how to charge - newby help please...

[primrosecottage]

Hi ive had an enquiry for a little boy. term time only, mum would drop off at 8am, I take to pre-school at 8.45am and pick up at either 11.45 or at the end of the day, and look after the child until 4.30pm. I only charge £3.50 p/h, if I just charge 45 mins and potentially 1hr 30 mins after the afternoon pre-school session I will only take less than 10 pounds. Not worth the money, as he will take an early years space. do I charge for the time he is at pre-school half or full fees, what is the consensus??? I feel bad charging full fees , but not that happy taking less that 10 pounds for the extra work either.

[natlou82]

If it were me I would charge my breakfast club rate for 8-8:45 which is £5 then from 11:45 - 4:30 I would charge my half day rate £20 so £25 in total. If the child didn't need picking up until 3pm I wouldn't personally take the job as he's still EYFS. My school also offers wraparound nursery school care and it is a pain because the child is an EYFS space but you don't pick them up till 3pm. Totally your decision :-)

[JoRo163]

I would charge my minimum daily fee of £30 for an early years space, or I wouldn't take it on, personally.

[loocyloo]

I don't think I would take this on.

[bunyip]

I'm the oddball who only charges for "booked time" and not for "taking up the space all day". I've found they rarely do the latter if I genuinely try to fill the vacant hours instead of sitting on my backside moaning about it.

BUT (that's a big "but" to think about, not a big "butt" like mine )....

..... I would think twice about taking ths on at all. If a parent wants me to do care around another setting, I have to know why they "need" that other setting at all. Does it genuinely offer something the child needs that I cannot? If they're only going to preschool to save mum and dad some holiday money, then I tell them to go look elsewhere. They're usually cheaper because they only offer hours which are convenient to the people running the setting, and that's no reason why a CM should ever feel obliged to pick up the grotty hours at the fag end of the day. I simply don't work for people who think a CM is some kind of 'Second Division' service who'll pick up the hours a "proper" preschool/nursery won't offer.

[greenfaerie]

I've had something similar. I've had my first proper enquiry recently, and they're asking me to look after a baby and to take their 3 yr old to and from preschool (full school day). Means the 3 year old is taking up my last early years space (as my daughter already fills the other one)

I'm not relishing the school run with 3 young children either, but I'm aware that there's no such thing as a perfect "customer".

In this case I told the parent that I would charge £5 for before school and £10 for after, which is more expensive than all the Childminders I've found details of in the area. :S I don't think I could feel justified charging my day rate unless the parent specifically said that they wanted me on call to ever pick up the child early for any reason. If I had to pick a child up after a morning of preschool then I would charge my half day rate.

I've heard people say before, never refuse work, just charge whatever it would take to persuade you to do the work and if they pay you that much then that's up to them.

[blue bear]

I'd offer them the option to use their funding with me.

I don't offer wrap around only care for under fives.

[Rebecca Foster]

Hi
If this was me i would charge for full time as he would be taking up a full time place