Gran being paid for childcare?

Savvy_Sue

Welcome - any friend of GR is a friend of ours ...

another consideration which makes a childminder more 'sensible' IMO is that if the childminder is ill, granny may be able to help out in a crisis. It doesn't work so well the other way round! Plus, of course, if granny is not the regular carer you may feel less awkward about asking for a bit of extra help if you need it occasionally.

Gingham_Ribbon

Excellent. Thank you everyone. Thanks, Sue too. That was a lovely thing to say!

Now, shall I tell ShinobiPrincess about Discussion Time?! :eek:

BernadetteN

http://www.surestart.gov.uk/improvingquality/guidance/freenurseryeducation/faq/

See the above link for the amount of funding available for 3 and 4 year olds. The current funding covers 38 weeks a year for 5 sessions of 2 1/2 hours.

If a child is at a private nursery, the chances are that the parent will also have to fund any hours above 12 1/2 hours per week and any weeks above 38 weeks.

The early education funding works out at £3.44 per hour, so for each 2 1/2 hour session, it's £8.60 in monetary value that the nursery receives. That means for any child that uses the full entitlement, it is worth £1634 off a nursery bill per year.

Any extra nursery fees can be paid by CTC/WTCs but only 80% of the fees with a maximum limit of £175 for a single child.

For those whose income is too high to qualify for child care costs in CTC/WTC, many employees can now join a salary sacrifice scheme where you don't pay tax or NI contributions on up to ?£55 per week of child care costs.

The above poster was correct about certain childminders charging you when a child they look after is in nursery. As a childminder and mum too, I find it quite unreasonable in most circumstances to do this, but childminders can do what they want. A flexible childminder will cover the "lost" hours with another child. Also many childminders ask you to pay up to full price during school holidays. Now with 4 children of my own, I am quite happy to NOT charge during school holidays as I have my own 4 then so it's a bit of a bonus to get time out from minding to be with just our own children. Some childminders also expect parents to pay fees even when the childminder is on holiday.

So there is more than and hourly rate to take into consideration when choosing a childminder. There are the holiday rates, sickness rates, rates charged when the child is at nursery etc. It is essential to fully understand the charges and any contract BEFORE deciding on a childminder.

BernadetteN

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

Spendless, would a nursery not give the full 5 hours free? Then she'd only have to pay for any additional hours. Are nurseries different to preschools?

I don't know what you mean by 5 hours free. You CAN use 2 * 2/12 hour sessions in one day for a nursery / playgroup but the rule is that each session must be separated by at least one hour which is payable by the parent.

Gingham_Ribbon

Thank you. I misunderstood. I thought that the funding was for 5 hours per day.

Spendless

you mean if a child is going 8am-1pm (5 hours) can 2 x 2.5 hours sessions be joined together I think, making the whole session free. The answer was no when mine went you would only get 2.5 hours but you could have an additonal 2.5 hours in the afternoon so a child going all day AM session (8-1) and PM session 1 -5.30/6) would get 5 free hours.

The nursery manager mentioned something to me about this changing , whether she'd found a loophole or not i don't know. As I was taking my daughter out to start in school nursery, it didn't apply and as such I didn't take in what she said.

It is also worth bearing in mind that all nurseries adminster the free bit in different ways. The first nursery I used did cheaper weeks in term time than holidays , due to the 38 weeks funding Bernadette mentions, but the last private nursery i used, took the whole amount and divided it by 4 months, so once your child qualified for the funding you got cheaper bills every month.

sunshine_star

all childcare costs are negotiable with each childminder.

and if your selected childminder does charge you for any time your child is at nursery you can still claim up to 80 % of costs through the childcare element of the working tax credits.

if you have to pay both, you can claim for both.

there are some excellent childminders around who all have to follow guidelines set out by ofsted and early years provider networks etc.

IF you did choose to use your mother as a childcare provider you MAY be less reluctant to ask for her help at other times ???

it's something to think about ??

one of the best ways to find a good childminder is to go to one of the "popins" run by local childminding networks..........here you can meet several childminders in one hit and see how they work and ask any questions you may have.

good luck

traciekan

its fairly simple. she has to registr to be a childminder which isnt a scary as all that. she has to do an intro to childminding course which is 12 hrs long and a 12 hr first aid course the reg with ofsted. aqfter which she can be paid to childcare and you can claim wftc to pay her as a reg CM. sounds a lot but worth it. and as you re the gran you can still care for them whilst training as long as you re not rec money for it.

littlemissmoney

I realise that the gran would have to also childmind another (non-relative) child in order to get wftc, but does this have to be everytime she childminds her grandchild? For example, could she look after grandchild all day, every day, but also look after grandchilds friend for say one afternoon a week? Would that work? Then would she be classed as a CM for grandchild and no-relative child? So would she get wftc for one afternoon or all week?