My childminder left my daughter all day with her assistant

In assustant childminder arrangements the parent has already given permission for the child to be left with the assustant

It depends on your contract how long that’s acceptable for.

For example, the CM I use states that parents will be contact if the child is to be left with the assistant for longer than an hour to give the option for collection.

Same with the emergency. It states that the CM can leave the children with another local registered childminder in an emergency and that parents will be called or messaged to advise of the situation and informed if they need to collect or to ensure they are happy for the child to stay with the alternative.

In assustant childminder arrangements the parent has already given permission for the child to be left with the assustant. ....in a nursery you get no say on staffing inclufing agrncy staff in for one day. The managers of settings are the ones ensuring suitability not tge users.
I an emergency chikdmindees are allowed to leave children with a suutsblr peedon...normally set out in the policies most dont read

The only issue is why the parent wasnt told...presumably the cm was back by colkection time or they would have asked where she was....so was it even over 2 hours?

She absolutely should have told you, and given you the choice whether to go along with the arrangement or not. Personally I would have gone along with it if she is confident that her assistant is appropriately trained etc.

Unless there is some backstory about her assistant actually being 15, this is my reaction too.

I sounds like it was an emergency. Would you have preferred it if she'd cancelled you? I can't see what you're getting worked up about TBH

You need to find out what qualifications that assistant has and what the ratio was before going as far as complaining to Ofstead.

Also it also depends what it says in the contract you agreed with her.

If it states children will never be left with the assistant for longer than 2 hours, for example, then it doesn’t matter if the assistant is Mary Poppins - it shouldn’t be changed without discussion.

What does the policy say?

Even if the assistant is highly trained and equally as experienced it’s not right that you weren’t told.

The fact that the assistant is new also adds to it being an issue.

Anytime the childminder I used needed to leave the children with one of the assistants I got a text saying “X has had to leave for an emergency situation. I have the children, are you happy with that or would you like to collect early?” from the assistant. It literally takes two seconds to send.

The lack of communication is the big issue though. You should always be able to trust your CM to keep you up to date on what’s going on.

So the bottom line is that you don't trust your childminder's judgement in an emergency?

If you feel like that then you are the one who is completely unreasonable to EVER leave your child with them!

OP, Unless you have another update after your two posts. I agree with above.

She hasn’t really done anything wrong but if you are unhappy, then change your childcare.

I don’t no if it’s worth complaining to ofstead, it all depends on wether the assistant has the first aid training etc.

But you’d be irresponsible as a parent to keep the child there as you don’t trust her, and the working relationship has broken down. In an emergency needing to take her DH to hospital is ok, but why didn’t she tell you? And why didn’t she just phone you to come and collect your child if the assistant isn’t appropriate? Why can’t she hire and keep staff? I’d be looking for somewere else asap

The first time could have been an emergency but she should have told you immediately.
Repeated occurrences are not emergencies and should be planned for.
You should know what the plan is in advance and be told when it has been needed.

Apart from that 4 assistants in a short space of time would be a red flag for me.

Move your child and complain

you have not answered some questions like how old is the assistant etc.
bottom line is if you don’t feel you can trust her to hire assistants you are happy to leave your child with - then you don’t trust her and it’s not going to work

I hope that the childminder's husband is ok.

Now that you know you have 2 choices OP; find another childminder or ask them to call you so you can collect your child.

But she used her assistant not some random person @PotentiallyPolly

I can’t imagine any parents not being upset at finding out their child isn’t with the person they thought they were leaving them with and the childminder not telling them either. All those saying it’s fine to not tell a parent that their child was left with someone else - would you really have been happy to find this out second hand from a friend and not direct from the minder?

I’ll go against the grain and say YANBU to be upset you weren’t told. Knowing who’s cared for your child that day is important, especially if there’s been an incident occur or if you’re needing information about xyz.

OP what would you rather have happened? Would you rather have been called twice to pick your child up rather than someone else look after her?

But harsh if this was a genuine emergency! Calling ofsted can ruin a childminders life, I don't think she needs unexpected inspections or suspension because her husband got sick. (standard response from ofsted is to suspend childminders for 6 weeks pending investigation, no pay and not able to tell anyone why!) But like others have said, who is this assistant? You should talk it through with the childminder, no harm came to your child, the assistant will have safeguarding, dbs, first aid etc.

I think she should have informed you so that you had the option to collect your child or arrange alternative care.

If you only found out about it after the event, it would be fair enough to ask her to ensure you're contacted if something similar happened again.

Assuming I trusted my childminders judgement (if I didn't, I wouldn't be leaving my child with them), I wouldn't be reporting to Ofsted or similar. If I didn't trust them, or was unhappy with the turnover of assistants, I'd be withdrawing my child from the setting regardless of this.

If this has been going on since last sept - as in not sept last month , but a whole year ago why haven’t you changed cm @Glamourgal1989 as obviously not happy with her care ….

uou can moan saying you aren’t happy but carry on using her services for another year

Childminders do have to be trained and inspected by OFSTED.

I don’t think the childminder did anything wrong in what she did. I do think it is reasonable to want to be informed, though.

Looneytune253
You know childminders don't have to be qualified either don't you? It's not like a nursery where you have to have a certain proportion fully qualified.

^^this.
When I first started childminding, approx 14 yrs ago, out of about 10 local Childminders, only 2 of us had a relevant level 3 qualification in EYFS/Childcare.