As a childminder, your rates must reflect the true cost of care to remain sustainable. If you haven't reviewed your fees in the past 12 months, you are likely earning less than you did last year.
Why Increase Fees?
Rising Costs: Inflation on food, utilities, and insurance means static fees are effectively a pay cut.
The rising cost of living, with inflation impacting essentials like food, utilities, and insurance, means that keeping fees unchanged is equivalent to a reduction in income.
Increased Value: Your growing experience, new certifications, and equipment/resource upgrades justify a premium rate
Justification for increased Rates: Your rates should reflect the increased value you provide through your growing experience, CPD, and upgrades to equipment and resources.
Steps to Calculate Your New Rate
Audit Actual Costs: Itemise everything- from food and nappies (variable) to insurance and fees (fixed).
Analyse Profit: Subtract expenses from your hourly rate. If your "take-home" pay is near minimum wage, an increase is overdue.
When Should I Review My Childminding Fees?
It's vital to regularly check if your childminding business is earning enough money to be sustainable. The best way to know if a fee increase is needed is to do a simple Profit Check using our tiney fee calculator
How to Check Your Profit:
Start with your current hourly fee.
Now, carefully subtract all the money you spend on your business for that hour.
What to include in your spending (expenses):
Running Costs: Part of your home's rent/mortgage, electricity, gas, water, internet, and essential insurance (like public liability).
Stuff for the Children: Cost of food, crafts, toys, books, and replacing broken equipment.
Your Business Overheads: Any money spent on subscriptions, advertising, training courses, accounting, and tiney fees.
If you have staff: Their wages and any related costs.
The Golden Rule:
The money you have left over after subtracting all those expenses is your true "take-home" or net profit for that hour.
If your take-home pay per hour is the same as, or less than, what a basic employee would earn (minimum wage), you definitely need to increase your fees.
Why You Must Increase Your Fees:
Running your own business involves much more work, risk, and responsibility than being an employee. Your fees need to cover the quality care you provide and pay you fairly for the effort and risk of running the business. If you are only earning minimum wage, your business isn't viable in the long run. An increase is essential to keep your business healthy and make sure you are paid what you are worth as a professional childminder. Use our
Benchmark Locally: Research 2026 rates for local childminders and nurseries to stay competitive.
Choose a Structure: * Flat Increase: e.g., +£0.50/hour.
Percentage Increase: e.g., 5–8% to match inflation.
Communicate Value: When notifying parents, lead with their child’s development and your commitment to quality. Our increase letter to parents can be used to communicate your updated fees. You should also update your fees and admissions policy to share with new and existing families
Next Steps
To help you calculate the numbers with confidence, here’s a structured Fee Review Calculator table. You can copy this into a notebook, a spreadsheet, or simply print and complete it manually.
Use the Checklist: your rate increase to check you have covered all aspects of your review.
Once you are happy with everything, use the Template: Fee increase letter to parents
to notify your updated fees with parents.
Need a sense-check? Reach out to the tiney support team to review your calculations before notifying parents.