Holiday Charges

[claire'scherubs]

Call me a fool but is this right.

I charge by the hour and charge 1/2 fees for their holidays and no fees for my holidays.

However one parent is a student, all fees paid to her by the NHS and I never have a problem with payment but she does have similar holidays to the children. So when she is on holiday she is charged 1/2 fees but then still sends her child to me to cover those hours (does that make sense)!!! So for example say she is contracted for 16 hours child care she then sends her for 8 hours. I am begining to think that maybe I am being a bit of a mug letting her do this, or not, what do you think. Need to gauge opinion fairly quickly as she is on holiday for the next 3 weeks and I just know that is what she is going to do!! Not sure, bit confused, I use all the NCMA contracts so just wanted your opinions, thanking you in advance xx

[cuddlybunny38]

I charge the same as you and also have college children, are college do not fund half terms though. If she is using some of her hours you should be paid full fee for the 8 hrs and half fee for the other 8 hours, thats how I would charge. good luck x

[HELEN10]

Hi if the contract between you is term time only then i would charge half like you do for all the holidays she will have from college.

However if she decides she wants you in the hols then in my opinion it is not a term time only contract she should have and i would therefore charge her full all the year round!

[claire'scherubs]

No its a year round contract, I did offer her a term time contract but she said that she only had Christmas and Summer holidays so she wouldn't need it x

[HELEN10]

Well in that case you are doing her a favour by only charging half if its only summer and christmas she is off! If a parent tells me they will not be coming in the holidays though and then turns round and wants me to have the children then i would be changing the contract to full charge for those weeks too.

She is preventing you from taking on anyone else by doing what she is doing now. Explain to her that the charge is to keep the place open for her and if she now decides she wants to bring the child then it will be full fee like the other weeks of the year!

Good luck