Northern Ireland childminder - A realistic income??

happy_gardener

I am thinking about become a childminder.
Apart from the obvious love of looking after kids, their development through play, caring environment, nutritional food and buckets of fun......etc etc...is there a realistic income to becoming a childminder??
No point going through the training, any house alterations necessary...and not making money at the end of it.
So if there are any childminders in the NI forum, can I ask whether you can make an income from this ??

BatCat

Hi,
I am not a childminder, however I have had a lovely childminder for a few years.
I reckon that it helps if you have children of your own around the same age (young children 1-5 perhaps) so you would prefer to be at home anyhow and if you can get more than 1 child to mind. So basically, get paid for doing something that you would be doing anyway (though obviously with the effort of lots of small children). My current childminder earns just over £4 an hour. With 2 children that makes it minimum wage, though obviously there will be insurance etc. to pay as well.

Alternatively, get into a situation like an after school club, where children are collected after school, you can have several at a time. They are easier to manager and organize. Offer all day care during the summer holidays or the option to collect from various camps from 3pm. Effort is spread over a narrower time scale. Though you do then have to consider how you transport all the kids.

Just please keep decent accounts and spreadsheets, because all you need is for HMRC to come knowing on a parent's door due to tax credit compliance or something similar (they do random checks!) and you'll be running around like a headless chicken.

BatCat

By the way, if you tell the parents that they supply the food rather than you providing it, you will probably save yourself a whole world of trouble. You can still do snacks etc.

jellynose

Hi

You should contact the Norther Ireland Child Minding Association for information.

http://www.nicma.org/cms/index.php

I also think that there are childminders on the website with hourly rates quoted.

Hope this helps.

sill

Friend minds one baby 6 months all day and 3 after school 6 - 10 year olds she has done this for last ten years and has quite a comfortable lifestyle .Friend always says treat it as a buisness, as when she first started she made the mistake of becoming overly friendly with a few of the parents and ended up being taken advantage of eg children being picked up at 7pm rather than 6 pm but extra hours money being witheld ,she now has contracts drawn up etc and really enjoys her work. I think she said your hourly rate depends on age of child. Sill

BOBS

happy_gardener wrote: »

I am thinking about become a childminder.
Apart from the obvious love of looking after kids, their development through play, caring environment, nutritional food and buckets of fun......etc etc...is there a realistic income to becoming a childminder??
No point going through the training, any house alterations necessary...and not making money at the end of it.
So if there are any childminders in the NI forum, can I ask whether you can make an income from this ??

You are allowed 6 children in total to care for including your own here in Northern Ireland - only 3 can be preschool age of which only one at a time under the age of 1.
You need to take your own children out of this and then based on if you fill all your places every day at whatever hourly rate you decide to charge. If you are rural possibly £3/hr per child although town childminders can charge a higher rate.... you need to find out the going rate locally.
Its not a steady business - parents needs change and you can loose children at the drop of a hat. When you have part-time children you dont completely fill all your space all of the time.
All in all I am happy with the income I make after take all the expenses off. I have been minding now for 10 years and I wouldnt want to do anything else. I am my own boss - apart from a yearly inspection from Early Years time. There is paperwork and Policies to keep up with but plenty of help online.
If you have your own children your house is probably near enough ok to mind in - there will always be some change to improve your setting but dont let that put you off.
Feel free to ask away if you have any questions xx HTH

LMac

I was a childminder for a few years, and all my mindees were part time. I made more money that I would have in a job outside of the house, putting my daughter in childcare.

My advice would be to try to only take full time places, as fitting in multiple part time mindees in can be difficult.

Be very clear with contracts, inc holiday pay, and fees when pickup is late or drop off is early.