Childminding cost question

DevilsAdvocate1

jayII wrote: »

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.

I did this too for one family. It was only during school holidays and I used to pick her up and bring her to my house. Most of my work was term time, so I didn't have to worry about being in for other children to be dropped off.

Anyway, I was paid from the time I left my house until I returned to my house after dropping her off. I was also paid mileage and it was a 30 minute drive. Having said that, it was actually Sure Start which paid me as the mum had cancer and the childminding was to provide respite for her.

For my term time children I charged a flat rate of £3 before school and £6 after school. However, like a lot of childminders, I only picked up from 1 school. All children were collected by their parents. It wouldn't have been fair on the children to collect them from school and then drive to each address to drop off.

HTH. D.

Milky_Mocha

emlou2009 wrote: »

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

Interesting you say that because this was one of my concerns. Also because I know a childminder who has 4 children in her care and does 3.5 hours driving each day, dropping off and picking up her son from school and I've always wondered if the other parents were aware of this!

In reality though, the childminder would only be required to do the afternoon run as I'd do the morning run myself but I wanted an idea of opinions and cost for the worst case scenario.

Milky_Mocha

silvercar wrote: »

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.

Thanks for the tip. I phoned my local taxi service but they were not v helpful. They charge no less than a one-off round trip which they said would be £60 per day. As i was about to hang up the lady said they could possibly do it for £50. I said no thank you and the lady said the cheapest I would get it for would be £40. LOL! Maybe if I'd let her carry on I could have got it for nothing!

She also said they would only be able to confirm the price after doing the trip once to find out how long it takes. I then asked, "does it not depend on mileage?" She said, "Well, yeah, that too".

They didn't sound v trustworthy overall and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with them doing the trip at all. Funny feeling about them now!

Perhaps I should call a couple of other cab companies now but I prefer the idea of a registered childminder.

Someone suggested phoning the childmindrs in the actual area of the school. I'll do that and see what happens.

All replies so far have been immensely useful, thanks!

smartpicture

You could try speaking to the LEA. They organise taxis to take individual children to school, always accompanied by a CRB-checked person - my gran used to do this job. They may be able to point you in the right direction of who to speak to.

dangers

I collect from one school and walk home with the children. I then care for the children until the parents collect them from my house - only on extreme situations would I drop the child off at their house (and all my children live within the same town as me). I charge £3.50/hour (south west england) and charge a minimum of an hour per session.