Can a Childminder charge fees when the child is on PCR (Covid Test) waiting time?

Jeremy535897

ChilliPepper123 said:

Surely force majeure comes in to play with Covid-19.
This pandemic was beyond our control.
It is a world wide issue which could not have been avoided.
This means that, because it is out of our control this Contracts become void to a degree, where the Contracts can not be enforced on either side.

The childminder wont have the child during the PCR waiting time because the child may have Covid, but is open for business.
The parent cant send the child because the Childminder will not allow the child to attend even though they are open for business, and the PCR Test comes back negative.

It is the childminder shutting the door on the child.
Not the parent taking the child out of the business.

The isolation period covers a person with Covid-19, not a person who does not have it, and who has not been in contact with any one who has covid-19.

No:

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/insights/publications/2020/03/is-coronavirus-a-force-majeure-event/

silvercar

Are the children being tested because they have symptoms or because they have been in contact with someone with symptoms? Or just because they have been away? Are they legally obliged to isolate or is this a childminder’s rule?

TBagpuss

Most nurseries and child minders have rules that they won't accept a child who is potentially infectious or ill, and in most cases they still charge as they are available and able to provide the service, it's the child's illness which stops them providing that service.

F it were the childminder who had to self-isolate then it would not be reasonable for her to charge, but it isn't.

I am not aware of any way in which the childminder could make a claim from the government in this situation. As a self employed person they might have general ability to claim for SEISS grant but I don't think there's anything specific for this situation. (Are you perhaps  thinking of SSP rules which let employers reclaim SSP costs for employees who are self-isolating or have covid?)

ChilliPepper123

TBagpuss said:

Most nurseries and child minders have rules that they won't accept a child who is potentially infectious or ill, and in most cases they still charge as they are available and able to provide the service, it's the child's illness which stops them providing that service.

F it were the childminder who had to self-isolate then it would not be reasonable for her to charge, but it isn't.

I am not aware of any way in which the childminder could make a claim from the government in this situation. As a self employed person they might have general ability to claim for SEISS grant but I don't think there's anything specific for this situation. (Are you perhaps  thinking of SSP rules which let employers reclaim SSP costs for employees who are self-isolating or have covid?)

It could well be but in the first PCR Waiting Time, she did not charge.  She said that the Government would pay her.  Now she is saying that the Parent needs to pay.

Hence why I am asking the question.

ChilliPepper123

We are all totally puzzled. Xx

ChilliPepper123

silvercar said:

Are the children being tested because they have symptoms or because they have been in contact with someone with symptoms? Or just because they have been away? Are they legally obliged to isolate or is this a childminder’s rule?

If they cough or sneeze.  In one case it was after being sent to AnE for a urine test.
The childminder is asking for the PCRs to be done, even when the GP or the AnE have said the symptoms arent cv-19.

I know that the Childminder is protecting herself and her business, and I know I would too, I can see where both sides are coming from.

We are looking for clarity.  This is ALL to do with CV-19.

The childminder is fantastic.  The children love her.  She teaches them so much.  What I am asking is not a slight against the childminder, it is just us trying to find thd facts.

68ComebackSpecial

ChilliPepper123 said:

silvercar said:

Are the children being tested because they have symptoms or because they have been in contact with someone with symptoms? Or just because they have been away? Are they legally obliged to isolate or is this a childminder’s rule?

If they cough or sneeze.  In one case it was after being sent to AnE for a urine test.
The childminder is asking for the PCRs to be done, even when the GP or the AnE have said the symptoms arent cv-19.

I know that the Childminder is protecting herself and her business, and I know I would too, I can see where both sides are coming from.

We are looking for clarity.  This is ALL to do with CV-19.

The childminder is fantastic.  The children love her.  She teaches them so much.  What I am asking is not a slight against the childminder, it is just us trying to find thd facts.

She's probably right to be cautious as children seem to be asymptomatic a lot of the time. My ten year old had to isolate because another child in her year tested positive with a headache as the only symptom. After 2 days, and several more children testing positive, I tested my daughter as she had complained of a slight sore throat after waking each morning, though it seemed to go after an hour or so, and she tested positive too. I know of at least 12 out of the 60 in her year who tested positive that week - the majority of whom had no symptoms, a couple had a headache and a couple more had very slight cold symptoms like my daughter. Within a week four year groups were sent home - 240 children - and this pattern, according to the school, was repeated across them all - and this in a school which hadn't had a single diagnosed case in the preceding seven months.

superbigal

Many Childminders who look after kids before and after School/Nursery picking them up and dropping them off etc, charge for the full day even when they do not have the kids.  
Hardly worth their while charging for 1 hour here and there otherwise.
I would even expect to be charged for holidays if I did not give the childminder adequate notice.
They do not survive on fresh air.