child minders...and paying as you go along

building

rather than book my child into a childminders for so many days a week does anyone have experience of childminders that offer placements along the lines of "pay as you go along"? i find being self employed this would be a lot easier also as i try to spend as much time as possible with my child when i can. thanks in advance.

Zziggi

I've tried both ways. The one major drawback about 'pay as you go along' is that if someone else approaches the childminder to care for their child for regular hours, then the childminder is likely to take their child in preference to yours as it's regular money. The other problem is that if you 'pay as you go' and have been sending your child for 2 days a week then suddenly want 4 days a week- this may not fit in with the childminder and you are left a bit stuck. To be honest, the 'pay as you go' system doesn't really work. Whilst a parent might find this method useful, from a childminder's point of view, its not a good method for regular income

june1970_2

hi,
I am a childminder and the only way i would do that is if you paid a set amount each month to keep your place open and this would be on top of the hourly rate when i would have the child, as you are taking up a full time space.

katskorner

Yeah what june1970 says is what my childminder does also. I work intermittantly and my son is sometimes with the childminder when I am not working purely due to demand for my services in my job that week. This can be frustrating as if I want to spend time with him and he is due to go to her then I have to pay her half rate for 'holiday'. But on the other side, he loves the other kids and it is good for him. As long as I can cover the fees then it is OK but if I couldn't then I would need to give a month's notice to change things.

foreverskint

I need this sort of flexible arrangement, and couldn't find a childminder who could offer this service. I approached a local day nursery, and they have no problems with this, even taking my dd on short notice, ie 2 hours notice is not usually a problem.

They do not usually charge a retainer so it might be worth checking one or two out

Threadhead

If you can find a childminder who has a space but doesnt really want another full time child, you may be lucky.

I am a registered childminder, and I have done this in the past (admittedly, this was for someone I knew fairly well). At the time, it suited me because I had two full time children, (as well as my own two) and although I needed a bit more income, I wasnt brave enough to take on another full timer.

Above all, when you are dealing with a childminder, you have to remember that she is working to pay her bills, the same as everyone else. No-one else would put up with their payments being withheld because their boss didnt need them for the full working day, or (my personal "favourite") they got someone else to do your job for the day, so wont be paying you :mad:

Hope this helps

Ally

My childminder is the best! We are on a PAYG system. I don't work during school breaks/holidays and she has my youngest for 1-2 days a week during term time. Usually 2 days, but she is perfectly fine with just the 1 day if Daddy has a day off or even no days if Daddy has a week off!

I know I am very very lucky to have such a wonderful childminder and if I could afford to pay her double or even triple, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest! She has a couple of full-timers and some after school kids too, so that may explain why she can do PAYG with my youngest during school hours. There were a few delays at the begining where she had to change her (what do they call it??) ... the number of kids she could have and to fit in and make it easier for her, I changed my working days so she has my youngest on days when she has fewer kids.

It isn't easy to find the right childminder for you and your child, but when you do, it is worth all the hard work!

Have you looked on http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp I used it and must have called every childminder in my area and in the area that I work in! In the end, I found my youngests childminder through my eldests old childminder (does that make any sense!!) so you could try asking around the childminders network too.

Good Luck and let us know how you get on.

building

on childminders. will look into this option. that is really great and been of great assistance!

Ally wrote:

My childminder is the best! We are on a PAYG system. I don't work during school breaks/holidays and she has my youngest for 1-2 days a week during term time. Usually 2 days, but she is perfectly fine with just the 1 day if Daddy has a day off or even no days if Daddy has a week off!

I know I am very very lucky to have such a wonderful childminder and if I could afford to pay her double or even triple, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest! She has a couple of full-timers and some after school kids too, so that may explain why she can do PAYG with my youngest during school hours. There were a few delays at the begining where she had to change her (what do they call it??) ... the number of kids she could have and to fit in and make it easier for her, I changed my working days so she has my youngest on days when she has fewer kids.

It isn't easy to find the right childminder for you and your child, but when you do, it is worth all the hard work!

Have you looked on http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp I used it and must have called every childminder in my area and in the area that I work in! In the end, I found my youngests childminder through my eldests old childminder (does that make any sense!!) so you could try asking around the childminders network too.

Good Luck and let us know how you get on.