Need childcare solution in SE19 !

[Vangough]

We are looking for a childcare solution from next Jan 09 for our bubbly 13 month DD. I will be going freelance next year so will work 8 months FT during the year with 4 months off. The tricky bit is when I work will be unpredictable ! It might be I work for 1-2 months with 3 weeks off, then work another stint for 2 months and 4 weeks off....
We would commit to 8 months a year (8am - 7pm 5 days a week) & it can be flexible to an extent (I will be able to give some notice !) but I need someone who could work with this situation. Our DD is very social and would love to be with other children so perhaps a flexible childminder in the SE19 area might exist?? Any help or advice greatly appreciated !

That sort of situation is tricky, your best bet would be to work out the amount of hours that the minder would be willing to accept as a yearly amount and spread this amount out over the 12 month period.

So if it was 275 hours per month then 8 of these - 2200 hours for the 8 month period.

You are a london person so guessing childminders roughly £5ph = £11000 for the 8 months.

If you spread this out over the 12 month period it would work out to £916 per month.

However, they may ask for a retainer for the months that you are on holiday so maybe 50% for the time that you are not working.

This would be 550 hours at full pay ( half of 1100) so that would be an additional £2750

So if you spread it out for equal payments it would come to roughly £1145 per month.

Hope that this makes some sense to you!

I am a childminder in Ashtead, around 45 min drive from you and this would be the sort of thing that I would be willing to accept as long as it was all worked out properly.

If you would either like to come and see me for childcare or would like some explanation on the fees work out then email me at [email protected]

Good luck

I'm in SW16 and my CM only charges £800 per month full-time and she's not the cheapest CM I've met, so you should be able to pay someone full-time and only use them when you need and not have to stump up too much. If they were flexible they may also be able to give you a discount during the month's when you weren't working, but I wouldn't bank on it. Definitely worth ringing around tho to find the right CM for you.

great thanks, I think some good ideas. I have thought about working the money out over an annual basis, it has to work that way really. I wondered about the retainer though (50% seems really high !) as annually my child would provide more income at FT 8 months (and no pay 4 months) than a child who was only part time but over 12 months....and I am coming across quite alot of childminders who have several PT children...Anyway I guess I need to find the right person then talk this through some more and negotiate a fair deal !

My other stumbling block does seem to be finding childminders in my area ! I've tried Childcarelink and my local council and other local websites but hardly coming up with any names....any ideas there?