do you pay your cm while your child is at school?

[doodlebops]

hi, im a bit confused and need advice please!
my dd goes to her cm twice a week from 8am to 4.30pm, before the hols she went to preschool nursery for 2.5hrs a day, i paid the cm for the full day and i understand the reasons for doing so. however dd has just started primary school and cm has told me she is thinking about charging me the full day while she is at school, which would mean me paying over £24 a day when dd requires only just over 2 hours care,
cm was aware that i would only need the wrap around care once dd started school. she has not mentioned this to the parents of one of the the other children (they only pay for the hours before and after school)if anything was to happen while i was at work the school have my phone number to contact me and i would leave work or my mum is the emergency contact. to be perfectly honest, im not in a wel paid job, i earn £6.40 an hour but its a job i enjoy. i was looking forward to my cm costs reducing drastically and now im faced with the posibility of having to find my dd a place elsewhere.
yes, i recieve 70% towards my child care cost from tax credits but im still paying money out of my own pocket aswell.

can you tell me what your cm charges or if you are a childminder, if this is normal practice??

that sounds pretty ridiculous
does your cm mean that she would rather have another child all day but as she has to look after your dd in the afternoon, she is over on numbers and so would lose out financially?
have you thought about after school clubs? would work out a lot cheaper

Well when I had a cm, I paid her a retainer type fee for the hours that ds was at school (can't remember the exact amount but it wasn't much) and most of the people I know who use CMs for wrap around care have a similiar arrangement with theirs.

Before and After school care in my area tends to be at a specific charge, not billed by the hour. For example, the hour before school plus school run may be charged at £7-£10. Pickup till 6pm (regardless of when you collect) may be charged at £15-£20).
Typical hourly rates for full-time children in my area are £4.50-£5.50 per hour.

I would not say that it was usual to charge all-day for a child who was at school, but every CM can organise their business the way they like. Negotiate if you can. Perhaps agree on a per-day fee for school days, and a per-day fee for school holidays/inset days/ad-hoc school closure days.

there is a nursery that offers wrap around care in our town, its just such a thought moving dd at the beginning of her first school year.
in around june time she was talking of having to give up child minding as she would only have one child all day, (others will all be at school) but decided against. now she has come out with this. dd has been going through out the summer holidays and she never mentioned it until now. dd is one of 3 girls the same age who go to her that have started school (they are part time also) so her income will have reduced drastically but she has another boy full time and an older boy who is before and after school mon-fri.

Is she going P/T to start off with

If so she counts as an under 5 and uses a full space - it may change when she attends f/t

dd is 9am -12 noon just now, starting full time after next week, cm definately meant when she was going to school full time aswell.

Oh - sorry it's either pay or find new then

I charge £5 before school & £10 after

Yes, I would think that is unusual.

Certainly the CMs I have spoken to in RL & on here about pre and after school care have charged for the hours ds would need,(except in the case of the staggered start to the reception term where full day costs have to be charged really) - as although he is 4 he counts as one of their over 5s because he attends school. There is a half fee retainer in the holidays but that is all the additional I think I have to pay.

I'm sure CMs can advise on here, but worth speaking again to your CM to make sure she understands your dd is a 'rising 5' before having to move her to another CM. No way would I pay for a full day, especially with the govt funding stopping.

thanks for your advice, im going to have to discuss this with her next time i see her.

I've never heard of this. My CM charges for the 2 hours that we use after school.
I think that your CM is trying it on, obviously she can organise her business and pricing structure any way she likes, but that will only work if the market will bear it and I'd be surprised if she found many people who would accept paying for the whole day like that.

Your cm is taking the piss. My cm charges for the hours she has my children. nothing more.
My mum was a cm all through my childhood and she only ever charged for the hours she had the children. Never did she charge for school hours, which I'm pretty sure is standard. Find a new cm if she won't budge.

Im a CM and I think it's totally wrong to charge a daily rate for an over 5.

I would never do that.

Don't agree to it. She can try and fill the place with a pre-school child, your child will be counted in her over 5's.I think she is trying it on.

There has been a lot of confusion regarding child ratios for rising 5s attending childminders because of the current wording of EYFS. Don't know if your cm's suggestion is because of this? Ofsted were telling us that we had to count reception children as over 5s in term-time but under 5s in school holidays - regardless of whether they are 4 or 5 because EYFS goes on up until 31 Aug after 5th birthday. So childminders would have to charge in term-time to hold an under 5s space free for the holidays!!! But if her reason for charging is connected with EYFS, advise her to contact Ofsted as I did - I got a letter from them confirming its okay to carry on as we are now (for now!). Although EYFS has not yet been corrected and no official announcement has been made, we have been assured the current child ratio rules were never intended to be changed with EYFS.

If she is expecting to be an emergency contact you might point out that she should not collect your child if unwell as this would put other mindees at risk and you are happy to responsible for this.(Some childminders do negotiate payment to be emergency contact, I don't agree as children rarely need to be collected early unless unwell. In any case, don't know anyone who charges full fees though, its usually a much smaller payment with full fees on the days the child is collected early).

I charge a set fee of £10 for both before and after school care so even without paying during the hours your child is at school the wrap around care still costs £20 a day. Its not worth doing for less with fuel bills, food bills to consider etc