Childminder - market research

fitzilian19

Hello,

Anyone on here who uses a childminder?

Would you mind letting me know what you are charged (or charge if you Mind yourself) and what that involves?

ie. hours, days, activities, meals etc

Also, how you found your childminder?


Thanks...


(I'm just about to sit my childminding test and will be getting on with Pre-Reg soon so any help would be great!)

teambathmat

Hiya

I pay £25 per day, I drop my 1 year old little boy off at the childminders at 7.30am and pick him up at 6pm (she charges an extra fiver if after 6pm). I only work 2 days a week.

She has a large playroom with lots of toys and she also takes him to Mums groups/park/shopping/school run.

I have to send him with nappies and baby wipes, but she provides meals for him.

I live in Leeds by the way.

Liz

ETA-I googled 'registered childminders Leeds'to find her.

pretzelnut

I used to be a child minder about 18 months ago and i charged £3 per hour per child including all meals and trips, but parents had to supply nappies, wipes, suncream, change of clothing etc. This was for full - part time children. The fee included any extra trips to toddler groups, farms etc etc.

For before and after school children i charged a minimum of 2 hours per day so if i had 1 child who would arrive at 7.30am till school drop off at 9am it was £6.
It would also be the same if i only had a child after school from 3.30 till 5pm it would be £6.

I also offered a 20% reduction for aditional siblings in my care.

I tried to be as flexible as i could be with parents, communication is the key.

And i will stress to get payment in advance - i had a few who would try to worm there way out of paying by saying, i was mugged, i lost my purse, my bank card isnt working at the minute, ive just had a huge bill to pay etc etc, you get to know the type. They soon pay up when they turn up with their child without the money they owe you expecting that you will still look after their child, on 2 occasions i had to stand at the door and say sorry no payment no childcare, i have a waiting list of people who need childcare that are willing to pay for it so unless you pay me what you owe me i wont be able to care for your child today, they always promptly went to the cash machine and paid what they owed me.

Always charge what you say you will charge, i had contracts and all parent knew exactly what to pay me when, if i had their child for extra hours they got a bill for the difference.

gabyjane

Hi i am in the south and charge £4 per hour during the day £4.50 for school runs or a daily fee, depends on the hours tbh as if it is only half a day i do a daily fee as lose space and a waste of a day if i only have 1 to mind.

I charge half for my holidays and time off and the same for theirs too.

I include all food and snacks and days out etc.

Woodyrocks

I am in London and pay between £5/6ph. Daily rate are around the £40 mark. Netmums is a great resource for parents and minders alike so do check it out, if you haven't already.

I found my latest CM by placing an advert on NM. My last was found by placing an advert on Mumsnet. I have also used the local council register but have never found any success as the list is never current.

New CM (contract signed and deposit paid but doesn't start for a couple of months yet) charges £5ph and extra £1.50 for dinner if staying after 6pm. 50% retainer for holidays and she gets 4wks paid holiday as well (this is new to me)

Last CM charged £5 every 15mins you were late and literally served 1 croquet, 1 fish finger and 12 peas and called that dinner, looked after her kids before seeing to DD - she was a total passive aggressive cow. She didn't charge a retainer though and didn't have to pay her holiday.

dangers

I'm about to go up to £3.50 per hour (south west). At the moment, I only look after before & after school, but am about to go back to c/minding pre-schoolers, hopefully two days a week. I have never had any trouble with payment from any of my parents - I think I've been lucky though. I don't charge for food and haven't charged previously for trips for pre-schoolers, although I do if I take school aged children out in the holidays. However, I do take into consideration the cost of the activities and try to clear the extra cost with the parents before hand.
What test are you doing? Good luck - the job can be a lot harder than some people imagine!

MrsTinks

Crikey at £5 an hour I should look into this! 3 kids and I'd earn more than I do now! :eek:

flea72

i pay £3/hr - i have to provide breakfast, lunch, tea and nappies, but the childminder provides drinks and snacks

The childminder is a family friend, so ive known her for years. She works from 7am-6pm

Activity wise, she takes the kids to anything free/cheap within the area - so down the park on the swings, to the local mother/baby groups, shopping, etc.

hth Flea

mummy_Jay

I've used childminders since my son was 4 months old, I found all of them from http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/ in conjunction with recommendations from other parents and childminders. Some provided nappies and wipes some didn't, I've always paid extra for lunch but some provide hot meals, some only sandwich type meals but all have charged an hourly rate about £3 (meal charges have ranged from 75p breakfast to £1.25 lunch). [East Midlands]

teambathmat

blimey, just shows the difference in price from up North to down south......If i was to pay £5 an hour I would be paying £55 a day opposed to the £25 i am paying now!!!!

galvanizersbaby

MrsTine wrote: »

Crikey at £5 an hour I should look into this! 3 kids and I'd earn more than I do now! :eek:

Aren't you still on your maternity leave Mrs T?