Help me to understand childcare

[Middleagedmom]

I’m in NW England. Baby due Jan 2024.

I have a health condition so need some extra support with childcare when DH is at work.

I’m thinking Mon-Fri 8-2 from six months old. I can then take over childcare 2-6 and DH will do bedtime 6-sleep.

Does this sound like something that a childminder would offer or not?

Also the cost - is £5 per hour about right? So after tax free childcare it will cost £5 X 30 X 0.8 = £120 per week?? I know we’ll then get free childcare hours from Sep 2024 then more Sep 2025. Does the free childcare cover the £5 per hour?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Couple of things...

Have you researched your area to come up with the figure of £5 per hour? I'm SE so it's much more here.

There's no firm information about the free hours just yet so don't pin everything on that.

The free hours are for working families so will you be working by then to qualify? Same for the tax free childcare, it's for working families.

You will need to speak to individual childminders about their costs

but

you don’t usually pay for the hours you use. If you have a space from 8-2, they’re not filling the space from 2-5 with someone who wants a random 3 hours. So you’re going to have to pay for all day.

I would reckon on about £50, so £250 a month, then take your 20% off for using tax free childcare. So it will cost approx £200 a month in total

I don’t work but claim a qualifying benefit for the free childcare (current rules).

I did a quick search on childcare.co.uk and it said average for NW is £5, not sure if that’s reliable info or not?

Sorry do you mean £200 per week rather than month? I guess paying the full day may give me flexibility on when I can pick them up?

Sorry, yes I do mean £200 a week

You need to see what sessions they do.
Example:
Morning (8-1)
Afternoon (1-5)

If you can't take them out at 1pm, then you'll have to pay for the afternoon session too as a PP stated, as they may not be able to fill that space with another child.

Also take account of food- do you provide or do you have to pay extra/included in price, nappies etc?

And you won't get the entirety of the free childcare as most have to be taken in "blocks" so you end up losing hours. (Ie- 30hrs free childcare a week over the year is actually only 22hrs or something similar.

Thanks.

I assumed the £5 didn’t include nappies, wipes or food.

Even 8-1 would be a massive help so fingers crossed I can find someone to do at least that!

I’d also assumed the free childcare was over 38 weeks not 52 weeks - is that correct? I’m also aware that some childminders don’t work school holidays so I’ll need to find an alternative solution for those weeks.

I think some are willing to spread over the year (but you loose out on hours). So if you want full time rather than term time- you could potentially do that. It depends what what suits you.

Also on another note- have you applied somewhere? I know current waiting list can be over a year in some places for childminders/nurseries. 😳

I found childminders to be much more flexible than nurseries with slightly odd hours. I’ve always worked a half day and collected my child one day at 1.30pm and just paid the hours I used, not been required to pay til 5. I used 2 childminders who offered this but met with about 6 more who were also happy with this. But every nursery I enquired with would have charged a full day. I guess the difference with a CM is they could feasibly fill the space with an after school child from 3ish so they won’t lose a whole afternoon. Each makes their own rules so you’d need to ask each one.

Round here (SE but not London) it’s £6-6.50 per hour and has gone up quite sharply in the past year or so. So I guess in cheaper areas £5 might be possible.

most CM accept the 20% tax free childcare, but not many accept the 15/30 free hours in my experience. Also I thought the 30 hours (currently from 3yeads) was for working parents and I’m not sure there are any benefits which qualify you for it though admittedly this is not my area of expertise. 15 hours at 2 I think is for lower income families with non working parents so you may qualify for this instead. It’s all a bit up in the air at the moment though with the changes.

I can't help with cost but I would start looking for childcare now before the baby is even born. The nursery my daughter is at is full in the baby room for September 2024 and currently filling January 2025 as they were asking any parents they heard that were pregnant and planning on using nursery again to sign up quickly!

Childminders in my area are also like gold dust but we never looked at any as liked nursery more and filled us better with lack of family help in the area for childminder sick days and holidays.

Thanks that’s really helpful. The current rules state free childcare hours is available if claiming Contribution based ESA which I do and my husband works full time.

Yeah this is a really good point about childminder sick days and holidays. I best get looking!

Childminders are more flexible than nursery but we didn't need the flexibility so wasn't a problem for us. We also use a small nursery with less than 40 children in the whole place so everyone knows everyone it's really nice. We looked around other nurseries and your gut will tell if it's a good place or not.

Please be aware that 'free childcare' very often isn't free. Many nurseries and childminders ask for/charge an additional supplement, or structure the offered hours in such a way that the 'free' hours are limited in some way.

This is because the amount provided by the government to settings is simply not enough to cover costs.

If you're not working, your family won't be eligible for tax free childcare. If your family claim benefits then you can add childcare to your universal credits claim. Baby wouldn't be eligible for funded hours until 9 months (if the current promises come to pass).

Many childminders will charge only hours used and finishing at 2 opens up another space for after school so may well fit in.

Childminders often work with assistants and or co minders as well as networking to sickness and holidays are not always an issue....most will book holidays at the beginning of the year or have the same weeks every year. They also tend to be more supportive and flexible if you have your own emergency or issues....I've done overnight, weekends, emergency parent in hospital care, late nights , bereavement support, taken children for hair cuts on a Saturday, dropped off etc for sick and disabled parents obviously a nursery can't give that support

Op depending on your health conditions there may be extra support I've had children placed with me when mum had long term illnesses to allow the lo to have experiences like going to groups, playgrounds,mixing and to allow mum to recover after treatments...do you have any social worker support ....it's called child in need funding. Health visitors or children centres can apply for it. Disability can also open up the funding

Well that would be future planning. Considering on yesterdays thread (now pulled why mumsnet “are concerned about some detail”)
you have no children
you aren’t pregnant
and don’t want to have children with your current partner

I think you’re mistaken - OP has an almost 1 year old!
OP, what do you currently pay for childcare for your 1 year old? Surely you’ll have childcare costs for 2 children by next summer? When do you plan to return to work?

It says in the OP her baby isn’t due until January 2024.

Its sensible to plan.

No really

on her thread yesterday that’s been pulled

she apologises for starting hypothetical threads because she doesn’t have any children and isn’t pregnant and doesn’t want children with her husband.

Fgs what a waste of everyone's time who has tried to help you @Middleagedmom

The Op posted a couple of days ago about her soon to be 1 year old.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/4884983-savings-for-our-dc?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

The OP yesterday fgs about not having any children, not pregnant, no wish to have children with her partner.

this thread, she said was “hypothetical.

everyone on the pulled thread was disagreeing with her about her husband - and then it was pulled.