Would you offer a discount?

I'm putting up my fees from £3.50 to £3.75 in Sept and I have a family of 2 who attend for just 1 day a week, term time only. From September I will have another sibling so 3 children in total.

18m old - 10hrs
7yr old - 4 hrs
5yr old - 4hrs

I'm undecided what to charge. Would anyone offer a discount?
At the moment the two eldest children are on £3.50 (£35 and £14) The increase will make it (£37.50 and £15) but as the new sibling is starting so that's another £15 making the daily total £67.50. (roughly £270 monthly)

Should I keep each child on £3.50? (Total £63, roughly £252 monthly) which still sounds a lot for just 1 day of childcare.

Personally I don't offer a discount and didn't ever expect one when I used a childminder for my own children. If you have several children you tend to accept that a day's childcare is going to cost more than if you only have one! Parents shouldn't be surprised at the cost. And who knows, it may seem a lot to you, but it might seem quite cheap to them!

If you do feel you want to offer a discount what about saying the full day child will be on the new rate of £3.75 an hour (£37.50 a day) with the other 2 staying at the existing rate of £3.50 an hour (£14 each). That would give you a daily rate of £65.50, so only losing out on £2 a day.

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Originally Posted by JCrakers

I'm putting up my fees from £3.50 to £3.75 in Sept and I have a family of 2 who attend for just 1 day a week, term time only. From September I will have another sibling so 3 children in total.

18m old - 10hrs
7yr old - 4 hrs
5yr old - 4hrs

I'm undecided what to charge. Would anyone offer a discount?
At the moment the two eldest children are on £3.50 (£35 and £14) The increase will make it (£37.50 and £15) but as the new sibling is starting so that's another £15 making the daily total £67.50. (roughly £270 monthly)

Should I keep each child on £3.50? (Total £63, roughly £252 monthly) which still sounds a lot for just 1 day of childcare.

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I think your rates are really low as it is. I charge a sliding scale depending on the number of days a child attends. Then I tweak the rates slightly again for teacher parents, who expect me to charge only 50% of their weekly rate as a retainer during the 8 weeks when they are on school holidays but I am working - the other 5 weeks are my holidays - same dates as parents - so are paid full rate.

As an example, a child coming 5 days a week would get the best daily rate. Then it is £5 more per day for 4 days a week. Then another £5 per day for 3 days a week. And finally, another £5 per day for 2 days a week or less. I think this is fair, as it gets hard to fit other parents' needs around those children who come for less days (it also leaves less days available to fit another child into). My parents are fine with this. They realise that they will get a better rate if they increase the number of days they do with me, so lots of them end up doing this if and when a space comes up. If I do discounts at all, then it is a nominal amount only - sometimes only £5 per day less than the sibling.

I hope this makes sense. I wouldn't usually give discounts at all. Most of my parents use Childcare vouchers, with both parents using their full voucher allowance, and are happy to pay a combination of these and bank transfer. I don't have any funded only children at present (and to be honest, I've been put off these as, in the past, I felt that the parents just didn't appreciate what I did for their children as they weren't actually paying for the service.)

When I first worked out my rates, I checked what parents would pay for the equivalent days in the local Nurseries, then I checked roughly what the other childminders were charging and kept mine around the same as them. I've put my sliding scale in since as, when I first started, all my children were 5 days a week, so I usually turned away those on 4 days or less, and I certainly would not have welcomed a one day a weeker at the time. I still don't, to be honest! My minimum now is 2 days.

All I'm saying is, you're being really flexible with what you're offering as it is. And reading some of your posts, you sound as if you're a terrific childminder, so please don't sell yourself short!

I've just seen Mouse's post, and I wholeheartedly agree with her suggestion. Well said, Mouse!

All the best,

L

I only have one child who comes for a whole 9 hour day - the rest come for my minimum contract hours of 7 hours, last year I put my rates up from £3.80 to £4.00 an hour but for this one child I offer a £1 a day discount meaning the daily charge is £38 inc lunch & tea - which I think is the same charged by a local nursery.

Or maybe you could leave your under 5's rate as it is and put up your after school fees to £4 an hour - most childminders in my area charge £4 an hour for under 5's and £5 an hour for after school children.