prices per hour to be around the £5 per hour mark... but in the smaller villages this could rise as there may only be one or two childminders in the village.

A 5 year old after school may not want to do much other than watch TV alas. The 4 year old I care for came home from her first day at school and all she wanted was to watch a DVD and eat fruit. Once she had rested for about an hour (at one point she almost dropped asleep), she then bounced-back, got changed and went played outside. Last thing children want to do when they get home from school, is to do more school work. Older children certainly may have homework to do, but younger children just need time to chill out in my view.