how much do you spend on childcare outside basic school hours?

[secrethideaway]

just looking ahead to my DD starting school, I'm wondering how much people tend to have to pay.

let's say I have to drop her off somewhere around 7am and do pick up around 6pm - which is what happens now with a nursery.

Do you use a mix of school clubs and other childcare? - a tutor? - childminder?

i want to understand whether i can afford to have another one when DD goes to primary school, and think it's going to depend on the balance of nursery fees for the second, and wrap around costs for the first

I'm in the midlands, not an overly expensive part of the country but nursery costs are still high here e.g. £1000+ for a full work week. Childminders possibly a bit cheaper. DD would be going to a state school so no school fees.

thanks x

I use before/after school clubs but they don't start until 8.15am and they finish at 6.30pm.
Where we are (also in the midlands) they charge £10.50 per hour/part hour (includes breakfast and toast/crumpets/hot snack and drinks) .

We are fairly rural so no childminders to do school pick up/drop off. If you book the entire term and pay upfront you can get up to 50% off but I cant afford to do that so have to pay the full whack every week.

£210 per week per child although you do get 10% discount for each additional child.

I use a before and after school club which is part of an overall nursery setting. They also offer a holiday club. For your needs, I would suggest around £450 per month to be a ROM cost. I drop off in the morning , they do all the transporting to and from school. They offer breakfast, loads of play and a 4pm snack which is trays and trays of food. DD needs dinner when she gets home at 6 though. However with hot school meals, dinner is often sandwiches, veg sticks and fruit.

Roughly £200 a month for CM to have DD from 7:50am, school drop off, school pick up and have DD until 5pm - three days a week.

2 primary children looked after before and after school by a nanny/ childminder. She arrives at 7.15 (just as I leave) and gets children ready and to school, then does 3 school pick ups, looking after them until 4.30/5.00 (I do the other pick ups).
It costs £160 a week, works out just over £12 an hour. It sounds a lot but for thirteen hours, early starts and the fact that I don't have to do drop off or pick up and she can take them to clubs or supervise homework then it is worth it for us.

My son goes to morning club at the school which starts at 8 then childminders after school until 6 on the days that I don't pick him up.
I pay £3 for the morning and then £3.50 each hour after school which I'm very happy with.. A lot cheaper than what our nursery fees were! :)

£10 for 2 children for 1hr 10 mins in the morning and £16 for 2 children in ASC from 3.15 to 5pm

So £13 per day per child from 7.30am to 5pm (school 8.40 to £3.15pm). Works out at just over £4 ph

£3 a session for breakfast club and £6 an hour for a childminder after school. After-school club would be cheaper at £7 a session but it finishes too early.

The toddler goes to a different childminder for around £50 a day.

I use childcare for 2 days a week and returned to work part-time after having 2nd child because we're better off than if I worked full time. The cost of full time childcare would have been £350 a week during term time and even more during holidays.

I suggest you investigate what the options will be for you at schools near you, it varies massively and can change year to year and there may be waiting lists for clubs.

At DS current school there is a not-for-profit arrangement 8-6 term time, £55 per week. Holidays 8.30-5.30 £75 for the whole week.

Where we used to live there was nothing school based, he had a child-minder before school and was picked for an after school. The costs were approx. double what we pay now.

A few weeks before we moved the after school withdrew the pick up service for DS school. I lined up a child-minder but at the last minute she said she couldn't take him. We coped for the last three weeks before we moved but if we hadn't been moving it would have been disastrous. I thought the CM was staggeringly unprofessional (she could have given me a lot more notice than she did). I shared my woes with other parents without naming the CM. Other parents then suggested the mother of another child in the class as she was a CM. "Hmm." says I in a hushed voice "It was actually her that let me down". So I got the satisfaction of letting it be known while appearing to be reluctant to name her.

Our choice of the current school was partly due to the fact that there is on-site childcare before and after school.

4.5ph

The breakfast club next door to DD's school look after them from 7.45 and walk them round to school at 8.40. That costs £2.50/day including toast or cereal and juice.

The after school club (same company, different location) walk them from school at about 3.30 and close until 6. That's £10/day or £45 for a full week and includes a light snack at about 5 (pasta or pitta bread and salad, etc.)

That's in London. I'm surprised at some of the prices on here! I didn't realise what a bargain I was getting.

SE London/Kent border:

We pay our childminder £5/hour, so £20/day for 1 hour before and 3 after school. Breakfast and hot tea after school is included.

You might be better off looking at combined childcare for both children - either a nanny or CM, rather than nursery - to avoid two drop offs/pick ups at different places. It also means the siblings have some time together after school.

A few things to consider:

• after school club places can be limited and can vary in quality. Some are really just a safe space for kids to play but don't offer a proper meal or quiet place for rest or homework. Others are the opposite. Look carefully into what your chosen primary school offers. In London most cost around £10/day.

• most breakfast clubs round our way (London) start around 8am so may be too late for you. Most in our area cost around £3/day.

• a good CM can cater for both your child's needs - rest if they need it, lots of activities if they're full of energy, as well as providing a proper dinner (so you're not having to cook as soon as you get home). But look into how many kids (and of what ages) the CM expects to have. A young toddler surrounded by much older kids or vice versa might not work well. Not sure about CM rates but would likely be cheaper than nanny or nursery.

• Think about when homework will be done. In yr 1 it can ramp up significantly. What time will you get home and will you have time to help with homework then? If not, think about a nanny. Most CMs won't be able to guarantee much one on one time unless all the kids are a similar age and doing homework together.

• think about school holiday care. A nanny or CM may prevent you having to rely on holiday clubs which can be sporadic, not full days, inconvenient locations or just not activities your child enjoys.

We use an after school nanny as we wanted dd to be fed and have done some reading by the time we get home (6pm) and also to have flexibility around after school activities and school hols care. We pay £10 an hour (min wage for London, personally I wouldn't pay less).

Remember to think about holidays!! We found it better to work out a total over the year so we could assign a monthly budget - otherwise months with holidays in can be a shock!

redsky - good tip. We get childcare vouchers and get a bit more each month than we need for the CM. We then use the saved ones for any holiday club as DD is bored at her CM when she goes for a full day. We prefer holiday activity camps.

You really need to look at your local options. Price and availability massively varies. Where we used to live there was no breakfast club at school and the after school option was a mini-bus to another school (not terribly nearby) that would only keep them until 5.30pm. Childminders avoided our school as the parking was beyond mad. We paid £300 a week for one child to attend wrap around at a private nursery (term-time only) and were still left scrabbling about for holiday solutions and in the end I gave up work because the whole thing was lunacy. A nanny would have been cheaper for us as we had younger DC too, but our family situation was additionally complicated, so it would have been hard to swing.

At our new school there is breakfast and after-school provision (only 8am-6pm though, which wouldn't be early enough for you). It's £2.95 per child per hour and onsite so children can do afterschool activities and be collected by ASC staff. Discount for more hours and siblings. Holiday club run by the same people is £12 for half day and £20 for full day (you have to send a packed lunch) with 10% sibling discount. It's pretty boring though, so I tend to book DC into activities (sports/music/forest school) elsewhere instead.

If you are needing long hours in school holidays that will be hard to find and expensive. Lots of school hours clubs options but not 7-6.

Many wrap around clubs will only be 8-5.30/6.

A childminder may be best bet if you need long hours year round.

I pay £12.50 per day for breakfast & after-school club available 7:45-6.
Holiday clubs here are around £115-£125 per week for an extended day.

Look at your schools though because here they are all different.

Hello. Not sure where you are but round here very few schools offer after school club and the only private company that did has closed. You need to book CM a long way in advance. I ended up dropping my work hours massively to cope. Financially we are worse off but for stability and reduced stress it is worth it. Never thought of these things when moved here in our child free days coz it was better for the dog !!!

I pay £4 an hour for a childminder. If he's there at mealtimes (before 7:30 or after 5) food is included in the cost. If he needs to go in the holidays it's £40 a day regardless of how long he's there, that includes meals and trips out. If he doesn't go in the holidays we pay a £10 a week retainer.

£3.50 an hour for a childminder, half in holidays when we don't use the space. So around £190 per month for 7:30-6 (obv she's at school from 8:30-3) 3 days a week. We actually found we were hardly any better off than when she'd been in nursery with the funded hours.

I use a cm for reception age child and 2 yr old. 2yr old in cm 50h a week school age 7.30-9 then 3-5.30. £1000 a month. Looking forward to the 3 yr funding.

In school we have £3 from 7:45 to 8:45 then £4 for after school to 4:30 another £4 on top of that until 6. Best thing is you can pick and choose your sessions, they don't have to to be the same every week (although you do have to book 2 months ahead). Helps a lot for those of us with shift work who don't always need a Monday for example. I'm really pleased with the provision.

A local nursery also do drop offs and pick up and I see quite a few childminders, but when I asked other mums about their rates it did work out more expensive.

Worth being aware that you can use childcare vouchers for registered after school clubs so that considerably reduces the cost. Until you are using them all on DC2!

Around here breakfast club is £9 a day, open from 7:30. After school club is £12 per session, pick up by 5:30. Waiting list is huge to get in - put DDs name down as soon as you have a space.

Wow toastie that is really expensive!