Half term childcare

[rocket58]

Hi,

My child was full time with a childminder which finishes next month as she starts nursery in September. So I have given notice to childminder to request to go on to ad hoc. So whenever my children have half term, I can contact her and the children go in the dates needed. My childminder said I need to sign another contract just for half term.

Which I don't mind...BUT. I still have to pay bank holidays with at fall within the half term ( she doesn't even work BH, but I'm off so I don't need her services ) she also has a 2 week holiday in August for which she charges half price. But I still have to pay her half price plus I have to pay another childminder full price to cover us for those 2 weeks. Why? I absolutely do not want to pay for days I do not need childcare.

What can I do? Should I ask her if she can cater for my childcare needs and ask her to amends the contract she wants me to sign or find another childminder that doesn't charge for time off?

Childcare is so expensive, our my annual leave is split with my mums appointments so I am paying a childminder to fill in the gaps I can't take time off for. Next year we want to hopefully go away on holiday but why do I have to pay the childminder if my kids are not with her?

Self employment doesn't change if your a childminder...self employed people do. It get paid for time off. She has a lot of children to fill in the gaps.

Please advise..

I can understand your argument.

But I can also see that if you want her to have a place available when you need it, it means that she cannot take on another child when yours is at school/with you.

And I believe that it is pretty standard to charge families while the childminder is on holiday and bank holidays.

I sympathise with the expense. I'm fortunately past that stage but remember it well.

That's bit quite what ad-hoc means. It sounds like you want a holiday care only contract and she has set the terms and conditions to meet that.

Ad hoc would mean she doesn't hold a space for you and you run the risk of her being full.

Do you use the government funding for 3 year olds, if yours are old enough and does your childminder take that funding? I found once my dc was on 30hrs funding it reduced costs.

Well, you’ve asked and those are her terms. Your choice is to take it or leave it.

If it doesn’t suit, find an alternative.

@AzureTwist

Do you use the government funding for 3 year olds, if yours are old enough and does your childminder take that funding? I found once my dc was on 30hrs funding it reduced costs.

Oh I didn't think of that! Yes she's entitled to this from when she starts nursery in September but not sure it covers half terms? I don't honk it does 😕

It doesn’t, but you can split the funding over 12 months if you want.

If you are not happy with the contract then use holiday clubs, annual leave, parent swaps etc.
Its no good signing up to a contract you begrudge.

Your options are
A. Ageee.
B. Ask for ad-hoc and hope she has a space when you need it, but not guaranteed.
C. Use holiday clubs - ours are £27 a day 10-4 plus £3.50 to add early drop off and another £3.50 for late pick up making it 9-5.
D. Try to employ a local student on summer leave - DSis did this when doing her teacher training.

It doesn’t cover school holidays, but I found I was paying £10 a day instead of £50 which meant my overall costs were reduced at least.

The 30 hours is term time only but maybe it would work out cheaper for you to pay them during the holidays instead on a childminder? You may still need to pay bank holidays (we did at DS’s nursery) but on the plus side you don’t need to pay for two weeks while they’re on holiday oh the summer as they always have cover (barring unforeseen circumstances).

Sorry, I mean to pay for her to stay at nursery over the holidays instead of using a childminder just for holidays.

She's holding a place open over the holidays though, here childminders are in demand for just school holidays (a lot don't work them so the ones that do get a load of requests), so if you don't wish to agree to her terms, she probably knows that someone will. Its a business, not her doing a favour, can see why you don't want to but it's probably a case of take it or leave it.

My adhoc contracts are 20% more than normal rate and if I don't have a space you have no childcare....I also don't take children who haven't previously been with me as it takes the whole holiday for them to adjust and ones who've been to nursery are not very independent so don't fit with my children. If you don't like her terms look elsewhere or choose a nursery that are open the hours you need.

To me, an ad-hoc contract would mean that you make contact and if I have a space, you can use it. If I don’t have a space, you have to fins somewhere else.

The childminder is proposing that your contracted hours change from all year round to holiday cover.
It depends which of these options you actually want.
As a childminder, I would be more than happy for you to be on an ad-hoc contract, but I probably wouldn’t have space for you very often.

With your child being nursery age, you might struggle for options For holiday cover (at least you would round here), but once your child is at school and old enough for holiday clubs, it should get easier as you can take advantage of some of the sports clubs that take place which are cheaper. So you might just have to suck up the cost for the next 12 months until your child is old enough for that kind of activity.

I don’t really understand your issue.

You say you want to book your children in for half terms, but resent paying for bank holidays and for half fee during her August break.

Surely this is only one day a year it would affect you? The only bank holiday to fall during a half term is the Whitsun Monday at the end of May.
And haven’t you already had these terms to date? Why are they now an issue?

Regardless, it’s for the childminder to state her terms and for you to decide whether or not those terms suit your family. If they do not, you look elsewhere for childcare and she fills the places for a family that prefers her way of working.

@Tanith

I don’t really understand your issue.

You say you want to book your children in for half terms, but resent paying for bank holidays and for half fee during her August break.

Surely this is only one day a year it would affect you? The only bank holiday to fall during a half term is the Whitsun Monday at the end of May.
And haven’t you already had these terms to date? Why are they now an issue?

Regardless, it’s for the childminder to state her terms and for you to decide whether or not those terms suit your family. If they do not, you look elsewhere for childcare and she fills the places for a family that prefers her way of working.

I don’t think the OP means just half terms, she means all holidays. In which case it’s the late may, august and both Easter ones, and possibly Christmas/NY ones too.

OP I can see why you don’t want to pay this, but I don’t think you have much choice, other than finding alternative childcare. I agree it’s isn’t ‘ad hoc’ - I use my CM for ad hoc childcare in holidays and it’s more of a ‘do you have space next Friday? Lovely I’ll put her in. What about Wednesday? No, never mind, I’ll do something else.’ This arrangement would mean you don’t pay holidays (bank/yours/hers) but if you NEED the childcare, it probably won’t work. What you describe is just setting up a different contract, for holidays only.