I have a question for NCMA members - can you use your own contracts for childminding that you have written yourself? I resent paying so much for the NCMA ones and the ones I have written take up only one page instead of three, but contain the same information in addition to all the extra bits that I would normally have to write in by hand on the NCMA ones, which takes up so much time!

I am a childminder and never used to charge for my holidays. However, given that the parents all receive paid holidays they are all happy to pay me when I take holiday (4 weeks per year). I also charge for bank holidays if they fall on a day when the child would normally attend. Everyone else gets the day off paid, or a day in lieu so I feel that I should be entitled to the same. I used to offer to work on a bank holiday if required but charged double time. I now take it as paid leave. If a child were to not attend because the parent had the day off and I did not charge for bank holidays, then I would be losing money for a day that everyone else is getting paid for. I did not decide when bank holidays should be or that everyone is entitled to have them as paid leave, so why should I lose out??!! I do not charge if I cannot work due to sickness. Basically, it is up to the childminder. It is their business and there are parents who are happy to pay for the childminder's time off, as a reward for how hard they work the rest of the year. If you are unhappy paying for the service you get then go to someone cheaper who probably doesn't offer the same value for money!