Childminding cost question

Milky_Mocha

Hi to all you childminders.

How much would you charge to do a school afternoon pick-up Mon to Fri which involves you driving 30 mins to the school, 30 mins to drop the child at his home, assuming you live about a 15min drive from the child's home?

How much would you charge to do the above plus a morning pick up from child's home to school (I appreciate you would then have to drive 30 mins back home).

Finally how much would you charge to do both the morning and afternoon pick ups but instead of driving the child home, you look after the child till 5:30pm when he will be picked up by either Mum or Dad?

I'm trying to budget/plan and also make an informed decision about which school to choose.

Spendless

I'm not a childminder but know several people who are and I don't know one who picks up/drops off at child's house. Here you are expected to pick child up -drop off at childminder's house.

The amount they charge will depend where you live. There is a link I can find you out if you don't get any other responses.

If you are struggling with childcare where you live and are taken this into account when choosing schools, have you also considered looking at schools with wrap-around care (breakfast, after school, holiday club).

jayII

I did pick-ups/drop offs when I was childminding, due to some families' circumstances, at their request. I charged normal rates from the moment I left the house, until I got back without the child (having dropped them off with their family).

I chose not to charge for petrol or mileage, but it would have been reasonable to do so.

In this case this would be 4x 30mins a day, or 10 hours a week, at about £3-4 an hour, depending on local rates. Plus, possibly, about 40p a mile (inland revenue rates).

In effect, from the moment the childminder leaves her house, she is working for you and your child, so should be paid accordingly.

ETA: this is assuming you can find a childminder who is willing to do this. I only did it because the times fitted in, and the other children had already gone home. It was a 5.30 pm drop off, not school times.

Milky_Mocha

Spendless wrote: »

I'm not a childminder but know several people who are and I don't know one who picks up/drops off at child's house. Here you are expected to pick child up -drop off at childminder's house.

The amount they charge will depend where you live. There is a link I can find you out if you don't get any other responses.

If you are struggling with childcare where you live and are taken this into account when choosing schools, have you also considered looking at schools with wrap-around care (breakfast, after school, holiday club).

Hi, thanks for that quick response. Yes it would be helpful if response indicate which area this would be for. I'm looking in particular at a school in leigh-on-sea but am also looking at schools in brentwood and even chelmsford. Besides I might be willing to relocate so I hesitated to mention any one area in particular. I'm just interested in hearing a range of quotes at this point.

V good point about the wraparound service offered by schools. This is excellent but not all schools have suitable hours and many don't allow any till year one whereas I'm looking at reception year. If I can get suitable care for the school I want then that would be great. The school in Leigh-on-sea which appears to be the likely one so far only offers after school care till 4:45pm.

Also I wouldn't want DD to stay after school till late every day (would tire her out), especially since my Mum is happy to watch her at home till either parent returns from work.

Milky_Mocha

jayII wrote: »

I did this when I was childminding, due to some families' circumstances, at their request. I charged normal rates from the moment I left the house, until I got back without the child (having dropped them off with their family).

I chose not to charge for petrol or mileage, but it would have been reasonable to do so.

In this case this would be 4x 30mins a day, or 10 hours a week, at about £3-4 an hour, depending on local rates. Plus, possibly, about 40p a mile (inland revenue rates).

In effect, from the moment the childminder leaves her house, she is working for you and your child, so should be paid accordingly.

Thanks, Jay. Useful info. Also cost appears reasonable. Which location do you work in, if you don't mind my asking? I suppose another thing that would concern me is how many childminders would be able to do this, esp if they do dropoffs/pickups at other schools.

jayII

Milky_Mocha wrote: »

Thanks, Jay. Useful info. Also cost appears reasonable. Which location do you work in, if you don't mind my asking? I suppose another thing that would concern me is how many childminders would be able to do this, esp if they do dropoffs/pickups at other schools.

I did work in Bristol, (I retrained in something else as soon as my children were a bit older) but very few other childminders offered drop offs. I think the main issue will be the impact on the other children in their care. Childminders tend to get their main income from caring for babies and young children, and 2 hours a day is a lot of time in the car.

I would phone around childminders before you think about this any further, you might not find anyone who can, or is willing, to do it.

redstararnie76

The other thing is to ask the school. I have a similar problem at the moment, and one school I am considering has told me that they have a list of childminders with connections to the school that may help out when parents work full-time hours.

daska

Milky_Mocha wrote: »

Also I wouldn't want DD to stay after school till late every day (would tire her out), especially since my Mum is happy to watch her at home till either parent returns from work.

It would probably be cheaper and easier to put your mum in a taxi to go and collect her. If it's a daily thing a lot of companies will do you a special rate.

silvercar

If the childminder is going to commit to working more than 2 hours a week they need to be registered. Finding a good registered childminder who is free to do this pick-up could be difficult, as anyone good is likely to have commitments with other children.

Remember also that they will need to insure their car for receiving payment for these pick-ups. If they are doing nothing but school runs for you they may have difficulty with insurance. This sounds more like a taxi service than child minding. In fact you may be better off finding out if there is a tazi firm that specialises in school runs. Some do, they operate with CRB cleared staff and guarantee you the same person each day, except for emergencies.

The school of LA may know of childminders who do do a collection service. I know my LA (Herts) keeps records of which childminders do pickups from which schools.

emlou2009

i'm not a childminder, but as a parent, if i was sending my child to one and they were spending 2 hours a day driving my child around while they did pick ups for other children, i wouldnt be too impressed! so it may be that a childminder wouldnt be too eager to take you up on the work?

i know most do school pick ups and obviously i dont have a problem with that at all, but i think a one hour round trip is too much to ask for a local school pickup.

my sons childminder charges a minimum 2 hour charge per day for school pick up, at £3.50p/h, if that helps

Fly_Baby

Since you basically just need help with dropping off and picking up, then school bus service would be ideal for you - check the school web-site and local authority pages too. Will work out MUCH cheaper and just as good.