According to my DD, she spends the whold day watching TV at her childminders!

Using friends to provide childcare can be a low cost option but can make things difficult if they don't care for your child as expected.

I'm wondering what a registered nursery nurse is... registered with whom? Nursery nurses are not registered with anyone - they may though be known to Ofsted as they may have completed a DC2 form (I think it is) in the past. On the other hand they may be registered with Ofsted as a Home Childcarer, under the current scheme of the voluntary part of the childcare register. Either way they may well be deamed to be suitable to work with children... but those checks would not be done on other people resident at the home.

Using friends to provide childcare can be a low cost option but can make things difficult if they don't care for your child as expected.

I'm wondering what a registered nursery nurse is... registered with whom? Nursery nurses are not registered with anyone - they may though be known to Ofsted as they may have completed a DC2 form (I think it is) in the past. On the other hand they may be registered with Ofsted as a Home Childcarer, under the current scheme of the voluntary part of the childcare register. Either way they may well be deamed to be suitable to work with children... but those checks would not be done on other people resident at the home.

I think the big issue I see with the OP having an unregistered CM is not the CM herself (OP said she is a registered nursery nurse) but that if I remember correctly a CM's whole setting is registered. The other people in the CM's home are CRB checked, the home has to meet certain safety standards. The CM will be required to have the appropriate trainings and keep them up to date.

My daughter's CM was 'picked from a list'. The CM was wonderful and professional. Not being a friend actually made the relationship easier. There would have been no need to post here on MN (didnt exist then anyway!) as I could simply ask for what I wanted and expect to get it.

Please dont tar all childminders with the same brush Pumpkin.

As you can turn this round and tar all parents with the same brush,
simply because we see, not just in the media, in every day life, how many pretty awful ones there out there.

I agree you experiance sounds pretty horrible.
and as for the "we dont really do cuddles"

I would have been inclined to take the child with a dirty nappy back to carer and said something along the lines "here we go, (dump child in said carers arms) she dont half whiff)

The standard set by DfES (or whatever their name is under this Government) may well not be sufficient. The regulator (Ofsted) may well not be checking up sufficiently well to make sure providers meet the standard. However, the minimum standard exists and registered providers should be meeting it.

Agreed... there are good registered childminders and unregistered care providers out there. There are also bad ones.

How does a parent decide who is and isn't suitable to care for their child? Is that something Government should be involved with?

Nannynick, but they don't meet a minumum standard: I've seen it with my eyes (toddlers with a dirty nappy not getting changed time after time, dirty faces not geting cleaned, total lack of attention to the toddlers who kept coming to me, etc). They were registered yet providing sub-standard care. The registered minder that used to look after my ds used to cook maily junk food and when I asked her to give cuddles to my ds she said "we don't really do cuddles in his house".
The minumum standard set by Ofsted is obviously very low imo.
This doesn'tmean tht CM are crap carers tho, most are very good, just like most unregistered ones.

pumpkincarver - being a registered childminder does not give assurance of quality of care, it gives assurance that a minimum standard is met. Like schools, they vary in quality of education (and cost), yet all meet a minimum standard. Same with other professions where there is a regulator involved... there are minimum standards, some will be at the minimum level, others will be of a higher standard.

Childcare regulation has been around since 1948, though could be said to have been established in 1871. Whilst not everyone will agree with the legislation, it does need to be pointed out to parents that the legislation exists and thus someone providing unregistered care is breaching that legislation.

So in my view people are right to point out potential dangers of using unregistered care, that the carer is deemed to be fit to care for child and meet a minimum quality standard. If a parent wants to use an unregistered form of childcare, it is possible as I said in my previous post about having the person provide the care at the home of the child, thus becoming a nanny.

Sure pumpkincarver I've had some pretty shit care from medical staff over the years but i still wouldn't let an unregistered doctor treat me, however 'nice' they seemed!

why is everyone implying that the simple fact that someone is a registered CM is an assurance of quality of care? It isn't! I've had a not very good CM and have seen terrible CMs at playgroups (their mindees with a pooey nappy wouldn't get changed, they were inoring their mindees etc to the point that they used to climb on my lap for a story-read).
Equally, there can be very responsible individulas who love caring for children but ar not registered.
Its quite silly to vilify someone simply because their CM isn't registered, it seems to me you're simply attacking the category of minders for "stealing" work from you.

There is no law that says children have to go to school. They just have to get an education. If a child is not registered for school then the authorities are not bothered.
Makes you wonder how many hundreds if not thousands of kids are home ed and who is making sure that these children are meeting the same 'standards' that school educated children have to achieve.

And what happens when they have to take their exams, do the parents have to pay the full cost of them? Just curious

If your husband is s/e but does all the HE in the day and his day off is spent with you alone whilst your dd is in childcare when does he actually work?

I'd work with the LEA to find a suitable school as that little amount of HE may be fine for a KS1 child but surely not for KS2 and beyond. Not to mention having all the skills to teach so many different subjects if neither of you are teachers.

The placid ones are lovely - the more challenging one (is that a good way to put it) are fun and keep you on your toes.

I would be concerned about the safety of the baby... a child who is being assessed for ASD could be a risk to a baby. All children are individuals and some children I've met on the spectrum are very placid and easy going the vast majority of the time. Others though are a danger to all those around them, through very violent outbursts.

Children on the spectrum can often jell with a particular individual, so how well the carer and the child get on is an important aspect.

I would like to make a suggestion to make the situation legal. Currently if it goes on for more than 14 occasions a year, then it's a probably breach of the Childcare Act 2006 (as care provided for more than 2 hours at the home of the carer, the carer is required to be registered as a Childminder with Ofsted if in England) other rules and regulators regulate childcare in Wales/Scotland/NI.

mummyloveslucy - your profile says you live in Devon, so English law applies... so either the person you are using needs to register as a childminder (which may be a bit of a pain if they are just going to care for one child other than their own), or they to provide the care such that it does not fall under the Childcare Act 2006.

To do that is simple... instead of your DD going to their home... they come to your home. They are then a nanny and nannies do not currently have to registered. You would become their employer and would need to keep records for taxation purposes (such as operating PAYE if the other person earns sufficient from you to attract tax/NI, or if they have another income - more details at: HMRC: PAYE Basics) You would need to comply with National Minimum Wage though, so that would put your costs up as £25 is below NMW for 6 hours work (NMW is currently £5.93 an hour for someone aged over 21). NMW rises to £6.08 an hour in October 2011, so I suggest you come to some agreement to pay whatever you consider is reasonable above £6.08

As they would be your employee, you can request that they do certain things, such as not having the TV on all the time but to ration it a bit. Your DD may also be even more happy as she is staying at home. You could still sleep at home during that day, though noise does travel.

Just something that may be worth considering, should you wish to continue using this childcare provider.

I can completely understand why you chose this child minder, and don't like the aggressive and critical comments on here. It sounds like your life is pretty difficult anyway, and you have come up with an imaginative and - in theory - perfectly reasonable system for educating and looking after your daughter.

If you decide you have made a mistake with this particular childminder - in spite of the fact that your DD is happy there - because she is watching too much TV, you could do with some help in getting out of it. There are some fantastic CMs out there, so you could ask around/do the research that others on here have suggested. But again, maybe all that is needed is for you to voice your concerns to your present child minder, or give her some advice.