New contract advice please

[jules]

I mind a little girl who will be starting full time school in September and her brother who is 1. Their contract is due to be renewed at the beginning of September, I don't have them during the holidays as the parents are teachers, but do charge half fee to keep the place.
Here's the problem, Mum wants to redo the contract in July so she will be paying the new charges in the holidays which, as you can imagine, will be considerably lower than the present fee, as I won't be charging while the girl is at school, only before and after. As the contract isn't up for renewal until September I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be grateful.

[deeb66]

Hi

I think the mum is being a little crafty and a little unfair as everything is status quo until the child starts school.

I would insist that the contract is not changed until renewal date or the date that she starts school - but she can still get around the dilema. She could be a little craftier by giving you formal notice (one month's notice if that is your contract agreement) in writing to reduce the child's hours in time for the summer holidays and at that point you would have one of two choices - either tell her no and loose the child or accept the reduction in hours.

Either way it looks like you may have to accept the reduction but I would definately advise that you fully discuss the matter with her otherwise you will feel a lot of resentment.

Dee

[jules]

So, if I say to the Mum that the as the girl will be going to school for only a few hours for the first two weeks and doesn't start full time school until the middle of September the present contract will stand until then and then we will do a new contract once she is at full time school, do you think that's fair?
Also, would you charge the same hourly charge as the little boy for the before and after school hours or a reduced rate or even perhaps more as it is after school care. Not sure how this one goes as I have not had this before.
I usually lose them once they start school as Mums work around school hours or I have taken them on when they are already at school.
I have had this little girl from a baby so don't want to lose her, but then again I don't want to be a pushover.

[deeb66]

I have been in your situation before - usually I would say that before and after school children are a higher rate but these are not new clients you have had dealings with the family for a few years.

As I said I have been in your position and didn't want to loose the family and felt that I owed them a little loyalty so I did a reduced rate for the school child...I didn't reduce it by much only by 50p an hour which means that I really didn't loose that much anyway as they are only with you a couple of hours a day anyway and after all you are still getting a good income from the baby. Also once this little girl goes to school full time she will no longer take up an under 5 space - sorry I am waffling a little...I hope it all makes sense.

Yes I would still continue to charge full rate for the little girl (even whilst she is at school) until she goes full time and then reduce to charging for the hours she is actually with you.

Dee

[angeldelight]

I do agree with what Dee says and I do think the parent is being very crafty

My rates are never higher though for before or after school and I do a lot of them !!
I charge everyone the same always regardless of age
I do a reduced fee if there are 2 or more in the same family

I would do my best to keep the contract as it is until the renewal date

Dee's advice is good it is more or less what I would do

Good luck

Angel xx

[jules]

Thanks for your advice. Deep down the answers you gave are what I thought, but wasn't quite sure how to get it across to the Mum.

[deeb66]

Glad we could help - let us know how you get on

Good luck

Dee

[susi513]

Although contracts should be reviewed regularly, I don't think any of the changes parents have asked me to do have ever co-incided with my scheduled reviews.

The way I do it is by viewing each change as a cancellation of the current contract, which must be continued for the notice period and the issue of a new contract which would start when the notice period expires.

If a parent requests an extra day/hours that I have available then I waive the notice period and start the new contract on the agreed date. If the change results in fewer hours they must pay the current fee for the remainder of the notice period, even if they are no longer using all the booked hours.

/Also I charge a higher hourly rate if they go down to less than 20 hours a week. Its worth having a set minimum daily or weekly fee too.

[susi513]

Forgot your mindee is just starting school. I have a different charging system when they start school - I charge session fees but only when they go full-time. When they start in reception here they go mornings only so are still counted as under fives until they are 5 or they go full-time in October.

So for the first few weeks I still charge as if they were under five, which is £32 per day, £23 for 9-3.15 or other arrangements are at hourly rate of £4 for less than 20 hours or £3.60 for over 20 hours weekly.

When they go to school full time I charge £4 for 8-9 and £12 for 3:15 til 6pm and £32 per day in school hols.