Terms and conditions for a childminder

A childminder's terms have to survive real situations: the parent who stops paying but still turns up, the repeated late collection at the end of a long day, the settling-in period that never settles, and the family who move away without giving notice. I draft parent-facing terms around how your setting actually runs, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Registered childminders in England and Wales working from home, whether on your own, with an assistant or alongside another childminder. Your customers are parents acting in their private capacity, so they are consumers and the protections that come with that cannot be drafted away. Occasionally an employer or a local authority pays for a place, which needs its own wording.

What matters in a childminder's terms

Fees, retainers and paid absence

Most childminding disputes are about money for days when no child was in your home. The terms need to say whether fees are payable for bank holidays, your holiday, the family's holiday, child sickness and inset days, and whether a retainer holds a place over the summer. Fee increases matter just as much. A term letting you change the rate at will is the sort of one-sided variation right given in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 as an indicative example of an unfair term, so I draft increases with a stated notice period and a right for the parent to end the contract instead.

Late collection and unpaid fees

Late collection is the charge parents challenge most. A flat fee that looks punitive risks falling within the indicative list of potentially unfair terms in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which includes disproportionate charges for default, so the amount should reflect the time you actually lose. Unpaid fees need their own route: a payment date, a right to suspend care after a stated period, and the point at which the place goes to someone else. Parents are consumers, so the interest and fixed compensation available between businesses under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 do not apply.

Settling in and the fourteen-day cancellation right

Childminding contracts are usually signed in the parent's home or agreed by email after a visit, which makes them off-premises or distance contracts under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. The parent has fourteen days to cancel from the date of the contract, and off-premises contracts of £42 or less fall outside the rules. If care starts inside that period it must be at the parent's express request, in which case a parent who cancels pays a proportionate amount for the care given. Where there was no express request, the parent pays nothing. Missing cancellation information extends the period by up to twelve months.

What the hourly rate actually covers

Parents rarely dispute the hourly rate. They dispute what sits on top of it: meals and snacks, nappies and wipes, outings and entrance fees, mileage for school runs, and consumables charged alongside funded early education hours. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the price and the main subject matter escape the fairness test only if they are transparent and prominent, so anything mandatory belongs in the fee schedule the parent reads before signing rather than in a paragraph they find later. Where you deliver funded hours, the terms should sit beside the local authority's own funding agreement rather than contradict it.

Permissions, medical information and collection

A childminding contract carries a permissions schedule that general terms will not have: emergency medical treatment, administering prescribed medicine, sun cream and nappy cream, car travel and seats, outings, photographs, and who besides the parent may collect the child. Running the other way, the parent should confirm they have told you about allergies, medical conditions, dietary needs and any court order or family dispute affecting collection. The terms should also make plain that nothing in them stops you meeting your safeguarding and registration duties, which are not owed to the parent in confidence.

Liability, your home and your insurance

You are inviting children into your house, with your own family, pets and possessions in it. The terms should deal with damage caused by a child, belongings brought from home, and what happens when you or your household are ill. Neither the Consumer Rights Act 2015 nor the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 permits you to exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and against a consumer you cannot limit liability for a service to less than the price, so the work is done by clear allocation of risk and by your public liability cover.

Separately, the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 already require you to make your name, address, insurance details and complaints route available and to handle complaints promptly. That obligation is yours rather than something the contract discharges, and the covering note shows where your parent pack can carry the information.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Can I charge a retainer to hold a place over the school holidays?

You can, provided the parent knows before signing what the retainer buys, when it falls due and what happens if they do not return. A retainer that takes money without any matching commitment on your side is harder to defend, so I tie it to a defined obligation to hold the place and to a stated review point.

A parent has left owing fees and given no notice. What can I do?

The contract decides it. Where the terms set a notice period and say fees are payable in lieu, the outstanding amount is a debt you can pursue through the small claims track, and a deposit can be applied against it. Where the terms say nothing, you are arguing about what was reasonable, which is a much weaker place to start.

Does my registration paperwork cover the contract with parents?

Registration requirements and your written policies sit alongside the contract rather than in place of it. They show the regulator how you run your setting. They do not fix payment dates, notice, fee increases or liability. My work is the contract itself; sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms is outside what I take on.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a dog groomer
• Terms and conditions for a mobile hairdresser or beautician

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.