Childcare funding - during holidays

[Gt360]

Hi, I’ve got a quick question and can’t find answers - I get the 15 hour free for 2 year old funded and my childminder will use it term time for the 38 weeks per year.

How do you guys pay for the non term time sessions - as she takes regular holidays in non-term time which I don’t pay for but will have to if we go away.

I’m thinking it’s a fair deal as she said she would charge me £7.50 oh and not her usual rate of £7.00 during non-term time to cover snacks and consumables - the only meals child will be having is fruit and little nibbles as she will have breakfast and dinner with me (has allergy) and I’ll be giving her packed lunch to take with her. So basically I’m not paying for snacks and consumables in the term time but will non-term time at £7.50 oh so an extra 50p ph ?

Just checking she’s not ripping me off but sounds easier to manage it? I find this all so complex !!

I go out more during school holidays so ask parents to contribute to farms, zoos, play centres and treats it costs more for petrol, parking and I have to pay to get in so even with parents paying outings j earn less in school holidays.
Your not being ripped off it's her fees policy if you don't want to pay you can go elsewhere. But she's probably earning less than her hourly rate on the funded hours you use.

Free hours don’t exist . You are getting 15 hours of early years education, with the government paying the childminder a rate per hour for these educational hours. The rate they pay varies depending on the age of the child and where you live . Often the rate is below the childminders hourly rate .
For example three children at £5 per hour is way way below minimum wage when you take of the childminders cost to provide the service , heating , food , equipment, toys , craft materials, washing , hygiene items ,transport costs, entrance fees, etc etc.
So back to your question; the childminder is charging you a reasonable £7.50 per day for food , trips and other extras . You could request an itemised bill and or send in all food and be billed for share of petrol , National trust membership , entrances fees. Etc . You might find this is more than you are currently paying.

Sorry just seen you are sending packed lunch . Offer to send snacks and be invoiced for each trip/outing . Maybe also send wipes, suncream etc .

Thanks for your insight and I see how with the government funding it could be less that she earns. I didn’t say I didn’t want to pay but wanted to find out she’s not ripping me off my getting more insights - if you’ve never seen the going rate or what’s done usually it does feel like an extra to a parent.

thanks - all very useful info - aww I say free as I don’t have to pay it - but your right it’s not essentially free! 😆

I like the idea of me just giving snacks and offering to pay for trips as thinking that will be less frequent but I know she goes out more to these playgroups in the winter - as I’m giving all dairy alternatives like I’m providing the yoghurt and milk, so may as well give what goes with it!

Do you think it could work out better for me as she’s only going 3 days a week and I hope that in the holidays and in future that she can me with me or family more and although I’ll have to pay - it might turn into just having the summer holidays with me before nursery but I can always serve notice that way down the line. I’m just thinking that she might then have to wait for me before she books outings or trips and it’s just more admin for me to do!

Also I’m now thinking maybe I do as you suggested with offering to pay for trips as I can predict by the summer we won’t use the childminder as she’s be off to nursery age 3 and spending summer with me - so don’t want to end up with backlog where she then needs to charge me £7.50 for all the snacks she had in term and non-term time!

Just trying to think of the best way where she’ll be with me over the summer (fingers crossed), still get to go on trips/consumables and I won’t have a backlog invoice for snacks and consumables - payment wise.

I say this as an ex childminder … funding is extra paperwork for less pay per hour and certainly no benefit to the childminder.

I only did term time funding as that was separate as well .

she will be trying to make up the shortfall from funding .

So you mean get out of covering some of her loss? Confused.
You can still claim any UC or use tax free childcare payment on the 7.50 a day so getting a really good saving on what you would be paying without funding ....tax free savings on the £22.50 a week bringing it down to £18 and UC could be as little as £3.38 but to her this could mean the difference between continuing or she may stop offering the outings and experiences.

I don’t understand. Are you paying anything during term time?

Oh thanks for the reminder for tax free childcare as I haven’t started using that account. What’s best - pay everything into the tax free childcare account (the top up that the 15 hours doesn’t cover then get a direct debit /transfer a few days after that goes to the childminder? Still trying to get hear around payment for it

This is an all year around contract and yes will pay £7ph term time and £7.50 ph non term time.

I’m just trying to make it easier as child will only be there 1 year and I’m likely to take child out of the setting over some or if not all of the summer so essentially ending before end of August, probably for the end of Jul.

Child will go nursery in Sept 2025 then it’s a whole other headache for the 30 hours it feels but maybe nurseries are more straight forward as considering all year and also term time only ones.

It sounds like it’s easier to just pay the £7.50 ph non term time but I might say I’m likely to bring all snacks (as to me it makes sense to bring yoghurt and fruit rather than just yoghurt as I buy a tube and spoon it out etc) feel like what’s the point in the extra 50p but maybe that would cover a trip out at least once a week - what do consumables mean to you guys? I know it can cover food / drink but could it cover arts and crafts?

Be aware the nursery is very likely to ask more in a consumables charge ask for the breakdown

Oh cool thanks never thought about that will do for the future nursery!

I’m not 100% on whether you want funding during the holidays or not so sorry if this is off point.

I get the 15 hours funding, they are pro rated across the full year at 11.2 hours per week, plus the additional hours my DD is there.

Consumables are billed separately at £6per day

I pay all my childcare charges using my tax free childcare account, get that set up asap as you get a £20 top up for every £100 you deposit (up to £2k per year).

between the funded hours and TFC, it helps take the sting out of the cost and makes it a bit easier to manage!

Thanks oh you’ve helped me lots as it’s good to know how much you pay for consumables ! Sounds all reasonable then if it’s throughout year.

She’s made my life easier as although she does stretched funding I’m going to use it as she takes holidays and so will we, so it seems more complex to do stretched - do you find it difficult when you take a holiday out or I guess it’s easier if you match when they go on holiday which is usually non-term time so way more expensive?

You lose funding for your holidays, if they close they either account for that by claiming less, stretch over fewer weeks or offer alternative hours. A nursery is either term time only or open at least 50 weeks so you lose most of your holiday as nothing to match to. Many nurseries charge around a third of their normal rate as consumables fee.
Is there a reason to change to a nursery?

I have just accepted I will be billed regardless for 51 weeks so will take the hit on holidays to keep her place available. I like the nursery and places are becoming hard to come by given the expansion of funded hours. I already pay for bank holidays as she attends on a Monday. I work FT with a standard holiday allowance so won’t be going on actual holiday realistically for more than 1-2 weeks per year.

So for me, it’s worth it to minimise hassle, if I am off work and not away, I usually send her in for routine and to allow myself some downtime and time to get on top of life admin / deep clean…

Thanks - Oh good to know- it’s a such a new world all of this!

yes I’m changing to nursery from 3 as this childminder doesn’t take on kids from 3 and thinks it’s best for kids to go to nursery to get use to the bigger groups and socialisation / structure before school. I think it’s a good idea as I have a summer child so they will only have 1 year of nursery and then off to school after that!

nearly all the childminders I’ve visited have said that - max 3.5 years old they’ll have them until - not sure if you’ve heard of this too?

No, I take children up to entering reception I've had parents remove their children from school nursery to come back to me. We do large groups as 4 of us network we have lunch together do storytimes, forest school. The teachers in reception remark on how advanced the children are.