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Stix
20-01-2009, 08:46 PM
Hi everyone,

I've got someone coming for a chat tomorrow about me having their 9 year old daughter after school 3 days a week. I have decided to write up a new prospectus for after school care as a lot of the information in my present prospectus is entirely irrelevant.

I'm new to minding and have realised that up to this point I have been very naive and I'm planning a revamp of my ideas. So, what is the general score for after school mindees?

My original plan was just to charge per hour (my fees are £2.50/h). However, this mindee would be 4pm-6pm so she would need collecting at 4pm from a school 2 miles away. So with my own children (4 and 2) and a 10 month old mindee, this would mean using the car. There is a shortcut across a field at the top of the next road to mine but I'm not happy about dragging 3 small children and myself over a field in the dark.

Also, as she will be here over tea time, I'll need to feed her too. I don't charge for my 10 month old's tea as obviously it's a negligible portion really and no bother.

So, I suppose my question is what do you do in this situation? do you charge a session fee which includes the extra fuel and meal or would you charge per hour, which in my case, I can see myself losing out.

My brain is now frazzled!! Thanks in advance for any help! x

crazybones
20-01-2009, 08:53 PM
I charge a minimum of 3 hours per day and extra for tea because we dont eat until 6 as a family so it's to put people off :blush: I would work out the charge for meal, petrol and hourly rate and then round it up. From experience rounding everyone up for a school pick-up for just one child needs to be worth my while.

flora
20-01-2009, 08:56 PM
I charge from 3 ~6pm as a minimum session and you can use all or some of it. I charge extra for tea and charge petrol by the mile.

I only do after schoolers as the mo and this works fine :thumbsup:

Hope that helps :thumbsup:

Andrea08
20-01-2009, 09:07 PM
Ok i charge after school fee of £10 this means i will care for a child from 3pm (after school) till 6pm and include a meal/snack

this works out at £3 hr and £1 for the meal/snack

any expences for this child will have to come out of the £10 fee ie petrol etc

this fee also giveschild a retaner for the holidays if needed, so if parent says they only want to pay for hrs used you tell them its for the session...

always use a contract and make sure the parents understand and sign.

stick by your contract dont bend coz if other parents find out they too will want reduced fees, stay consistant and only give reduced fees for brothers etc if you want to!!

good luck payment fees and parents are the hardest part of the job but we get use to it xx

mushpea
20-01-2009, 09:07 PM
i charge and hourl rate for all children £3.25 per hour, i don't charge for meals as i realized i could get more from the tax man by putting food through my books and you cant put it through your books if you are charging parents for it (i asked the tax office this one).
The only reason i provide an evinging meal is because i have to feed my own children and as my partner dosent get in untill about 7.30pm each day we couldn't possibly all eat toghether during the week anyway (plus it makes it extra special at the weekends when we do)
i know a lot of minders that don't offer evening meals because it takes time away from providing activities
on the other hand I do take one mindee home twice a week as requested by the parent and for this i charge an extra half hour to cover my deisel. so you could say as you would have to use the car you would have to charge and extra amount for this and if you really need to charge for meals then try and work out 2 or 3 different meals and cost them out to give you and average not forgetting snacks, mine always need a small snack after school to refule them.:D

Chatterbox Childcare
20-01-2009, 10:00 PM
If it was 3 days I would charge £15 per night session rate and £2 per meal. Snack would be included. All costs would come out of my rate and collection time would be 6pm

crazybones
20-01-2009, 10:09 PM
Just a thought - although you pick up at 4pm you may think of charging from when you have to leave the house which would add another hour's fee i you charge by the hour.