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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

cm club, advice please

11 replies

thebody · 02/03/2009 16:40

Just had a lovely lady visit about places for her dd, who is 3, The dd will be at nursery in the morning and she wants me to pick up and give tea later,now I aked her if I would be in loco parentis while she is at nursery and she said yes, so do i charge her full rate, (£3.00. ph) if i dont i will be down on a potential place but feel a bit mean.. any advice?

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chel86 · 02/03/2009 16:43

Hi there,

I have a mindee at playgroup and I charge half fee for when she's at playgroup, which the parent is fine about. At least then if the playgroup is closed or it's holidays then she has a space, which I then up to full rate if used.

HTH

Original poster

thebody · 02/03/2009 16:55

didnt think of that, thanks a lot, makes perfect sense...

OP posts:

KatyMac · 02/03/2009 17:00

Where will she be if the nursery is closed?

What time would she be at yours from?

I charge while at nursery because I can't afford not to - unless I can sell the space to a Term-time only child

Original poster

thebody · 02/03/2009 17:08

early discussions as yet but i suppose home with me as mum will be at work.

OP posts:

moshie · 02/03/2009 17:14

I always charge full fee for a child in nursery because you can't fill those hours, the chid is taking a full days space.

Original poster

thebody · 03/03/2009 08:59

thanks to all. I cant really afford to charge less I suppose, just wanted to get reassurance from the team that I was on track with everyone else. thanks

OP posts:

Shoshe · 03/03/2009 09:04

The body I have this policy, hope it helps

A child is counted as an under 5 by Ofsted until they are in full time education i.e. at school for 10 sessions a week.

A child who is at pre school is a under 5 and if they are with a childminder before and after pre school, and require a fulltime space during the holidays they therefore are taking a childminders full time space. As such you are required to pay full fee for the time that they are at preschool, as the childminder cannot then fill the part time that they are at pre school.

Littlefish · 03/03/2009 09:06

I pay full fee to my cm while my dd is at nursery. My cm tops and tails the day.

I'm fine with this and didn't expect any reduction. I don't pay for dd's nursery place (the childminder day forms part of her 5 sessions a week), so I'm no better or worse off than I was before.

If the nursery phone to say that dd is off-colour, then the cm would pick her up and look after her until I could get there.

HSMM · 03/03/2009 12:13

I charge full fee. I keep the space open for that child, in case the nursery is closed, or to use during the holiday. My usual rule - if I am available, I get paid. The only exception I have ever made to this is where someone wanted 1 morning per week term time only, so I could offer them this and not charge the parent of the child at nursery. It did however mean that if the nursery was closed, their parent had to cover.

RosieGirl · 03/03/2009 14:30

I have always charged half for nursery cover if they need a space during the holiays, but talking to other childminders and looking at a 2nd under 5 going to pre-school soon I can't fill those spaces, so I may have to re-negotiate contracts as I can't afford to have 2 of my under 5 spaces at half price every morning for 9 months of the year. I have followed lots of threads over the months and really regret starting out as a "friendly - easygoing" type minder. When I start with new mindees (although mine are long term with siblings popping out so no space for new ones yet ) I am determind to make a fresh start because I have been, and currently feel, some now abuse my "flexibility", I'm not good at confrontation, but other CM's and my DH have been encouraging me to sit down with each parent, review contracts and clear matters up, this is so hard as many have become friends and I have always felt that CM's are here to be a more flexible. But I am now doing a 50 hour week and studying an NVQ3 and sometimes when they are 15 minutes late picking up it can make all the difference to me and my own family.

Sorry went off the thread a bit there

Original poster

thebody · 03/03/2009 20:33

I do feel that I have to charge a full fee, after all I cant use that space can I, and lets face it, being a cm isnt great money in the first place.
Thanks to all who replied. I too want to offer an easy going service RosieGirl,but see that if I am not careful I could set a precedent that I simply cant afford.
Also DH would kill me.. sometimes I am such a sap but have been so lucky with my parents so far, all are lovely, but all cms I know tell me that this is jusst luck and somewhere down the line I will meet one who isnt.. pehaps just best to set your stall out in the first place and stick to it..

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