is it okay for CM to leave children in her mini bus

[Bilpbip]

While she goes to the nursery door to collect more children?
It is about 150m and out of site of the road where the bus is.

I don't use this child minder even though she is the only one in our village as I didn't get on with her at interview. I'm now wondering if I am just over reacting about this? There are normally two very young toddlers left in the bus.

I'm not in possetion of the facts wrt how many kids but there are more than three on some days

if she is a broken footed childminder with a mini bus is a small village then i would imagine somebody will recogise her from this thread just saying

No, this isnt acceptable. This happens in our village too and, even though we quite liked the cm in question at our interview, my DH refused to employ her after he witnessed this.

She doesn't have a crutch.

They are not her own kids, they are long grown up

If she's registered with Ofsted then she doesn't get to ignore the conditions of her registration so she doesn't lose business, especially if it puts children at risk.

Oops good point MrsJay maybe time to namechange

I've only ever broken my arm, so could be wrong, but driving a minibus of children with your foot in plaster doesn't sound too safe.

I am sure that's not ok. When I was interviewing my cm for DD I said it would be great that she could leave DD asleep in the car if needed as her drive went right alongside her back door so could keep an eye on her. She immediately said she would never do so as is against Ofsted regulations.

I leave mine in the car for the petrol station and outside the local shop where I am parked right outside the door. So I am relaxed about it BUT this is different - far too far and against professional responsibility.

My concern is if they get out of the seatbelts, and then out the van into the road, or in the van but releasing the handbrake etc. The time taken to walk to the school, pick up, then walk back, and no other parents passing it all the time to see if the kids are in trouble in any way.

No way. So many parents/carers do this though. I always got mine out, even when I had baby twins and a toddler. I have seen cm leaving mindees outside shops out of sight too. awful..However many cm would not do it.

OP I wouldn't like it and never left ds in the car when he was little.

I've only ever broken my arm, so could be wrong, but driving a minibus of children with your foot in plaster doesn't sound too safe

If it's her left leg that is the broken one and it's an auto van then it will make no difference to her driving.

There was a case a while ago of a childminder who was looking after a friend's child on a Saturday as a favour and left him in the car outside a shop.

She was prosecuted for neglect and lost her registration.

I'll tell you now that you have to be seriously breaking the rules before Ofsted give a damn!

Our local childminder lets children hold the electric cable and push the lawnmower with her, they play on the trampoline, swings and climbing frame out of her sight, etc. etc. Ofsted didn't give a damn when they were informed.

You should consider informing Ofsted.

Clearly it would be better to give her a chance to stop doing it but I understand about living in a small village and not wanting to cause bad feeling. It's amazing how you can come across the same person in all different walks of life if you both live in a small community.

This childminder is putting the children at risk in Ofsted's eyes regardless of the wishes of the parents and they are likely to write to her asking for her side if you complain. You can complain anonymously so she won't know who you are.

If you don't want to complain to Ofsted, could you raise it with the nursery, ask them to raise it and see if they can work with her to find a safer way to hand the children over to her?

I would mention it to the nursery. It's wrong, for lots of reasons.

That said, it always saddens and disgusts me the number of parents who do this too, too lazy to take a toddler or baby with them to the playground. Have seen some very distressed toddlers alone in cars and also kids left eating to keep them happy - choke hazard! Plus its a very busy road where wing mirrors are always getting knocked off.

school regularly mention this in newsletters, but it still happens, and will until something awful happens.

flapjackolantern ofsted take all complaints seriously and carry out a full inspection so obviously the childminder you reported could prove she was taking good care of the children ,leaving children in a van out of sight and hearing does however need reporting