[Barefoot]

How much do you pay per day for childcare?

I am starting family day care and am trying to work out how much to charge, but the websites for the local preschools dont have fees on them.

So how much do you pay? What is included in that fee? Would you pay a premium for things like out of hours care, overnight stays, breakfast and dinner provided for early starts and late finishes?

Thanks.

[danielle1985]

So how much do you pay?

$78 for a council place in Illawong. Centre open from 7am-6pm

What is included in that fee?

All meals and snacks, breakfast is included for early starters but I am not sure about dinner though as I collect my son around 4. All bedding including for toddler beds. Not nappies.

Would you pay a premium for things like out of hours care, overnight stays, breakfast and dinner provided for early starts and late finishes?

While it is not something I need now (I used to be a shift working nurse) extended care and overnight care are definitely an advantage and I don't know of any services in the area that offer it. From what I can see, $5-9 per hour seems to be the going rate for FDC but thats only through EB not experience. I would think that $15ish per hour would be something that I would pay, any more and for most people it would not be worth going to work... I used to get $26 per hour with a 12.5% loading, if you take the loading as tax, I would only get $11 per hour.

I am not sure if for a lot of FDC's provide any meals, I have seen quite a few threads on EB about people sending food to FDC. So if not providing meals is the norm (which you will need to get someone who knows to answer) that would make me happy to pay the higher end of the hourly range.

$15-25 per hour depending on experience and age is the going rate on find a babysitter for in home care in the area.

[jo527]

I pay $78 a day for council day care in Sutherland, basically everything except nappies is included, so they get breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and if you pick them up later than 4.30 they get a late snack. FDC doesn't usually provide food, if you were to provide food you would need to be registered with council and inspected by health inspectors, which comes with a fee plus your kitchen needs to meet a certain standard.

I could see the benefit to overnight stays, weekends, late or early drop offs etc, not sure how many places around here do that but it would depend on the clients you get, to whether they would need it or not

[Barefoot]

Thanks. The reason I thought about offering after hours is because I am a shift worker, and I know how hard it is to find care out of normal hours.

I didn't know that about the kitchen. I still have to talk to the FDC coordinator to check that after hours and overnight is ok.