Help me work out this childcare situation?

[Katlow]

I know there will be a logical solution to this but I can't get my head round how it will work.

So I am currently pregnant, early days at 17 weeks but going to be having the maternity leave conversation with work soon so want to have my head straight before then as I may have to go part time.

I work Monday to Friday 8-5. My partner works 4 on 4 off.

I'm going to be taking the full 12 months maternity leave but after that, baby will have to go into childcare.
Obviously, my husband will be able to care for them for 2-4 days a week, depending on when his shift falls.
The ideal situation would be if Childminders would be willing to do 4 on 4 off, excluding weekends as I'll be off then. (I have no idea if this is a thing as I'm a FTM).
In my head I'm thinking - surely that wouldn't be an option for them as they would be unable to take other kids who might have a simpler schedule? So I don't think it would work out in their best interest to do that.

I'm thinking, am I just going to end up having to pay for a full week child minding, regardless of whether my husband is at home just to cover every eventuality? I'm not sure how it all works. My husband would also WANT to care for our baby if he was off so I don't think he'd like being sat at home twiddling his thumbs while baby was off at the childminders.

Also, how much on average (I know that this won't be the same, just after a ball park figure so I can start to tot up whether its worth me going part time) does a childminder cost for a full working week or per day in the north west?

Thanks for your help!

Yes, you’d likely be paying for full time childcare but not always using it. It’s quite common and I did the same.

I don't think many childminders would agree to that pattern, but its worth ringing round or asking friends for word of mouth recommendations, but agree, yes you're probably going to end up paying for a full week. If you're near a hospital say or somewhere that has lots of people potentially on shifts, you might have more luck.

I think cost wise it depends where you are in the NW. Here its about £50 on average a day, some higher some a bit lower.

I am a nanny and work a lot of nanny shares, sometimes a family needs all year round and the others only need term time. Often the ones who need term time only pay all year round as the other family can't afford to pay me on their own in the holidays. You'd be amazed at how many say 'we may use the odd day in the holiday but it won't be much as we want to spend time with them' but in reality, I get them all year round. Of course it may not happen in your case, but in my experience, the parents just need a break too.

Thanks for your replies!

@Hugosmugo Ooo I've never even heard of nanny shares! I'm off to google how they work now :)

We both work shifts (I'm a midwife, husband is an a&e doctor). Our son goes to a childminder on flexi days. So days he goes it is £50 and we pay a retainer of £25 per day that he doesn't go. I work 24 hours so ds usually goes 3 days per week. He started aged about 10 months and absolutely loves it, he talks about his childminder all of the time! Usually if one of us is off we will look after him but probably two days a month he goes even though one of us is off. At the moment it is his only external source of stimulation and gives us chance to catch up at home/sleep after nights etc.
I realise we are very very lucky but it is worth asking around. Good luck! X

Nurseries will often work around shift patterns, especially those near hospitals, etc? Nurseries local to us offer flexi rates which are more expensive per hour than their fixed slots, but mean that nursing staff, etc., can book for a month at a time when they have their rotas.

A nanny share may work but may not. Basically 2 families share 1 nanny. You may be lucky and find another family who can afford a nanny on their own and then you split the cost on the days you send your little one. Typically a nanny will get paid X amount for 1 family and then when they have 2 families they get a few pounds more an hour but this is split between the 2 families.

Childcare is a minefield, I sympathise!

Childminders can be quite flexible, I paid my cm for full time but this included contact time with his dad ( he was unreliable so having cm gave me peace of mind). I continued to pay full time for several years, however during this time my fees were not increased, which I believe was because of me paying extra hours.

Have a ring round. We both work in the NHS on shifts and found a few childminders and nurseries could offer flexitime. As others have said the price per hour was higher but overall cheaper than putting him in nursery full time.

All nursery's in my area work around shift patterns. I only know as there used to be a generic email sent out each month asking for people shifts or they wouldn't be booked in

We use school wrap around now and they are willing to accommodate too.

I am a childminder and would consider this if it was a fixed shift pattern. I like being quieter now and again. I’d probably charge a little extra on the day rate as a retainer for the unused days.

We could arrange time a month in advance with our childminder as long as she knew that child would be attending a set amount of days a week (just for reassurance in income which I totally get) but it didn't matter which days these were as long as the month before we let her know x

Also don't underestimate your need for a day to yourself/selves once your back at work (&also do t feel bad for it).
Routine is also important for LO in regards to external childcare aswell I've found, if possible, so I'd encourage you to try and keep some of that even if it means hubby or you do have days off without them, you can always pick them up early. Plus they enjoy the change x

I've had shift workers we look at their shift requirement first then as I'm happy to have quieter days we agree a minimum number of days a week when the shift requires parent pays the extra. Ive also had some parents who just want care on any day I can do it and they are happy to move days around the other families shift.

I work shifts that change each week, different pattern to your OH but the same idea. DH is mon to fri, normal office hours. We have always used childminders, so it's a total myth that no one will do it and you'll have to pay for a full time nursery space.
The number of people who will accommodate it is limited, but it is worth messaging any with space and asking. Most childminders don't have every part of every space filled as people tend to use nurseries if they need full time childcare.

The way round the issue of taking up a space is to pay more than the normal hourly rate to compensate the childminder for their flexibility, and be able to give the childminder the required hours a good bit in advance so she can offer any unused spaces on an adhoc basis to others.

We used to pay for a minimum amount of hours each month and a bit extra on top. If we needed more hours we just paid more for those. If we didn't use all the hours we didn't get a refund.

I suggest you sit down and work out an example of what hours you may need say over 3 months and contact all local childminders to see if any will be interested in offering a flexible space. You can use childcare.co.uk to search locally, or ask for recommendations on FB.

@Mandy1383848

Hi guys,don’t really know where to start.I had my baby 5 months ago,me and my partner don’t live together.He lives with his mum who fosters children.She’s recently fostered 3 children who come from an abused background.My partner has just recently told me that the children may have been sexually abused.One of the foster children is particularly worrying,as he does strange things like talks about “licking bums” and talking about willies.Now that I know about this it doesn’t really sit right with me to send my baby to his grandparents house. I know that she should obviously supervise the children and make sure my baby is never alone with the children but I’ve heard of an incident with her other grandchild where the foster child has locked the little girl in the bathroom and turned the lights off and she is scared of the dark.

You need to start your own thread so that you can get all the advice you need. It'll get missed here.

The nursery we used were able to offer more flexibility than the childminders because they had more staff so didn't have the same problems with ratios and were more easily able to fill the gaps.

There were quite a few children who did Mon-wed one week then wed-fri the next week for example on a 2 week rota.

Your husband is entitled to flexible working just like you.

He might be able to request set shifts rather than the move around.

You might always decide you (or he) want to go part time.

even if you did a nannyshsre you would have to pay nmw so ALMOST £9PH

whoops hit caps

a cm is likely to be cheaper

the ones i know now want to cut doe=wn so would be happy to have a rota

she charges full for day but half for days not used when rota

even if you did a nannyshsre you would have to pay nmw so ALMOST £9PH

You generally have to pay a good nanny rather more than NMW, but it's split between the two families, so if (say) the nanny is on £11-12ph each family pays half of that. It is legal and legit and recognised as a situation in employment law that a nanny can be employed this way, even though technically each family is paying less than NMW, as the nanny is still earning more than NMW per hour. (Nannyshared for over 5 years now - in our current arrangement we're the year round employers and the other family do term time only.)

Ps. If you know how many days a month you are going to want care for, then a nannyshare would work fine IMO. It can be a great solution, although it requires a bit of finesse and honesty to find the right situation all round. Lots of resources online on nannyshare or PM me. It's an underutilised solution, IME, although obviously not everyone wants to deal with the admin involved in being an employer.

Our nursery offered childcare around shifts to start with but dc were effectively taking up a full time space even though we only used and paid for 2-3 days per week. This worked well until they filled their spaces and then they wouldn't continue it - they had been upfront about this. You might be better off looking at larger capacity options

No. Both families need to pay nmw so the share would be 8.72 x 2

So minimum of £17.44 gross

Can’t seem to add a pic 🙄🙀

But Info is here

www.parentalchoice.co.uk/nanny-share/