Help me understand what to expect of our childminder!

It isn't unusual. Ds childminder was the same. I decided to let it go as he was happy enough. I think the only thing I would want to know is how many other kids she has. If she has too many your child won't get the home from home experience which is the real benefit of a childminder. In a nursery you will get all the feedback you are wanting but you will also maybe get a tired kid who is looked after by several different people. I think kids also tend to get lots of colds etc at nursery.

I’m a bit confused as to why you need to sort out contracts and see policies….was this not done/ discussed before your child started attending?Are you paying with no contract in place? Childminders don’t actually have to have any written policies other than safeguarding and complaints but it makes sense to have a few so everyone knows ‘the rules’ and expectations from both sides, did you not have this conversation before leaving your child there? In a similar vein did you not discuss how she would share info about your child’s day with you?
I don’t expect she could have done much in the hour settling in but I would expect a simple run down of the longer days re bottles, food, nappies, sleep, activities, handover can be a busy time as it takes someone away from the other children but it shouldn’t be too much to get a quick message/ diary via a childcare app or WhatsApp etc.
You are not entitled to have copies of someone’s DBS, that is their own personal
document with info that shouldn’t be shared apart from with an employer in a larger setting, by all means check out her registration on the Ofsted website but they will have done all the necessary checks before registering her. I’m not sure why she won’t tell you how many children are there but it’s common practice to not let adults into the setting/ home for safeguarding reasons whilst other children are in attendance.
In a nutshell I think you should have had a few more conversations with this lady before leaving your child with her so you would fully understand how she works. Hopefully you can arrange the meeting with her and get a bit more clarification, what she says is true, this is a very busy time of year for everyone but if you are already having trust issues then you might be better off finding another setting. If you decide to find someone else please ask all these questions before arranging for your child to start as it does sound as if you’ve slightly got off on the wrong foot with this one. Hope you get things sorted.

assuming if the cm dd is there she is helping .registered S an Assistant so can have 6 under 5 and 12 under 8

Not sure how you "tell for sure" a baby has not been out in the garden ; he was 8 months old when he started and its winter. The only safe way he could be put outside at this time of year would be in a pram or pushchair ? How would you know?

If you think she's leaving him in the same nappy, when you put it on in the morning, write the time inside.

You can surely check her LA registration to see how many children she's licensed for.

Yes you should have either a booklet /diary or a wats app message stating the basics

What time they had any milk and meals

If did a week or poo

Sleep what time and how long

Rough guide to day - M&T am. Building blocks pm

Nappy only changed once in the day is not good.

Otherwise a 10 month old doesn't usually have much of a report day to day. I'm a CM. I'd note what times nappies were changed & if wet or soiled, times of naps & how well they'd eaten.

Aside from that meals & snacks, playing, reading, walk if the weather is good & other school pick ups take up most of the day. I don't send photos often at all, (though usually gather them all into an album & mail it at Christmas). We go to tots groups on the mornings where there's no nursery run. Do they get out in the pram when it's school pick-up? I do a lot of 'gardening', growing fruit & veg with my wee ones in better weather but difficult at this time of year.

I hope I have a good relationship with my parents. They all come in at pick up time, I say if dc have had a good day & any particular updates but it's often quite dull & there's not much to report.

Sorry answering in bits ....you absolutely should have a copy of the contract and policies....although the requirement to have policies is limited to safeguarding, GDPR, ....most have many more.
You should have completed forms giving medical and residential information and permission forms.

Do you provide the food and milk? If so most leave any uneaten food so you know what has been eaten....and the times are the current routine. Your normally told if anything outside of normal happens ...like didn't sleep for their usual time....otherwise your just repeating what everyone knows like today I left at 8 went to bus stop and got on the 98....you wouldn't tell someone that you both know the routine...so it's I left late, no buses today that is talked about.
Have you asked the cm if the assistant can give more information about new stuff, changes in what baby is doing and outings....although again if your told we go on a school run or to a library on Fridays is there a need to say that every day....or is it more likely you would be told of it not happening or special things? It's hard to leave your baby and natural to want to know every second and every detail but it's not normally possible unless you have a nanny or the use a setting that stays in a set ground or room

My childminder used to provide a book with a run-down of what he did and whether he'd slept/what he'd eaten. It wouldn't have occurred to me to want to know how many times she'd changed him unless there was something noteworthy about his poop. He's older now so I've told her not to worry about giving me such a detailed written run-down. I trust her and he can tell me himself. But YANBU at all to expect a basic description of what he's eaten, when he's slept and for how long and the main activities he's done.

Not taking them outside isn't good, I would be unhappy about that. My childminder takes them to the park, off on scavenger hunts, to the shops to buy baking ingredients or post letters etc. I'm full of admiration for her, I see her in the corner shop with a buggy and two toddlers on reins and she always looks so serene 😆

It sounds to me from your post that you don't trust her/feel totally comfortable and I can understand why. In your situation I think I would change settings if I could.

Most settings would not allow parents in at the drop of a hat ...it takes a staff member to shadow you for safeguarding which means someone is watching you ...even if it's from a distance ...rather than giving attention to their work....your also going to unsettle other children who may want their adults or be focused on you.
You see training records references etc on meeting a cm you don't need to keep looking at them. All staff have to have a current paediatric 12 hour first aid...the training is with the same companies.

The fact you want to hang around for 20 minutes is why most won't want parents in .....having seen parents sit down and make themselves at home at 6pm with no regard to the fact it's been an 11 hour day without a half hour lunch break I think that's totally reasonable....make an appointment ...the cm has agreed to one just not fixed a date yet....lots of things to sort before January.

Feedback for a 10 month old....they played with the treasure basket, crawled not yet standing, put toys in mouth...like tipping out, shaking, mirrors, enjoyed singing, clapped, chewed a book ...how many of those updates is it reasonable to expect....I know a parent wants every minute every detail but that's what babies do.

Normally a baby update is poohed or not, normal or not, normal wet nappies, ate ....normally it not ....X number of bottles, water, slept for x showed interest in .........getting better at ........tried for the first time.....how long does that take?

I've only known one person to work in a nursery. They were horrified to find that staff made the book up and had the children sleeping outside to make them nap longer, then lied about it. Just because a nursery keeps a book doesn't mean it's the truth!

This childminder doesn't sound like the right fit for you op. She doesn't sound like she needs to keep your business and she's not motivated to meet your needs, which are pretty reasonable requests. If it was me, I would worry that if baby wasn't happy or there were issues, I wouldn't necessarily be told because there's no clear line of communication. I would look for alternative care.

Most settings don't allow parents in now that changed with Covid....and as many childminders were struggling to get parents out the door with them staying ....some over an hour at the end of a long day ...lots of CMS have found doorstep not only stops as many bugs...Covid etc are still about....but shortens the day so they do 10 mins at the door instead.
In Covid books were against guidelines and apps are no longer required and takes time away from working with children verbally is sufficient.

Nappy change times are recorded in a nursery because they have a variety of staff changing nappies making it easy to overlook a child you record it so it can be checked and traced back ....if there are 3 children in nappies and 2 adults you know you changed a nappy a nappy change times like after eating or bottle and you know when ones Pooh's becouse your physically close to them ...most recording in nursery is becouse it's the only way to know a child has slept, eaten, poohed.

I get specific information about what my child has been doing. I can speak to as many of the staff as I like, sometimes I am in the room for 3 mins at pick up, sometimes 20. I get shown her artwork, we look at what she has made. We talk about what she did/said/who she played with/what interested her etc. Plus anything they want to note eg food, behaviour, general thoughts.

Sometimes I talk to the staff at drop about the day before, sometimes I don’t. We can go in at any time and speak to anyone. They are never too busy and we are always welcomed in.

I didn’t say DBS was visible!!!!!!!! But all of the policies and processes and training docs are and they go far and above what is required as a minimum eg all trainees have full first aid etc which isn’t a prerequisite. They are as transparent as possible.

I have no issue with childminders, but the OP’s is shit. I wouldn’t send my child to anywhere that didn’t make me feel 100% comfortable.

The point of settling in is your lo accepting comfort and care from the childcare professional....if your sat there it will sent going to happen lo will keep wanting you to feed, get to sleep and your attention so staying doesn't work....it is also a safeguarding problem as you can't be left alone so your taking one person's full attention

Single, double, triple or quad pushchairs common...reins 2 each.....but not in the hour settlings and op isn't clear how many 8 hours have happened other than it's recently.

It would be unusual to have so long a settling in period unless you had expressly asked to go full time before your start date.
Most offer a few sessions in the month before starting full days....it could be that she didn't don't see the need to do more longer sessions costing you money if baby was happy eating sleeping and coming in etc.
If baby is there for an hour..up until recently ....going out in the garden in the cold and wet is not a priority over feeds, nappies, sleep and play...baby needs to be settled at this before you take 10 minutes getting a warm outfit on for them to be outside the 10 to get it off again only leaving 40 for everything else your planning for settling like cuddles, 1 to 1 play etc.
Now your up to 8 hours she may well be getting lo outside.
What time are you picking up....is it meal time, getting others ready for nappies, going home etc.....that's a busy time and long handovers may not be so easy ...it's also a busy time of year so hard to plan an extra out of hours meeting this close to Christmas
Ofsted registration is proof of suitability....Ofsted are in effect doing the role of a school head they know every adult in the house is suitable hence continued registration....look up her report on line if you feel she may have been deregistered ..a DBS is private and you could use it fraudulently she doesn't even have a legal right to show you her families any more than you could ask to see those of nursery staff.

Sending updates through the day is time consuming and takes them away from working with children....if you lo wasn't settled they would let you know....do you get photos every week or so.....it's a lot of extra time after a 10 hour day with children then paperwork and training before getting your own life sorted to be sending daily pics to 6 families. It's totally reasonable to ask if she can send some weekly or so and to ask about nappies, feeds, sleeps.....activity wise for an 11 month old isn't going to vary much.....she maybe doing things to give you for Christmas.......

Nappy changes arrive in clean nappy...change if poohed otherwise typically 3 to 4 hourly depending on fluid intake ....so 8 arrive clean....10.30 to 1 depending on sleep, drink pooh times change again between 2 and 4 home by 4.....child has been in nappy 3 to 4 hours max probably less.....do you change lo every 2 to 3 hours overnight?

You have spectacularly missed the point. I was responding to a specific post by someone else about nurseries. Try reading!

Having been the other side of the door observing many times as an assessor ..
Keyworker handover....can be what the daily plan was for the room with x enjoyed, x ate, x for d....same for each parent ...and keyworker is often out of room or on a duty like nappies.
Logs of food and nappies...are the menu plan and nappy schedule....many set a staff target of a nappy change done in under 2 minutes.
All childminders are first aid trained as frequently as nursery staff....every 3 years effectively more frequently as you can't leave it until the last month or two.
Are you saying that you have access to staff members DBS forms showing address, previous addresses, date of birth, full names, marital status .....because that would be very worrying. You could see the suitability status of staff in an Ofsted letter....but you get that from seeing the Ofsted certificate of a childminder.
Ofsted ratings such as outstanding or good are measured against the same criteria for all types of registered setting.
Childminders typically go out in the environment more often than nurseries and may well include Forest schools.

The op isn't saying she does not get photos but that she doesn't get them through the day.

Most nurseries do hangovers with the selected staff member for the day not necessarily the child's key worker so handover updates are very general. Often key workers haven't done much with the child but are just the one who does the paperwork....something that needs to change.
A DBS is a confidential document that has personal information it should not be held by a nursery they should just have suitability letters from Ofsted the same as childminders. Showing the DBS is like giving a customer all the details needed to set up a bank account. Ofsted registration is the suitability check needed to prove a childminder and all adults in the home are suitable. If they have any contact with the police the address is flagged and Ofsted notified by the police. This does not work for a nursery as individual staff addresses are not linked to childcare so the DBS must be updated....but is only as good as the day it's done.

Ofsted and the EYFS have changed so the amount of wasted time that took staff away from directly working with the children has been cut....the paperwork like learning journals, trackers, written observations etc. We're all seen to be detrimental to time spent working with the children ...inspections now are much more tell me about that child over there where did they start where are they now in their learning and what are you working on next. They ask continually what is that child getting from that activity how is it supporting the next steps. It could be something the child has selected themselves. Before practitioners did not have to really know their charges they could just show a learning journey now they have to speak a learning journey. A lot of current practice in all settings including schools is planning in the moment around child's interest not writing a plan for the future....you know the child's next steps then adapt the interest of the day or hour to what they need to achieve the next step

I used to be a CM and my mum was my assistant. It does get busy at pick up times so I wouldn't expect her to have time for long feedback but I would expect a quick chat and a record of nappies, sleeps, feeds etc. I used to use a book when I started which had all of the above and a little summary of activities we had done that day. Then I switched to using an app which was better. It is a requirement for cm to communicate with parents about their child's day. Trust your instinct!
Also the outside thing..... they should be getting some fresh air at least. I can't believe she doesn't go mad staying in all day. She should have appropriate equipment to take all the kids out (buggies, sling etc). I also find it odd you're not allowed in. 🤔

Mine.

• Detailed keyworker handover every day.
• Outside daily inc things like forest school and trips
• Full log of food etc (mine too old for nappies, milk, naps but we got this too).
• Photos of activities daily and regular reports against milestones
• All staff first aid qualified and DBS checked. Lots of docs available on secure website for parents.

They couldn’t do more, we now travel 25 mins each way by car to stay there (we have moved house) because I won’t tolerate anything less than excellent for my DD.

DD was at a nursery from 1, and now she 3 is at a preschool, both of which do all those things.

No she has an assistant so could have 6 .....and under variation rules could now have more depending on other factors.