Wraparound care

[pinkellifun]

Can you help me understand this and tell me your views on it please?

The other childminders in my area charge like this: If they drop off AND collect from pre-school or holiday clubs, they charge parents a full day - an example, a boy arrives at CM at 8am, they drop him off at holiday club at 9am, pick him up at 4pm and he gets picked up at 5pm. They charge parents a full day even though he is not with CM.

Technically, I would do the same although I've never had to 'enforce' it as it has never come up but I've never fully understood it. Can someone explain to me why we charge a full day when I would have though we could only charge for the hours we have children?

I've been minding for a year but it's never come up. I'm in the process of updating my contracts so want to make sure this is clearly explained in it before I finish them.

Thanks in advance

One very confused CM :huh:

[Mrsh3103]

Cm's normally charge while mindees are at pre school etc because if they have to drop them off & collect them 3 hours later its very unlikely they would be able to fill that space. The parents are also paying to keep the space open for if the pre school etc was to close, the parent would expect you to have them for the day.

I probably wouldn't charge for a holiday club where the child was there ALL day as I could probably fill the space. It's basically the same as wrap around school care! I wouldn't charge while the child was at school, so I wouldn't charge while at a holiday club. That's just my opinion on it

[bunyip]

You don't have to do it. There is no regulation saying all CMs must slavishly follow the crowd.

But you do need to weigh up the pro's and cons then make a sensible business decision about what is affordable for you.

By charging during time at pre-school, you'll secure the income for what would otherwise be 'dead space' that you couldn't fill with another lo. But, it can infuriate parents and will mean that you cannot refuse to have the lo when the pre-school is closed, including emergency closures. It will also add to the pressure to collect a sick child from pre-school (if mum is paying for it, she'll expect it and you'll have a fight when you try to insist upon your 'sick child' policy.)

If you don't charge, you'll have a "unique selling point" over the mass of other CMs, and may be able to charge a higher rate for hours actually worked. The main problem with this is that too many parents only ever seem to look at the 'headline hourly rate' as advertised by CMs and ignore the hidden charges (such as these non-attending hours) until they pop up on the invoice. By that time, they're already signed and settled, so all they do is complain about the charges instead of finding an independent-minded CMs who wouldn't be charging for the pre-school time. :mad: