settling in period

[actonchildminder]

hi all

Got my first child starting monday but having a settling in period

what happens during this time and do i charge?

thanks

Well done!

Some charge some don't, so up to you really. I tend to do short sessions depending on age, so first one parent stays for a couple of hours, next one parent stays for a bit then comes back to collect after an hour or so, last one child stays on own for 2-3 hrs, then is collected.

You can usually tell from first visit if the settling in is going to be an issue, I tend to find the parents more of a worry than the mindees.

thank you

don't think i will charge as it will be only for a while, when the child came here she ran straight into the garden with my children and when her parents wanted to leave she told them no lol. so i think she will be fine.

I presume you mean settling in sessions as opposed to the settling in period which is the first few weeks of minding.

I don;t charge settling in sessions but I do stipulate xx amount of hours over the course of xx days/weeks - anything after that is chargeable. I have heard of a minder who got caught out by offering xyz settling in sessions and the parents never went ahead with teh contract, turned out they never needed long term care - just short term care and they managed to negotiate the sessions with the minder to be 'settling in' sessions!!!

The settling in period is the first 4 weeks (normally) of the contract but either party can cancel without notice if things aren't working out.

oooohhhhhhhhhh lol im confused now, can you explain in more detail please

I do offer free settling in sessions but only after a contract has been signed. I have been caught out before and now get signed contracts before I agree to anything.

I have done 1-2 hours one day a week for the 4 weeks running up to starting, a couple of 1-2hour sessions in the week before when there was short notice. Never more than 2 hour sessions and not more than 4 sessions in total. I did have one mum who insisted on paying me for settling in sessions which was nice!

I don't have a settling in period as pippin26 was talking about. Once a contract is signed a months notice is required by either party. Although I have 1 new child who is a nightmare and I am seriously considering not having anymore so that would be a good get out clause at the moment!

I generally invite new parents to bring their child to me for 3-4 sessions in increasing lengths of time building up to the full day although with all my current mindees (four), it has only been one session and then they stayed for the whole day.

I normally start for about 3 hours and then try and get the second session to include lunch time to see how that goes! The problem I find with settling sessions that are too short is that the baby may sleep for most of the time so it doesn't really help either party. Parents tend to only stay for the first session.

I do charge for these sessions and they are contracted but like others here, my contract has an "either-way" cancellation clause within the first month so that either party can end the contract without notice and without penalty if things are not going well.

I offer a first session of up to 2 hours free of charge. Anything else is chargeable, with a minimum charge of 2 hours.

We agree a settling in period of between 2-6 weeks depending on the child and the requirements of the family. I try to be flexible during the settling in period and we review each week to confirm how long the sessions for the next week will be. The aim is to build up to the full contracted hours the week before the start date, if possible. This way, especially if the parent is returning to work, we can all be confident its all working well by the agreed start date. And if there are any issues, the parent is easy to reach and hopefully have everything ironed out before the start date. So they can return to work with less stress.

Every child is different, which is why I feel its important to have a fairly flexible settling in if possible. Some children are very confident from day 1 and could cope with a full day from the start. Others need more support and lots of communication between parents & carer to help things along.

Once the contracted start date arrives, unless either of us have given notice, the full fees and full notice period should kick in. I had one family who wanted to do short sessions for a bit longer, although I felt the child was happy and settled well. So they paid the full daily rate from the agreed start date as that was the terms of the contract agreement.