Help with fees

[rickysmiths]

I agree with you bunyip. It never ceases to amaze me that anywhere in the Country can justify fees of lower than £4 per hour to be honest.

However where big discrepancies come in around me is that there are a lot of older cm who don't have a mortgage so their overall living costs are a lot lower than some of the younger newer cm who are just starting out and who have often big mortgages because of the cost of housing where we live and despite the recession has risen at an alarming rate in the last 6 year. For example out house has doubled in value in that time and even though we have had an extension built that is a huge amount of money and a house we have bought and extended we could not buy now if we were moving.

I find I am under cut by two local cm by quite a lot. However I have put up my fees, I was charge at least £1 an hour more than them, in the last 3 years and I do charge for BH (I will work them though if required) and I now charge half fees for my holidays (I did charge full fees as recommended by NCMA years ago). I had a cm very close to me that when parents came to me and chose me were surprised the TV was on during an interview and when questioned about it they were told it is to entertain my children! I never had the TV on during an interview and always had my two around and I started cm when they were 11mths and 3 yrs old!

But this cm saw I had put my fees up and the other two and now they have all put their fees up to match mine!! One of the three is full (with lots of bits and before and after school), but the other two are struggling hard and have not been full for over a year now whereas I have been contacted by parents who saw me a year ago asking for care and have new parents knocking at the door and I can't accommodate them all but in the cm group I go to 4 +of the cm who have never struggled before are, so maybe parents will pay for quality, training and experience and recognise when that is not really on offer?

I have been considering changing my fee structure because we seem to be increasingly seeing parents getting upset being charged for BH and holidays. I have just done a quick calculation and in order to offer 'free' BH and no charge for my 5 weeks holidays based on a full 5x10hr days a week my hourly rate would have to go from £5.50ph to £5.96 per hour. I need to do some more maths to see how it would work for less hours or term time only. I think that will be doable and so I would look at charging any new parents £6ph not charge for holidays or BH. Although of course they still are paying.

[bunyip]

I understand entirely RS.

I looked at my fees recently with the view to a rise, but the maths and the thought of trying to explain it is depressing.

To cover the effect of inflation (it's low as an annual figure but the cumulative rise over 3-4 years is significant) I'd need an increase of around 5% just to keep pace. TBH my income has risen a lot, but that's down to attracting more clients: I don't see why I can't be rewarding myself on a 'per child' basis for work done.

Problem is, the effect of having a high proportion of TTO clients and, moreover, the low and stagnant level of LA funding is that I could put up fees by over 10% and still fail to achieve a 5% increase in income per child on average, IYSWIM.

I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and look at ways of addressing the disparity.

[rickysmiths]

I understand entirely RS.

I looked at my fees recently with the view to a rise, but the maths and the thought of trying to explain it is depressing.

To cover the effect of inflation (it's low as an annual figure but the cumulative rise over 3-4 years is significant) I'd need an increase of around 5% just to keep pace. TBH my income has risen a lot, but that's down to attracting more clients: I don't see why I can't be rewarding myself on a 'per child' basis for work done.

Problem is, the effect of having a high proportion of TTO clients and, moreover, the low and stagnant level of LA funding is that I could put up fees by over 10% and still fail to achieve a 5% increase in income per child on average, IYSWIM.

I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and look at ways of addressing the disparity.

It is a puzzle isn't it. I no longer have before and after school children but I do have a term time only one a teachers child. I have essentially 3 full time under 3s. I can register for Funding and we get £5.50per hour at present but I don't know that I want the bother and the payment in arrears and always late as it seems to be here. I am personally more inclined to recommend they go to the local lovely pre school starting with a couple of mornings a week and building up to 4 or 5 in the term before school.

I think the way LA treat providers with regard to the funding is dreadful, why should they subsidise the parents childcare and the underpayment along with having to bankroll them for half a term is shocking. I think all childcarers should go on strike over it. I am amazed that some of the big Nursery Groups haven't kicked up big time.