holiday pay or no holiday pay?

[KiddieCare]

Can anyone tell me how they charge for holidays?
I was thinking half fee for when mindee;s are away and half for mine, as not sure parents would be willing to pay full for theirs and half for mine.
Or does it make more sense to not charge for mine just theirs.
I dont want to put parents off by being to expensive, at the same time there is more parents than me and i need to have a constant income. im so confused.

Personally, I do no fee for my holiday and full fees for theirs. Its up to you really. I suppose if you do half fees, you will at least get some money when they are away.

I usually charge full pay for their holidays and no fee for mine. Basically if I am available and they choose not to use my service I still charge.

Having said that if they take holidays during school breaks I dont charge and call it my holiday too .

HTH

Thanks, i have decided to agree with u both, full for theirs and none for mine, makes the most sense.

well i do full fees for their hols and half fees for my hols

children that are term time only are charged quarter fees during school hols (under 5's)

before and after school children dont get charged in school holiday

i charge 4 weeks full pay for my holidays - and half rate for 4 weeks if parents want more holiday - seems to work for me no-one has been put off by this and to be fair most people are paid all year round by tax-credits anyway

Yes totally agree, maximummy, If you know parents are getting up to 80% family tax paid 52 weeks a year, why should they save it and you lose out? the government thinks you are getting it. also most people paying tax ( not cash in hand) get holiday pay in full so their income does not change. DEF charge full for theirs and then decide what you think about yours based on your local market, your experience, your reputation and your vacancies?
Hope the coments helped re your website kiddie care

Not all parents get WTC though so fund their own childcare. If you charge for your own holidays that means they have to find 2 lots of childcare fees for the same period - might put a lot of people off.

Sorry Yes thats right, though I should have mentioned I give parents my holiday dates atleast 12 months in advance and try to book them after parents give me their dates. Itcan be a little tricky and you cant please everyone but being fair usually works. eg next years holiday coincides with the parent who is going abroad to get married, as are all her family so on my holidays she would have had no alternatives.

You need to consider that some parents take very little holiday (either workoholics or still sending their child to you while they are off work and doing other things) and others may take many occasional days and regular holidays which would leave you out of pocket if you offer a reduced rate for their holidays.

If you charge for your own holidays and/or offer a reduced rate for child's holidays I recommend putting into your contract a set maximum number of weeks. That way, with your charges the parent can see you're not planning on skiving off for half the year - if its only a week or two they might be able to call on a grandparent or take time off work rather than pay a subsitute childminder. And you don't want to be in the situation where you can't pay your bills because one or two parents have taken a lot more holiday than you expected.

Another suggestion is to have in your contract that the reduced rate only applies if they have given you x weeks notice eg for annual holiday. Its hard to budget if parents can take a week off at half fees by telling you a few days before they go.

Parents pay me 2 weeks a year at half fees for "mutual holidays" - currently we do this at xmas & easter. Any other holiday or days off I take is £no charge and any other time I'm open and the child is absent its £full fees.

Thanks everyone, I agree with maximummummy, it does seem fair to charge, esp when the family recieves WTC, and besides they get paid in full for their hols still, so why not us.
As you can prob tell im new to this and still trying to establish pretty much everything lol.

I charge half fees for both my and the parents holidays. We can have up to 4 weeks each although I have never had this much myself or from the parents and we do try and coincide it if we can. This works for me as I know I am getting money every week whether on holiday or minding!

As a parent I think you sould charge full fees for parent holidays and nothing when you are unavailable for work. If you do this then parents will be inclined to take their holidays when you take yours.

If you charge 1/2 for yours and 1/2 for theirs then they have no incentive to take theirs when you take yours. And if they take more than 4 weeks of hols you will end up with less money.

Also, I think lots of parents will resent paying you when you are on holiday. So better just to work out your hourly rate based on not being paid for your 4 weeks of holiday.

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I would not pay for a childminder's holidays or when a nursery is closed. I would however expect to pay full fees for when I am away as it is my choice to not use that kept place for those weeks.

I charge full fee when they are on holiday, and I take four weeks paid holiday as advised by the NCMA.

This has never been a problem with ANY of my parents, but I know that this is often not the case.

However, I have one family that takes 9 weeks hols a year, so I tend to take my hols when they do and therfore they don't pay me hols if that makes sense

I chareg half for them and half for mine. When talking through rates with the parents I point out that this works out the same if we're taking the same amount of time off, but means that when they go on holiday they don't have to stump up the full fee on top of paying for their holiday and spending money!

i make it very clear at our first meeting what my charges are - when i'm planning an hourly increase and what i charge for holidays - i try to co-ordinate our holidays so that we are all off at the same time (no mean feat when you have lots of different famillies to consider!!) - but it seems to work and no-one has decided not to come to me because of my paid holidays - everyone needs to have a break and we deserve to be paid for it - as advised by NCMA - i'm sorry if that makes me sound like a money grabber

I wish my husband could charge his pupils for when he has a break. The parents however don't see why they should pay for a service that is not being provided during that time thoug.

I agree with everyone, if that makes sense, each to their own. I have decided not to charge for my hols, as I really need an incentive to attract parents, as in my area it was pointed out to me their are 140 something childminders within 1 mile of me.

and what does your husband do for a living islandofsodor? because if he is a school teacher i'd imagine he is paid a annual salary

so i did some research and found that islandofsodor's husband is a music teacher and charges £23 per hour a little different to my £3 per hour

Yes, a little different maximummy, but he can only work limited hours in the evenings and has a maximum of 5 pupils, some only coming for half an hour, plus some work in schools which he invoices for on an hours worked basis.

Why should there be any different. Music teachers and childminders are both self employed, working with children from home. Self employed people are not entitled to holiday pay.

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Half fees is reasonable, imo. Childminders get little enough as it is, they need to cover their bills. If they didnt get any holiday pay, they'd have to charge more, why not spread it over the whole year.
when we were with a childminder, I paid something for holidays.

£20 for half an hour whew (though for London it doesn't surprise me,) also dh has paid that in the past as an advanced student for a top teacher.

It's market rates I guess, her in the North Midlands you wouldn't get people who could afford that.

He teaches singing.