A few Qs about your childminders? please x

I'm in the process of registering as a childminder and just wondered if those who use one could answer a few questions for me.

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week?

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge?

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc?

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday?

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday?

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child?

Do you pay in advance or arrears?

Did you have to pay a deposit up front?

Sorry that turned out to be lots of questions, but if anyone would be kind enough to answer it would be very much appreciated!  Will even send some virtual cake

I'll answer anything for virtual cake!

I was a CM so I'll answer from that point of view!

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week? I charged by the hour

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge? Yes if required but charged extra. I would say now you have to have a food standards agency check now too. Some parents used to send in a packed lunch type thing but I'd find the other children would invariably all want to swap foods so would be easier to just offer the one option, ie all bring packed lunch or all have your food. Also one mum used to send purees for her 2 year old and I wasn't happy about that either.

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? I used to pay out of my own pocket unless it was somewhere expensive like the farm.

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday? Pay when on holiday up to 4 weeks a year but not sick.

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? Both

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? Yes £5 per half hour unless reasonable excuse and notified. For instance if mum was late collecting and she'd called and it was becasue of traffic as a one off I would waiver it. If it was becasue they are unpunctual or similar I would charge!

Do you pay in advance or arrears? Try if you can to get it in advance. My c/m friend is still chasing money from ages ago for a mum who just took her child out and didnt give notice so c/m out of pocket. Even if its only a fortnight.

Did you have to pay a deposit up front? Sometimes to hold the place. If a mum was looking now for a September intake then you can charge a retainer until then as you won't be able to use that space for another child in the meantime.

Good Luck! x 

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week?    We pay an hourly rate of £6.50/hour for both of them (it was £4/hour when it was just Jack, so Sophie has been a bargain!)

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge?  No, we provide all food and nappies.

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc?  She pays for groups out of what we pay.  She takes them to one group tha costs £1 a session, but most things she goes to are free or special CM things.  She does take them to the farm sometimes, which she says is her treat (they are free under 2 there though).

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday?  Not when she's sick  We pay half pay in school holidays because they go less, or not at all, and she only goes away in school holidays anyway, so doesn't really affect us.

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? Yes.

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child?  No. our first one did, this one who is fab doesn't.   She even came at 3.30am the day Sophie was born to look after Jack until my mum could get there and didn't charge us.  We love her)

Do you pay in advance or arrears?  Pay weekly at the end of the week or that week.

Did you have to pay a deposit up front?  No.

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week? both are available but as ELeanor goes for whole days we get the whole day discount.

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge? yes and no extra charge

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? so far I haven't been asked to pay anything extra

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday? no

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? yes

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? yes but I've not been late yet.

Do you pay in advance or arrears? arrears but our employers pay her direct out of our salaries for the voucher system.  SHe loves it as it's a nice regular income.  We reconcile it annually because on the system we work we don't have monthly flexiblity in the amounts.

Did you have to pay a deposit up front? no

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week?   Hourly rate although I know a lot of friends who use childminders who offer a daily rate for a full day which works out cheaper than adding up the hours.

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge?  Snacks are included.  We take breakfast and lunch and dinner is £1 for now. It used to all be included but the randomly decided to change and charge for meals - we were not (and still aren't!) happy.  Dinner is actually meant to be £2 but we argued that Hannah eats next to nothing and never £2 worth of the type of things they are giving.  We also argued that we wanted to take our own breakfast and lunch as it works out cheaper

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? All included but they generally do free groups or ones that charge per carer rather than per child.  They did say there might be charges if they do any trips but we'd be told in advance but so far not been any.

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday? pay 4 weeks holiday plus bank holidays.  Not sure about sickness actually as they haven't been sick to date!  i don't think we do.

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? Yes both and I think we are meant to give 4 weeks notice of holiday but not sure!

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? yes but we've not been late so not sure how much they enforce it.  I think it is £6 an hour based on 15 min slots so say you were 10 mins late would be £1.50, 20 mins late £3 etc.

Do you pay in advance or arrears? Pay monthly in arrears although i know they've now changed it for new people to be weekly in advance as they had some problems with late payments

Did you have to pay a deposit up front?  No

Thanks for the replies, the holidays is interesting, I had just assummed I wouldnt charge for my holidays but it seems some do.  The meals is also confusing, I think it will be easier to offer to provide meals since I'm making stuff for my two anyway but then if the children eat as much as mine do it could end up costing quite a bit if I don't charge seperately. 

I am a childminder and this is what I do :

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week? hourly rate, no discount

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge? I provide snacks free of charge like fruit, juice water but I do charge for breakfast , lunch and dinner

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? everything included appart from big outings once a term, usually during school holidays to go to farm, museum etc, the parents know, have lots of warning, if they dont want to come pay then the children dont come under my care that day, but I never had that problem

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday?  I do not charge for sick pay or holiday, i do not charge when I do work , but my hourly rate is slightly higher than in the area, if i am sick or on holiday it allows then the parent to use the money for alternative chilcare

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? yes I do charge as I am open

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? yes, cant remember how much, but it is in my policy

Do you pay in advance or arrears? advance

Did you have to pay a deposit up front? no, didnt have to do so

Hope that helps, good luck  ( have a look on the childminding forum, you can get lots of help there )

Moz

sleepydreamer:

I'm in the process of registering as a childminder and just wondered if those who use one could answer a few questions for me.

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week? Hourly £3.50 hour no discounts

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge? All food provided apart from formula initially

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? Everything included so far

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday?  For holidays we either use another childminder who co works with our CM and she pays them or she refunds us the money, sick leave I'm not sure.

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? Yes

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? Yes I think but not been extra late so far.....

Do you pay in advance or arrears?  We pay for 52 weeks a year divided by 12 months (iyswim) a fixed amount in advance for regular hours (2 lots of vouchers) and a mixture for the extra hours ie school holidays.& she refunds if she is on holiday

Did you have to pay a deposit up front? No as she was just starting out so she took on Matthew as soon as she was registered

Sorry that turned out to be lots of questions, but if anyone would be kind enough to answer it would be very much appreciated!  Will even send some virtual cake

 

Hth

Thanks again, can I ask those that charge/pay extra for meals how much you pay?  Most of the childminders in this area seem to only provide snacks included in the price but don;t detail what they charge extra for the meals.

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week? I used to pay hourly befroe E started school. I now pay a before and after school price or full day price during school hols

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge? All food is included

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? Childminder uses Sure Start for all groups so not an issue but would pay up to a couple of pounds.

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday?Don't pay if CM off sick (never happened in 4 yrs)but do pay for 52 weeks of year.

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday?Yes

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? No she is really chilled

Do you pay in advance or arrears? I pay in arrears

Did you have to pay a deposit up front? No deposit paid

Hope that helps

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week? Hourly rate, no discount.

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge? All food included, no additional charges.

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? No additional charges, all activities included

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday? Our contract states she gets 4 weeks paid leave a year and 2 weeks paid sick. However she always offers us days back if she's unwell, which is very rare, and if she has to change her leave which is set times of the year, she gives us those days back too if we've already planned to be away.

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? yes

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? again, contractually she can charge additional hours at a higher rate, but never has and is very accomodating.

Do you pay in advance or arrears? advance

Did you have to pay a deposit up front? we just paid the first month when we signed, I think.

I'm a childminder too and do exactly the same as Moz, weirdly. 

My late fee's are chargeable from after the first 15 minutes at double my hourly rate for every half an hour they go into whilst late.

No deposit but will get a retainer if the place is for a lot of hours booked far in advance. But I've never had to so this, it's just in my policies.  

I second Moz on going on the childminding forum, loads of info and lots of helpful ladies should you have a problem x

I'm in the process of registering as a childminder and just wondered if those who use one could answer a few questions for me.

Do you pay an hourly rate or do you get a discount for full days or a week? Hourly rate £5.25

Does your childminder provide snacks/meals and if so is there an extra charge? solid food yes

Is everything included or do you pay extra for any groups etc? toddler groups etc.. inc but extra for places like soft play

Do you pay when your childminder is sick or on holiday? yes i have 5 weeks holiday at 50%, BH at full rate but don't charge for sickness

Do you pay when your child is sick or on holiday? parents gets 4 weeks at 50% rate for holiday but full pay if off sick or less than 28 days notice given

Does your childminder charge late fees if you are late collecting your child? yes £5 per 15 mins unless I get a phone call or its a one off

Do you pay in advance or arrears? always in advance

Did you have to pay a deposit up front? yes 2 weeks fees which is held on account and taken off last months fees when notice period given, if no notice I keep it.

Sorry that turned out to be lots of questions, but if anyone would be kind enough to answer it would be very much appreciated!  Will even send some virtual cake

Theo hasn't actually started yet, but he's had settling sessions. I'll tell you as much as I know!

We're paying £4.50 a day, plus £1 per cold meal (usually lunch) and £1.50 for a hot meal (dinner). She provides snacks and drinks. We send milk, nappies, wipes, etc. No full day/week discounts.

She pays for groups - I think most of what they'll do is Children's Centre based, or specific childminder groups.

We don't pay for her holidays, Bank Holidays or if she's sick. We do pay for our holidays or if T is ill. Basically - if she's available to work, we have to pay. If she's not available, we don't have to pay. Which I think makes it really straight forward.

She'll charge for as long as he's there. I don't think she usually charges punitive late charges, unless we're often running late without reason or warning.

We're paying in arrears.

We didn't have to pay a deposit and she's not charging for the settling sessions.

She's also been fab about cloth nappies and blw. So far I'm really pleased we've found her and it makes me feel quite comfortable about going back to work.