Childminders charging for my holidays

[Eunhae]

Hi team,
Do your childminders charge full price when both you and them take holidays?

Do you get any discount when you take time.off with advance notice?

I have told my childminder we only need childcare the first two weeks of Decmeber after she has told us she is taking the full week of 23/12 off but we need to pay full that week.
I asked for a discount on the third week but she has said she will charge the full 22 days in Decmeber even though we are actually only using 10, and only have 17 available.

Thoughts? Advice? I obviously want to keep good with her, but she seems to think she is an employee rather than self employed claiming every expense including 25% of her home rent!

I mean, you're right, she's self employed so she gets to set her own terms. All you can do is vote with your feet really. When I was a childminder I didn't charge for my holidays but charged for parents holidays. That seemed to be the most common arrangement so it might be worth looking around to see if you can find a childminder with more favourable terms.

I would imagine you have to pay, just like nursery places. You took up a place where she can't sell to another child.

I think it's fair for her to charge while you're on holiday, but not whilst she is. That's unreasonable of her to charge you when she isn't providing childcare. I'd vote with my feet and go elsewhere if that is feasible.

With ours we pay her for our holidays - as they are in times she would usually have them, but not for hers.

You need to refer back to your contract.

She can set her terms however she likes so as long as she set out in the contract that you have to pay year round then that's what you'll have to do. If she's going against what your contract says then you can obviously refuse to pay and let her take it further.

If you don't like her terms and conditions then you can give notice and look for alternative childcare.

Deduct the house rent you pay for her whilst she’s on holidays and over weekends and public holidays. If she doesn’t she doesn’t agree find another childminder.

Ours charged for our holidays (unless we took them in the school holidays as CM did like having some time with just her kids - and that was an incentive).

She didn't charge for hers - although she took very few as I recall.

I agree you need to vote with your feet if you're not happy.

What does your contract say regarding how many days of paid annual leave she'll take?

I don't understand how this means she thinks she's an employee? If her home is her workplace, she's entitled to claim the appropriate costs.

Childminders can't fill an absent child's place for a week, realistically, so if one child is not there for a week, that means they don't earn anything and can't take on other work, so effectively you pay to hold the child's place. It seems a bit unusual to charge for her own holidays though. I wonder if she's miscalculated? Or maybe she charges a flat monthly rate for her own predictability of income and a certain number of "unavailable weeks" such as Christmas and Easter are factored into her rate. A business has overheads even when there's nobody in, you pay your registration fees etc for the full year regardless of how many weeks you actually work. However you set your fees, you have to set them high enough to compensate for when you take unpaid time off, or set them a bit lower and charge a flat rate per month.

I would have thought that all the terms and conditions about holidays and rates etc would have been in the childminder's contract?

Charging for your holidays is fair enough if the service is available and you're choosing not to use it.

Her holidays ... depends on what is in the contract. She might have included a clause to say all bank holidays (like nurseries do) and x number of other days per year are paid.

Our childminder was only term time and charged for actual days worked only. If she took a day off occasionally it wouldn't be paid. She was lovely, but an arrangement like the above is more common I think. Check your contract! My son's nursery had a clause that we paid for bank holidays but that was all. However a they decided to close at lunchtime for Christmas Eve and Maundy Thursday. As this wasn't in the contract I'd deduct the half day from the payment that month. They weren't happy (i think most parents just accepted it) and once pulled out some revised terms which I politely refused to sign.

When I used a childminder, she would charge if my DS couldn't be there for some reason (illness, holiday etc) but would not charge if she wasn't available (bank holidays, her holidays, her illness). That seemed really fair and I'd quite often take my holidays at the same time as hers.

Now I use a nursery and have to pay for every day even bank holidays or if they're shut for some reason. There aren't staff illnesses or holidays to worry about though.

I think all you can do really is suck it up or look for someone else that you feel terms are fairer or a nursery where there won't be their holidays to deal with.

It all comes down to your contract. I know many that include it as to be paid just like their summer weeks off. Some only charge half, just depends on get you signed up to

As others say, check your contract. Mine didn't charge for her holidays but did for ours.

However, if she prefers to charge all year round (possibly at a slightly lower daily rate than those who don't charge holidays) and say within that she will take up to 4 weeks off, and you signed that, then she's within her rights.

We've used a few different childminders over the years. Never paid for their holiday, only our own. Bank holidays varied, one childminder charged for them but another didn't as she needed the day off anyway to care for her own children. Usually didn't pay if the childminder closed due to sickness either, though one did have it in the contract that we had to pay for up to 5 sick days.

Edited to add we paid for the exact hours per month, so the amount was different every month. As others have said, she could be charging a fixed monthly fee that works out the same once holidays are accounted for?

My childminder explained it like this.
If I am here and willing and able to have your child then you pay me, if I am not then you don't.
Was pretty simple and clear cut as far as I was conccerned

We pay for holidays. Hers and ours. I will say she very clearly drew this to my attention well before we signed the contract at initial discussion stages. My childminder is great and so it is just now of those things.

*one of those things

Re my situation.

As everyone else says, check your contract.

Ours doesn't charge for her own holidays but she only usually takes 2 weeks off throughout the entire year. With the exception of next year where she's taking 3.

We do pay for our own holidays so for this reason we arrange them for when she is off.

I paid mine whilst I was away, and for two weeks of her holiday a year too. Worth her weight in gold.

I paid when I went on holiday. And my childminder had a number of weeks per year also paid.

Normal to pay her during your holidays. If she is on holiday, Perhaps a mix of you paying some and not paying others - eg, you pay for two weeks, and two weeks are unpaid. It depends on the contract.

Depends completely on what’s in your contract. All CM set their own terms and vary wildly.

My last CM had fours weeks per year where she closed and we didn’t pay anything, we were given these dates a full year in advance to allow us to plan our leave or alternative care. If she was ever off sick officially we didn’t need to pay either, although I generally would pay for this. We then had two weeks per year which we could book in advance and pay 50%.

Some do both theirs and your leave at 50%, others charge in full for both.

Seems fair enough- it's not like she can find someone else while you're away

I’m surprised Childers minders charge for their own holidays and those of their clients. I would only expect to pay for the time they actually looked after them! Never realised you have to pay for services not received.

In my area all the childminders charged the same fixed amount monthly including when they took their 4 weeks holiday. It’s why I chose nursery over childminder (cost was the same) as I didn’t want to be beholden to someone else going on holiday, me continuing to pay in full and having to source alternative childcare.