CMs - how would u contract for these hours?

[chickenmama]

1 child: 9am until 1pm, Mon-Fri

1 child: after school pick up until 5pm, Mon-Fri

2 children: 8am until 9.30am (drop off at nursery), 3.30pm pick up until 5.30pm, two days a week; plus 8am-5.30pm one day a week.

I'm interested to know how others would do this. And if u'd contract full days anywhere rather than just the hours worked, would u charge for the hours the children are in school/nursery and how much??

You don't say what the ages of the children are, but if they are under 5, as I assume the first & last ones are, you need to consider your ratios & whether you are likely to fill the spare spaces. I say that I charge a minimum fee of 6 hours per day for under fives, although saying that I have just taken on one doing 5 hours 4 days a week & that is what I am charging for, but then I think over four days it is worth my while. If it was just for odd days then I would definitley do a minimum charge. So dependent on how much you need to earn you could do the first one for 20 hours per week or for a minimum of 25 hours per week to make it more financially worthwhile.
With the second one for after school pick ups then I only charge for the time they are with me but I know other childminders who charge a minimum of 2 hours after school.
With the nursery children would you need to have them in any holiday periods when the nursery is shut, in other words is it a full nursery or a nursery school/preschool with terms. If it has terms then I would charge for the whole day regardless the time they are in nursery, espeicially if you are expected to be an emergency contact.

first child I would charge for stated hours

Second child two hours a day

children at nursery are charged for full rate if you are responsible for collectin them in emergency or if nursery shut etc you can not fill space if you are so parents pay to keep it open

Ok, it seems I'm doing the first two right.

For the siblings, is it fair that I charge full fee for the hours when they're at nursery when the parents are probably already paying nursery fees??

yes as you can not fill space if you part of ncma look in members handbook you can charge less if you want but depends if you can afford to

Did put this on another thread today,

This is my policy for under 5's, that I give to all new parents on Interview.

UNDER 5?S IN OTHER SETTINGS

A child is counted as an under 5 by Ofsted until they are in full time education i.e. at school for 10 sessions a week.

A child who is at pre school is a under 5 and if they are with a childminder before and after pre school, and require a fulltime space during the holidays they therefore are taking a childminders full time space. As such you are required to pay retainer fee for the time that they are at preschool, as the childminder cannot then fill the part time that they are at pre school.

Hope it might be some help.

Thank you

I think I need to go and reread the NCMA handbook

Oh thanks shoshe... and the retainer fee is usually the full hourly rate or something else? Sorry if I sound a bit vague, I never thought starting as a CM would be so complicated!

I charge half rate for retainer yes, but it is up to you how much you want to charge for it.

I just had a thought...

"A child is counted as an under 5 by Ofsted until they are in full time education i.e. at school for 10 sessions a week."

Does that work the other way round - would my 4 yr old mindee who is in Reception class not be classed as an under 5? That could be very helpful this week if that's the case!

being thick here but surely if counted as over 5 better for you as could still have three under 5'd

Not if she is in reception all day, if she is only half day then she counts as 4,

I had this in september, 4 year old was in reception, but until January only did half days so was classed as 4

From January did full days and although not 5 till next month has been classed as 5 since January.

Does that make sense?

It does and that's great! My 4 yr old mindee attends school full time and is 5 in a few weeks. I assumed he was still in the 'under 5' category and it was preventing me from starting another child... now I know he's classed as 5 it solves my problem!! Thanks so much Any idea where this is written offically so I can show the parents? Wow, they're gonna be happy!

Hold on I will look see if I can find it, if not ask NannyNick he will know where it is.

here page 12

page 10 of national standards 3rd bullet point or even better if you got eyfs pg 51 in statutory framework states each childminder may care for a maximum of six children under eight of these six a maximum of three may be young children however where four- and five year -old children only attend before and/or after a normal school day they may be classed as children over the age of five for the purposes of the adult:child ratio; hope this helps

Thank you both so much!! You've made my evening