Am I being mugged off or is this fair? Funding question..

[Bounty9]

I really am not sure how it all works so I don’t know if this is fair or not.

I’ve been with current CM for about 8 months. DD has received 15 hours funding since September.

In April she will be starting a mix of preschool and CM. I have said to CM I will be moving the 15 hours funding to preschool from April as it works out more cost effective, a bigger saving.

She has said by us doing this, she will lose out on a fair whack of money and will need to raise her hourly rate to make up for it. Which makes it a bit pointless moving the funding over in the first place.

Is this fair? I honestly have no idea what to do to make the most financial sense. She will get 30 hours in Sept if that makes a difference.

CM doesn't work for free. Of course it's fair. If your child's placement doesn't pay a fair wage and she looses money she will have to terminate your contract and look after another paying kid.

Well you're wanting to make a 'bigger saving' and she'll be getting less. I see her point and understandably she needs to make the best business decision for herself just as you have. Not sure that means she's mugging you off, she just doesn't want her income to fall for the same amount of work.

So you’ve cut the hours your Lo will be with the childminder and will move the funding to the preschool?

Of course it’s fair. You can’t possibly think she will work for the same small additional rate without the funding?

Ok sorry for confusion…

it’ll be the same amount of hours, I’m just sending her to preschool on the other days. She charges 5.30 an hour, which we paid until she got her funding and now she gets a certain amount of those hours funded.

I’m fully expecting to pay the 5.30 for all the hours she attends, but she’s saying she gets an additional 2.70 for every funded hour, and because I’m moving the funding to preschool she will lose that extra

How much were you paying before the funded hours kicked in?

@BlueSilverCats we paid £5.30 an hour before funding kicked in. I assumed we would go back to paying that, but she’s saying she will now have to raise this rate to make up for the extra she’s losing

I didn’t realise she got extra for claiming funded hours, I suppose is my point

privately funded childcare is a higher rate than government funded (which is awfully low). This is standard practice ime.

Wow that’s such a low price. Even increased.

Technically you aren't doing anything wrong but can see how she's gutted to be losing that money.

Well you are wrong. It is usually the opposite now for under 3s which is where the problem lies with the OP

@Shrinkingrose yes it is! So I’m not going to dispute a rise, but that’s why it works out better to use the funding against preschool hours

It's quite unusual to get more for funded hours but it that's the case it means that perhaps she hasn't been charging enough.
Understandably she can't afford for her income to drop so if you are not happy about it she will probably find someone else who is using their funded hours

Can't really blame you or her, but that is a shockingly low amount per hour for childcare.

The funding for 2 years and under is higher than some hourly rates. It’s when you get to 3 and 4 year old funding that the rate decreases by an alarming amount. You’ve had your lo with the childminder for 8 months and now you’re removing the funding and moving it to the preschool. It’s thrown her a bit of a curve ball and the preschool will be earning more per hour than she currently does for the same work.

So should I keep the funding with CM until September? I believe she’s claimed the entire year which is probably why she’s going to lose out which makes sense now.

My son's childminder just said she didn't accept free hours, but we continued with her because she was amazing.

It sounds like she raised her rate when you got the funding? If you paid £5.30 pre funding, then continued to pay that during funding, she has been taking extra surely? I would have expected the £5.30 to go down to £2.60 and to be made up by the funding. Otherwise what benefit have you had from the funding?

I'm a childminder and I have 2 parents who share care with a nursery and they both asked me if I wanted the funding or not. I did and I'm really grateful they asked as it's about £200 a month extra. How much more would I'd be to keep the funding with the CM? X

How many children does she have per session? Friend is a childminder and she charges £5.40 per child per hour and has 3 children under school age at a time plus a sibling school wrap around care for 3 siblings. Meaning her gross hourly is £32.40 7-9am then £16.20 9am-3pm and £32.40 3-5pm. Having only preschoolers wouldn’t work for her.

I think you have no choice but to move the funded hours to pre school, no? Do you mean you're cutting the CM hours and she's insisted on a minimum.

Why would she? She could use them on either setting or even split them.

So I think what I’m getting from this thread is I would be doing her a favour by keeping the funded hours with her until September, and then when she gets 30 hours I can move them to preschool and it won’t make such a difference?

To be clear - there are no changes to the amount of hours I’m sending her to CM. She is keeping the same days there, just doing extra days at preschool.

CM isn't doing anything wrong by taking another child in which pays her more more than OP's. Why should she work for free?

You’re doing nothing wrong by moving the funding. The reality is that the childminder may feel like it’s a kick in the teeth as such. The only saving grace with funding is that the younger years pay a little more which can only be a positive thing. Perhaps your childminder feels she doesn’t have the same worth to you that the nursery does as you’re essentially giving them the opportunity to earn more. Please don’t think I’m saying this is what it is, nor am I saying you’re in the wrong. It’s just another way to consider your childminders actions.