Fees - retainers, school holidays etc

[rachaelamy]

Hi,
I am recently registered and have had a lady approach me in regards to having her 4 year old (5 in july) during the school holidays. I was under the impression that a retainer fee would be used to hold her space for holidays until the child reached 5 as obviously whilst she is 4 she falls into my under 5's ratio and that space could not be filled by another child during term time unless they didn't require care during the school holidays - am I right in thinking this? When the child reaches 5 I would just charge for the time she's cared for? Childminders in my area charger for 6hrs in the holidays even if the parents only require 2 or 3 say...is this the norm? All help would be greatly appreciated and I hope ive made sense ☺ x

[redtiger21]

I don't charge retainers myself, I just charge a higher rate for holiday-only or term-time only children. If the child was preschool age I'd probably be unsure about taking on a holiday-only child unless I was confident I could fill their space during term time with a TTO child. However, I'm presuming LO is in reception full time? In which case, they won't count in your under-5s spaces (even though technically they're still 4), they'll just count in your under-8s spaces, which is the same as any schoolie x

[rachaelamy]

Oh excellent. Thanks so much for your reply. I had absolutely no idea about that - this forum is brilliant. She is in reception full time. Could I just be cheeky and ask you how much more you charge for holidays/TTO? Do you not use retainer fees at all? X

[redtiger21]

Hi again,
Whereas my normal fee is £4ph, I charge £4.50ph for either term time only or holiday only. Parents seem happy with this as they're only paying when the child actually attends x

[Simona]

Hi,
I am recently registered and have had a lady approach me in regards to having her 4 year old (5 in july) during the school holidays. I was under the impression that a retainer fee would be used to hold her space for holidays until the child reached 5 as obviously whilst she is 4 she falls into my under 5's ratio and that space could not be filled by another child during term time unless they didn't require care during the school holidays - am I right in thinking this? When the child reaches 5 I would just charge for the time she's cared for? Childminders in my area charger for 6hrs in the holidays even if the parents only require 2 or 3 say...is this the norm? All help would be greatly appreciated and I hope ive made sense ☺ x

Cms vary enormously in their charges for school children...some charge half retainer during the holidays and some don't.
Many charge a little more during term time because these children do not take a space during the holidays

The half retainer does guarantee parents a place after the holiday...if they don't pay it Cms can easily replace their children so after the break NO space.

my reasoning is that even if the children are not there ...my expenses continue...car insurance, registration, ICO, NI etc etc...they go on for 52 weeks of the year

So it is a question of how you ensure ALL parents pay a little towards your obligatory expenses....do a yearly forecast and then apportion the cost to parents according to attendance...also think of your business sustainability :thumbsup: