Childminer fees and retainers for term time only.

[chloemegjess]

Hello. I have had an enquirey for childminding, butthe parent wants term time only. I was understanding that the norm round here was half fees, which I thought was alot so I said £25 per week in the holidays. However, she has now said to me that she has found another childminder who will not charge her for the holidays. She still wants to meet me, anyway.

Now I don't know what to do, do I stick with the £25 PW charges and risk loosing the mindie or do I just say I will not charge her for the holidays??

I am a new childminder by the way, looking to start in september and have no work lined up yet.

What is everybody's opinion on this??

It sounds like she wants you regardless.

Stick to your plan, and just explain to her that you won't be able to fill the place during the holidays, so thats why you have to charge the half-fee.

Good luck.

I am not
even charging a half fee, its just £25 per week, when in term time, she is doing 40 hours a week at £4 per hour! So I think what I am offering is reasonable. I dont want to be completely pennyless in the holidays!

I think you are being very reasonable, in that case.

Most CM's in my area will pay half the weekly fee during the holidays.

I have a term time contract with my childminder and therefore don't pay anything during school holidays at all - it suits both of us as she has school age children and I'm a teacher!

If she wants to meet you then she may be willing to pay the retainer - it's not unfair that you charge but you'll have to accept that she might go with the other minder all other things being equal.

Don't CMs have children that they take to and collect from school? Presumably CM would have these children all day in the holidays (or some of them), doesn't this make up for the term time only kids?

Hi. I work term time only and my child minder doesn't charge me at all for the holidays, she said it fits in well for her as she has childern that go there just in the holidays. If she did charge me I would look for a childminder that didn't charge me as thats why i was choosing a childminder rather than a nursery (they charge you full)

What your offering is still very fair as you will be losing out over the holidays and you would be better off taking a child who mum didnt work term time only.

It will probably depend on whether she can find someone who wont charge her and if she does it will be no loss to you as your space will soon be taken up with another child. All the childminders near me are full with waiting lists!!!!

Hana - I MIGHT get children who ater just afterschool that I can then have during the holidays but as I am a new childminder, I dont know what children will come along.

Also, I dont have my own children who are school age. I only have 1 DD who is 6 months old, so the holidays dont affect us.

I think I am going to stick to my guns and still do the £25 per week charge. Its not much and to be honest, it would suit me better if I had an all year round child.

I will just have to take the chance that she will go else where.

Now calculate the difference, you are charging £4 per hour and £25 per week retainer. The other childminder might be charging £4.50 per hour to cover the school holidays.

Stick to your £25 retainer fee.

Stick to your £25 charge, and see what they say.
Another thing you could do, is tell them that the charge for those weeks is £25 per week, but as an alternative you could agree to a higher hourly rate during term time.

Work out how many weeks they are actually wanting in a year. 36 weeks? 40 weeks? More?