Childminder charging for travel time to school?

[FlyingTigger]

Advice please and if this is the norm?
Childminder wants to charge travel to DC school (so when going to collect). When we signed contract I’d already included 15 minutes grace in case it was easier for her to collect DC earlier but this is NOT required by the school. Contract includes this 15 minutes.
childminder is charging for an hour, then changes this and said it’s 30 minutes. School pick up 3pm but her timesheet starts from 2pm. Journey takes 10 minutes by bus and 15/20 minutes walk.
is this the norm? For CM to charge travel to school when the child isn’t with them? Says she’s always done this.

Are you factoring in waiting for the bus? Bus might be ten mins each way but waiting time going to the bus etc a lot longer. And it's a pain. One hour sounds reasonable

I’d never known a job that includes travel to work?

She isn't travelling to work ( school collection) though as she works from home. (childminding base).

Ah I see, yes I get it thanks for explaining. So its effectively a flat fee which happens to include the travel time to/from the school.

To be honest she sets the fees and you decide whether to pay them
Our childminder charged an extra hour for pickups, I assume partly because you have to get ready (and get any full time children ready) and be available at the time, and partly because school pickups are less than half a day so it's more efficient to do longer blocks of time. Some childminders don't do school pickups at all because of the hassle
To be honest many childminders round here don't charge by the hour any more, they just say x per day, y per half day, z for school drop-off and a for school pickup. Open from 7.30 until 6pm.
Then it gets rid of the complaining about which hour where and keeps it simple.

It is travel solely for the care of your child. She has no other children in her care and she wouldn't be at this school - which is quite a journey away - if not to collect your child. I don't think it is fair to expect her to work unpaid for this.

So @FlyingTigger

You either accept her terms or find another CM.

Begin the search for a registered CM who is:
*Closer to school
*Has your child 1-1
*Has built good relationships with your child ( unless you haven't shared other issues)
*Is willing and able to care for an autistic, non verbal child
*Has availablity

🤔

Yeah seems fair. Don't think I would want my childminder this far away.. what would happen if she missed the bus ?

I had a nanny when my son was in Reception that had to collect him from school and it was a fairly long journey (so wasn'tvery easy to flnd someone who would do that on afterschool only basis). She literally kept changing numbers every 3-4 weeks, adding bits and bobs here-there, complaining that travel costs were too high, and finally messaged me 1 hour before school pickup on the 1st day back after that half-term to say "sorry won't be picking him up as money is not there". By that point she was netting £25ph + travel expenses. I would say, start looking for an alternative.

If your job told you to travel somewhere not in your working hours, collect something for them and then travel back to take it to your workplace, would you not expect to be paid for that time?
It's the same thing

I wouldn’t quibble about 15minutes but an hour is excessive.

I'm not sure I'd quibble about it if you like her, your child likes her and she's literally providing 1:1 care.

Ok, so travel time from place of work as she is CM is included, thank you for those that explained this and definitely new to me.

I’ll query the hour travel time and ask if she can accept 30 minutes so she’s providing care for a set number of hours. Her journey takes 10 minutes by bus OR she says she sometimes walks which would take around 20 minutes. So hoping 30 is reasonable

annoying thing is she charged an extra 30 minutes this one time I dropped DC to her. So from 9am when I dropped off at 9.30. Didn’t question at time as found it awkward. If I collect DC early that’s not taken into account on her timesheet She’ll still charge until 6pm. I’ll see if we can agree to a set time moving forward.

the 121 care was a bonus not a requirement. If she takes on other children then of course that’s not an issue and even expected at some point.

nice to hear from other SEN parents and I am grateful to have found this CM. There aren’t really any major issues apart from this.

I'd suggest she charges half an hour to go to school to collect DC.

Yeah I’m worried about this happening and pissing her off 😂

It's literally travelling to work....?!
Really it depends on how desperate you are though. Is she replaceable ? Will she negotiate?

She may agree to 30 minutes but many childminders charge by the hour and won't accept 15/30 minutes.

As for being charged when you collect early. That is your decision to collect early. A childminder is not a pay as you go service. You pay for your contracted hours. No childminder (or nursery) will reimburse you if you collect early.

I think if the journey takes 30 minutes then she has to build in some slack incase the bus is delayed so I would say 45 to 60 minutes in total is not unreasonable

Not to mention she will have to wait at the school for the child to be dismissed. You will want her to get there with a good margin of time ,allowing for bus delays etc, as you won’t want your child to be the last to be picked up.

Except it's been mentioned repeatedly the bus takes 10 minutes (sometimes she walks that takes 20) so why you'd classify it as 30 then round it up to 60 minutes is just strange unless your in some secret dodgy childminders union club....

But if you collect early or drop off late she has to charge the same price as normal. That's how it works otherwise she wouldn't have a reliable income..

You will piss her off. She might prefer dc where she doesn’t need a bus or a longish walk to the school. She’s turning out in all weathers for you. You sound a bit mean.

I agree , I think you are being unreasonable OP. She was available to look after your child at those times, not her fault you chose to drop him late or pick up early.

A ten minute bus journey doesn’t mean the whole travel time is ten minutes.

Is the bus stop right outside her house? Is the other bus stop in front of the school? Even so, a good childminder would factor in fifteen minutes grace in case of delays. Is she paying for her own bus travel?

That’s a very valid point. Just meant she’s also adding time on which doesn’t make sense (charging at 9am when I’d dropped off at 9.30)

I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all. Most childminders charge by the hour, not a part hour. She probably has to leave at about 2.15pm to allow for bus delays no? So you’re quibbling about 15 minutes. 🤯 Childminding is not like salaried employment, she is self employed so of course she can charge you for her travel time. She can charge what she likes within reason, either you are happy with her and pay it or not.