How would you feel if you knew a CM smacked a charge?

Bubble, I always ignored OFSTED reports when I chose CM's - I suspected they were practically worthless and just went with who I liked. Now I feel vindicated!

CMs get notice for regular inspections which is wrong, IMO. I know CMs will say that they might be planning outside activities/ on school runs etc which would mean that they might not be in when the inspector turns up, but notice means that they can make sure that they don't have over their amount of children etc.

Unsurprisingly very few CMs (in our area) seem to get unsatisfactory reports.

BradfordMum, that shows how useful OFSTED are.

You are in a very difficult position, warmsummersday.

It is hard to say what I would do in that situation, but I think I would have to speak to Ofsted about it.

I am amazed that a registered childminder thinks it is acceptable to smack a child in their care.

I would be very concerned for the children she looks after; their parents have a right to know that their children are likely to be smacked, and given the chance to act accordingly.

You must be feeling very upset about the whole situation.

I reported a Cm for hitting a child in January. Ofsted rang her (BIG mistake ) to tell her they were coming to see her. She also had 6 under 5's at the time I saw her hit the child. So on the day Ofsted visited, she was down to 3 under 5's. NOTHING happened.
Ofsted wrote to me stating a visit had taken place, and that all guidelines were in place.

TOTAL waste of time if you ask me.

Also she will have contravened (invalidated ?)her insurance, as well as Ofsted regulations.

Oh dear

If she is a Registered Childminder she should already be well aware that smacking is not allowed and that she's putting her registration (and reputation) at risk.

I would also have difficulty reporting my own mother. Who is not a childminder but would probably agree with your mum's approach to discipline. But however sure she is that this is a successful way to discipline she needs to understand the potential harm to HERSELF here.

Instead of focussing solely on your own disagreement with her methods of discipline, I would try telling her your fears about potential newspaper headlines and the damage to her reputation if a complaint is made. What may have been one short smack can, in a newspaper report, be written to sound like a story of children being continually battered and abused. She needs to do all she can to preserve her good reputation and protect herself from allegations of abuse. And that means adopting methods of behaviour management she may not agree with. If someone else complains (another parent, postman/passer by etc) she'll have to face Ofsted and a complaint on her record. Thats if she is allowed to continue childminding. I know someone who lost her registration because of a single incident like you describe.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Sorry meant it is NOW illegal

Correct me if I am wrong but I was under the impression that it is no illegal for a childcarer to smack a child in their care?

If this is your mother who is smacking the child, you sound uncomfortable about it, and this is a hard situation as you sound uncomfortable to bring this up to her. Importantly do you want her to smack your child?....possibly not...the situation could be, how do you stop her from smacking your children, as you do not want her to do this....situation hard. Is this is what going on or is it something else?

i would threaten to report her and see what she said.

yes warmsummersday, of course but if it was my mother, I would still threaten to report her for two reasons:
It might make her rethink her behaviour mangement stratagies and
to avoid her abusing any other children (including your own DC)

good message and example the cm is sending out - dont smack but its fine for her(cm) to smack

i understand you dont want to involve ofsted as the cm is your mum but you do need to tell her that her beahaviour is not acceptable (god i sound like supernanny)

and think you really need to tell parents, if need be phone them up and leave an anom message just saying that you saw their child being smacked - though tech you didnt, you were TOLD about it - was the smacker crying /upset when you came down?

Because someone reported me for smacking a child and I hadn't done so.
Ofsted visited me to take a statement and I was able to prove I hadn't been at the place where the person reported me said I had been. They had said I had smacked a 4 year old girl (all of my mindees are boys under 2 and a half)
The inspector said she had asked around about me including parents and my network co ordinator and they all said they couldn't believe it was true as I had been in childminding for such a long time with no complaints and was well known locally.
Dispite there being no other evidence other than this person, it still went on my next inspection report
On getting our solicitor involved, it turned out that the person responsible was another childminder who had made the whole thing up as revenge because someone had reported her for misuse of a mobility car and she thought it was me!!!
I realise this is quite different because the OP actually witnessed it happen but it still starts alarm bells ringing for me whenever the subject comes up.
I hope the child in question is old enough to tell his/her parents so that the OP isn't in this situation any longer

So you are asking if you should report your own mother, for smacking a child in her care... is that right?

If it wasn't a family member, would you report them?

I would feel that she wasn't fit to be a CM tbh.

It's not hard not smacking someone else's kids, is it?

My exCM looked after her grandaughter and would smack her across the legs. I really didn't know whether to report it though I was confident she hadn't smacked DS. I got a new CM at the first opportunity. I didn't report it though because the child was her grandaughter.

I know you don't want to go into detail but is this a pre-verbal child ie. One who can't tell mum or dad what is happening to them when with the CM?

KeepItPrivate- Why the at it going on an inspection report for all to see?

If I was the parent, I'd withdraw my child and report the CM to Ofsted
If it was not my child and I did not witness the smacking (ie my child told me about it), I'd warn the parent of the child concerned so they could decide what to do, and probably start looking elsewhere before my own child got a whack
If the CM was a family member I'd have to take it up with them I think, especially if it wasn't the first time. Oh dear

If it had happened years ago then I would say let it go - but today, in front of you No way. It's a horrible thing for you to deal with but you have to think of child protection. If she is prepared to smack in front of you what goes on when you aren't there?

I can't think of how you could report it without her knowing though

Aha, I see.
If it happened in front of me (assuming I wanted to stay friends with family member), I would talk about the law on smacking/what would happen if those parents found out.
I don't think I could, personally, keep quiet in that situation.

As a childminder smacking is a definate NO! If she is registered take down in writing what happened and report it with who she is registed with which should be with her references. If she is not registered or you know her personally you need to remove the children from her care, paid or not paid. These are your children and if you do not want them to be diceplined in this mannor, do not leave them in this persons care. If there are any marks this is abuse, it may sound over the top but your kids are most important, not the nannies or CM's feelings. Good luck!