hourly/daily or weekly rates

[Pauline]

I was interested to read in another thread that some of you only use an hourly rate.

Don't you find that it makes a full week very expensive?

Around here the hourly rate is approx. £2.50 - £3.00 but most only use that for part time such as before and after school

Many have a daily rate of approx. £18 - £23 for an 8 am - 5 pm day

or a weekly rate of approx. £90 - £100 for a full week

which works out at a quite low hourly rate.

Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

I appreciate that the actual prices will vary all over the country and it will be especially high in London. But I just wondered how you worked out your fees and if you give a sort of 'quantity discount'.

[janet]

hi i only charge an hourly rate my rate is £3.50, i reduce it by 50p if there is a brother or sister also. it just works out alot easier for me this way, but yes i do get quite a few comments like arent you very expensive, but i pay for all the toddler groups, extra items on a day out etc i only ask for the payment for days out like to the tower, pleasure beach etc, but the going rate in my area is between £2.oo per hour to £4.oo per hour.

[deeb66]

Hi

You are right the rates vary all around the country.

I live in Surrey and I charge £5.00 per hour and is due to go up this year. I reduce it by 50p for siblings.

The going rates in this area is between £4.50 to £5.50 per hour - I even know of one childminder charging £6.00 per hour plus extra for every meal she provides. My rate is all in I do not charge any extra for meals, toddler groups or outings etc.

Dee

[rainbowmum]

We live in quite a small rural town so the 'full time' clients are few & far between! Those that charge a daily or weekly rate usually work out to about £2.50 /hr and hourly rates vary 2.50 - 3-00. I have pitched in the middle at £2.80 all inclusive (no mini bar tho lol) As I am newly registered I have yet to see what people think!

[Victoria Ashley]

I charge £2.50 an hour for preschoolers and £3.00 an hour for care before and after school.

Some childminders charge a daily rate of approx £25 for a 10 hour day so it works out roughly the same.

I think it is fairer to charge hourly then parents get what they pay for but others feel that as soon as a child walks through the door they pay for the full day even if they are only coming for an hour.

Victoria x

[banana]

I charge £3.50 an hour. Again very much like Janet, I pay for toddler groups and outings and any other expenses during the day. Also the kids meals are included.

I've heard of the rate around here for childminders being as low as £2.40 an hour and up to £3.80 an hour. So all though im not the cheapest im not quite the most expensive either.

I charge a set fee of £32 for overnight stays.

[shirlwith3]

Where I am in Wiltshire the horly rate is £2.30 - £3.50.
I charge £2.90 per hour but most are £3. But it depends where in wiltshire you are as it can be higher.

[manjay]

I am watching this thread with interest as I haven't set my prices yet.

I am quite lucky in the fact that there is only two other minders in our village and demand is very high. It is a relatively small village but we have two primary schools on the same campus. One taught in English and the other is taught in the medium of Welsh(the only one locally) so there are a lots of parents trying to get childcare in the village. Both for school age children and also those thinking ahead for when their children do go to school.

The other two minders charge £3.50 per hour and I think about £30 per day but neither of them provide meals. Providing good healthy meals is something that I am really passionate about and want to do so I am not sure whether to charge more and be all inclusive or just have an extra charge for meals!

Amanda xx

[Pauline]

I think you should charge a little more for your specialist meals but make sure you let them know they are getting excellent food.

Mention in your advertising that you are passionate about good food and that healthy meals will be a priority for the children

Thanks everyone for your replies by the way

[jen]

I was talking to my friend the other day and she said she was unhappy with the care her daughter is getting from nursery and was asking about me looking after her daughter.

Her daughter goes to nursery 4 mornings a week and she pays £360 a month - £22.50 per morning!! (8am till 1pm) I was thinking of charging £3 per hour and my mornings would cost half of what she is paying now.

It just shows what nurseries wil charge! Some nurseries around where i am charge £35 per day!

[son77]

I charge an hourly rate of £3.50 (average here is about £3), daily rate of £28 & a weekly rate of £130. My full day hours are 8am-5.30am, quite short days compared to others.

[bessie]

Hi all

It has been really interesting to read these posts and it seems that it averages out around 3 - 3.50ish apart from Dee in Surrey with 5. I know someone in London too who charges over this amount and has plenty of families happy to pay it. Do you think that the cost of living is higher in the south of the country or is it to do with how many childminders in an area I wonder.

I am in South West Scotland (a small rural town) and most childminders I know charge around 3 - 3.50. I charge 3.30 having leapt up recently from 3.05 as I realised I was lagging behind - parents took it well I must say. I give a discount for sibs as less paperwork involved so not quite so much work. As far as I know everyone here charges by the hour.

Bx

[Pauline]

I would say it's because the cost of living is higher in the south, house prices, wages etc are always higher than the north.

[deeb66]

Hi

Yes the prices in the south are definately higher. To give you an example we are renting at the moment as we cannot find a property that we like. I am currently living in a 2 bedroom ground floor flat (with one flat above) and I am paying £850.00 per month rent. I do have an enclosed back garden.

The flat upstairs (obviously without a garden) has just been put on the market and its selling price is £249,500

Yes you did read it right it wasn't a misprint a 2 bed flat with no garden sells for a quarter of a million in the area I live in. A few months ago a poll was listed in the national papers and where I live (Weybridge in Surrey) was listed as the forth highest property values.

Dee

[banana]

thats crazy money!!! How do people feel happy about paying that for a 2 bed flat - think of the house it could buy in other parts of the country!!

Thats steep rent too!!! London prices have always been like thats though havnt they. Its unfair really that you are penalised for where you live. My friend is trying to sell a house in york at the moment as she has moved back to somerset after a break up. She has had to lower the price twice - just to get viewings and has still not had any luck in selling it. However, the same house in a different part of the country ( and it is identical, by barratt homes ) she has seen sell here for £40,000 more than her asking price in york. Now that is not fair!

[Pauline]

Did you see on the TV last night that a wooden beach side chalet in Dorset had sold for £250.000 !!

[tasha]

Hi,
I too live in Surrey and the prices for my area vary between £4.50 and £6 per hour (I charge £5 but charge extra for meals). I charge hourly as I found that day prices were taken advantage off (it's easier to charge by the hour and not have to "do add-on's because collection was 1 hour late etc). Also it just seems fairer all round. I do give a £0.50 discount an hour for siblings though!
I think it's really important to set appropriate fees as a profession - we are expected to give a high level of care and I believe you get what you pay for (within reason)! I think when the minimum wage is over £5, to expect childcare for more than a pound less an hour is outrageous. You could get a weekend job in a supermarket or as a cleaner and not have all the stress, paperwork training etc and earn roughly what you could in a week for 1 child! I know a lot of parents think we're glorified babysitters, but we are not and I think the only way it will change is through childminders in groups raising their fees to the same (ish) as nurseries - after all our child ratio numbers are better and we are expected to do roughly the same, yet we don't get access to the same funding or subsidiaries that nurseries do without jumping through hoops)!!!!!!!!

Hope this helps, as you can tell, I'm passionate about this subject!

Tasha

[banana]

Tasha, I do see your point about minimum wage etc and getting what you pay for, but some parents are on minimum wage or not a lot more and may not be able to afford to pay minimum wage to a minder out of what there wages pay them. I know that prices differ from place to place, but I also see it as where a parent earns once for their hours we can earn well in excess of this.

For example if you had 3 under 5's full time ( ) you would be earning £15 per hour. plus any school runs etc plus meals.

I think its great if you are able to charge higher prices and the parents are happy with it (again i think it is dependant on the area you are in) but I dont think that the 'you get what you pay for' phrase applies to childminders charging less.

I believe in us being paid well too and not being taken advantage of, but if I raised my prices to £5 an hour plus meals - I would be out of a job and finding myself another job paying less money than I am able to earn as a childminder charging £3.50 an hour and looking after the children that I currently do.

xx

[deeb66]

Hi Tasha

Just being nosey - where abouts in Surrey are you

Dee

[tasha]

Hi,
I'm in Oxted. -Dee

See what your saying re if had more children, but I don't!!! Also, don't think what I said re get what you pay for read right. What I meant was that because I charge more I can afford to spend more on resources when I have more children on the books etc. was not talking about quality of care. Also think I'm probably a bit harsh with this because I couldn't afford to go back to work as childcare would cost what I would earn so no point really, so looked at alternatives that would allow me to work from home. Eventually ended up childminding after baby number 2. Now that I mind I feel it's not the childminders responsibility to charge less so minimum wage can afford childcare - however if your areas standard fees allow for this than great, but mine doesn't and I need to be able to provide for my family

Sorry went on a bit!

Tasha

[tracyl]

I was going to charge £3 per hour but having read the posts from the other Surrey girls perhaps I should up it a bit? What do you think?

[angeldelight]

Where are you Tracy?

Here in Birmingham most charge £2.50 to £3.50

I charge £3 an hour but manage to get £1 per meal so that helps

It does depend on the area you live so if you live in Surrey Tracy then yes you should be able to charge more

Angel xx

[tasha]

It really depends on what the nursary and other childminders in your area charge. When I first started I charged £4 to make up for the lack of experience, then at start of new tax year (made it 6 months approx ) upped my charges - I did put this in the contracts though. You have to be careful not to price yourself out of the market, but at the same time not charge too little for your area.

[deeb66]

Hi Tracy

As Angel says - where do you live? are you in Surrey? If you are you still need to be careful as different areas within Surrey charge different hourly rates.

Have you tried talking to existing local minders and checking out the CIS website to see what the average hourly rate is?

Dee

[tracyl]

I'm in Fimley, Surrey.
When I did my icp course another girl from my area said that she could not find a childmider in the area under £5.

[deeb66]

Sorry Tracy - is that supposed to be FRIMLEY or FIMLEY - if FRIMLEY then I know where you are and would think you would need to charge around £5.00.

But as I said have a look on the Surrey CIS website to check.

Dee

[son77]

I live in a small town where the average fee is £2.90-£3.00 per hour. I charge £3.50 per hour which includes food & outings. I also use a daily rate of £28 & a weekly rate of £130 but I only charge parents which ever is the cheaper for them.

[tracyl]

Ops so sorry yes that should be Frimley

[tasha]

You should be looking at around £5 for Frimley.

[deeb66]

That's ok Tracy - my spelling is atrocious sometimes and my typo's are even worse - lol ;D

Yes I would think you would be looking at minimum of £5.00 for your area.

Dee