CM CLUB Anyone else feel like they are a glorified taxi company??(Rant sorry)

[OFSTEDoutstanding]

Have just decided to raise my fees to bring my self in line with the childminders in the rest of the area. My fees will now be £3.30 an hour instaed of £3 and a minimum charge of £10 per day. For this I provide all meals, snacks, drinks, collecting from school, taking to activities,caring for the children, entertaining them etc etc and thats before you factor in the rise in OFSTED fees coming in in Sept. Before I decided to put up my prices I rang round a few taxi firms to see what they charge to do my school run they want £25-£30 per school run!!!
Before you say it I know that we can have more than one child so our money is made up that way but am now really pissed off that I feel like a glorified taxi company and just needed to rant!!!

rant away !

We were discussing something along these lines earlier

Oh I used to be, when I cared for school aged children. Just to pick them up from school, take them to dancing, drama, home for tea, back later to pick one up from drama, etc.

So did I Nick when I was a nanny but I expected it as the children got older and all petrol was paid for on top of wages so somehow didn't seem so bad....It's when you drop them off at their activities after dragging out 3 others and don't even get a thank you that makes me mad!

why do you do it ofstedoutstanding??
i must be really mean
if a parent puts a child in an extra activity after school then it is their job to ferry them to and fro
one of my after schooler has just started judo after school 3.10 until 4.30 so the parent has arranged with another parent to drop the child at mine at 4.30pm, i dont think its my job to coat 4 children up at 4.15 to do the same walk we did 1hr before for just one child

I guess I was too naive(sp?) when I first started. I had worked as a nanny for a long while before that and always did it with those children so didn't see the hassle in it. To be fair it is no hassle and the other kids are all ok about doing it in fact they quite like to 'pop' out after school. Its just I now realise that as a nannys pay was so much better I am not making hardly anything on my after schoolies. Maybe I should toughen up and as new ones start have a no activity policy!

I have the same policy, unless my dd2 wants to do the same activity, then I am prepared on occasions to pick up but prefer not to.
Not too bad at present as dh is 'between jobs' and do odd pickups.

I am same as you dmo, if kids want to do after school things then the parents have to sort out the practicalities as I won't drag all my littlies out when we would be doing activities, snack time, tea time and pick ups.

OO - if it comes up again just say you aren't prepared to it as you need to put the needs of the whole group of mindees first. Also if parents do choose for a mindee to go to after school activities you should still be charging if it is in your hours.

There is a court case going on atm which may change the status of childminders collecting & dropping off

It may mean we need to have insurance for hire & reward

I think this plus EYFS may end childminding as we know it

Good lord, whatever next!? What's the case for?

I think a childminder who picked children up & then dropped them somewhere (but I'm not sure)

And they want us to possibly do what? Have more insurance? We aren't a hire & reward type service!

Well, not in the sense they mean

Have more insurance which will cost more plus increased fees plus EYFS means many less childminder and the price will go up (IMO)

I agree, it's getting a bit excessive. So much for the government trying to find more childcare for people to return to work!

I was just looking at the costs of getting licenced for private hire.

The London website says that Private Hire drivers don't need "the knowledge" as all journeys are prebooked but you do have to have proof of "topographical skills" to get a licence. I'm hoping I've read it wrong but it seems to say that you need 3 licences - a private hire drivers licence, a private hire vehicle license and an operators license (to take the bookings!). Please do correct me if thats wrong!

I've probably read the fees wrong too cos there is a list of fees on this pagewww.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/taxisandprivatehire/1410.aspx but on another page it says the drivers licence costs £298 www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/taxisandprivatehire/1346.aspx and somewhere else it says the small operators licence costs about £1200. !!!!!!!!

The most journeys I've had to do in a day is 7, usually I only use the car 2 or 3 times a week. So quite different from a normal private hire operator who can spread the costs of licencing between 100s of customers through the year.

?