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.

It's like needing a car repair. Your mechanic operates from his business. The expectation is that the cars are delivered to him, and the work is then chargeable from then on.

If you contact your mechanic and ask for him to come out and do the repair on your driveway there will be a callout fee - essentially, the amount it costs him to get to you, that he could charge someone else by working at the garage instead.

It is not a commute in your opinion. In my opinion it’s a commute.

Yes it's an opinion - but generally, and how most childminders work - is that their home is their place of work.

If you call them out to another location, you'll be charged extra and generally be charged for the time.

It's how the sector works for childminding. Like the mechanic example above who works in a garage - it's standard practice. Also childminders are registered to work from home, so it's their official place of work.

There’s a thousand scenarios which don’t mirror your beliefs too, I won’t bore you with, suffice to say it’s down to the discretion of the childminder and ultimately what the parents accept.

I’ve used a childminder who didn’t charge for her walk from home to school.

My childminder charges for travel time. They wouldn’t be making that journey unless you needed it, so it seems fair. It would take about an hour all in, so the hour seems reasonable.

Yes, now it makes sense to me using this analogy.

I charge full sessions regardless of what times people actually use.
After school is 3pm-5.30pm even if school finishes at 3.20pm. I have an after schooler that comes at 4 but I still charge from 3.

If the OP decides spending £75.00 per week on travel is not good value, she could do the pick up and drop off herself….

Oh, wait…🤔

@FlyingTigger

You have mentioned a few times the bus only takes 10 minutes not have not mentioned the timetable.
Maybe the only bus she can take leaves at 2:05, so she has to leave the house at 2:00.

@UnaShire
Pointless comment, OP. ant do it or she wouldn't need a CM.
Charging OP for 5 hours travel when the journey is 10/20 mins is taking the piss.

It's not 5 hours billed for 20mins travel.

The 20mins (which actually is 30 minimum as the OP said its 10mins bus and 20mins walk) is per day, so the 5 hours billed are for 5 days, or at least 2.5 hours travel time, if not more.

Exactly!

Not pointless, but logical conclusion. She needs to pay as the cost for travel is very good value, given that without it or unless she makes other arrangements she cannot work.

Is she charging you an hour each way? Or an hour total? The bus might be 10 mins but how frequently do they run - every hour or every 5 minutes? Who is paying the bus fare? 20 mins each way walk - plus waiting time in play ground - she is going to need to be there at least 5 mins before - is an hour.

They don't change the price if you drop off late or pick up early - they would never know how much they were going to earn each week.

Also for childcare it's normal to pay for a set session, say 9-1, even if you drop off later and collect early.

@JimHalpertsWife
OP clarified it 15/20min walk OR 10 min bus not both.
So CM is charging a full
hour for a max of 20mins

Does she not then walk/bus back with OP's DC? I don't understand but both outward and inward would be about an hour?
This is a pick-up, not a drop off - and whichever it is she still has to go back to her workplace and take other DC she might be minding that day with her? And it's not a free bus?

Having been a childminder, I think it's reasonable. Having to do a 30 minute school run, with the other children, means she will have to make sure the younger ones are fed, napped, up and ready by 2.30, impacting her whole day. She probably really doesn't want to do it. If she is willing to, pay her the £4 for her time. She is still working, the school run is impacting on her routine and her whole day, she's just too nice to say it.

We used to pay babysitters for full hours if they worked even just minutes of that hour. 2 hrs 5 mins: 3 hrs pay

Just to clarify

journey would only take 20 minutes max. Never an hour

buses come every 15-20 minutes at that time

i remember CM telling me she gets free travel

I’m NOT querying the return journey as DC is with her

I hope this is London at that hourly rate. You said there are lots of local CM are her rates within the price range of the others? Don't forget you are not responsible for ensuring she makes at least minimum wage. Cm charge per child, you can have 4 children under 5 years old total of 6 under 8years. Limits on children over age 8 is by space available. She's in a low wage because she only has your child but could be making much more.

Also I know you offered but it's illegal to charge more for SEND children than you charge for others.

I'm a childminder and have never charged travel time but I do charge by the half hour. So if school gets out 3.20 I charge from 3.

The 30 minutes home is already being paid for

I think from 2:30 would probably be fair.

I'm sure that I'm following the time arrangements you have with her. You seem to be treating her as a drop in service and you only have to pay for the random hours you decide to use each day.

Do you not have her booked for set hours and pay those whether you use them or not? So if you usually drop at 9, you should pay from that time, not 9.30 when you turned up. Nobody would want an arangement where they don't know if they will be paid for their set times or not.

She's taking the piss. Although you could calculate her hourly rate when you just take the hours you would suggest she gets paid, then see if you think that is fair.