Childminder who is a recovering alcoholic

[connedbird]

Would I be unreasonable to make Ofsted aware of a person who has recently registered as a childminder but who has also recently been referred to AA following a recent mid day alcohol abuse episode which resulted in her children being temporarily removed by the police?

She has a sponsor and is attending AA meetings/ following 12 steps, so is by all accounts happily getting her life on track. Social services have deemed her suitable to continue looking after her own children on the understanding that she continues with AA and doesn't drink around the children. Also that she leaves her partner due to DV from both sides which she has done.

So, I don't want to be a bitch... but having left my own children with childminders from babies, I feel like it would be something I'd want to know that Ofsted had had the chance to assess before my children were left with a minder.

Wondering if I should even stick my nose in... maybe my own concerns about leaving my pfb DD when she was small are clouding my judgement.

Would SS have made Ofsted aware anyway?

What are your thoughts??

[treaclesoda]

Right. Ok, I'm not in England, and where I am, childminders aren't often qualified in childcare. They have to have a criminal record check, do a first aid course etc of course, but I know quite a few and none of them have childcare qualifications. But despite all this, most of them are still good childminders who look after the children in their care well and hand them back to their parents in one piece.

I thought I was being complimentary to childminders, not insulting .

[treaclesoda]

And now I've cross posted with you!

Ok, hope we've cleared that up. I like childminders, I used one! I hate seeing threads slagging them off.

[Thebodyloveschocolateandwine]

Timimiom yes thanks as a professional child carer I have had loads of safeguarding training as a nurse worked with abused children too.

So we guys are aware that abuse is usually perpetrated at home but by friends and relatives.

Childminders are neither and child care professionals no more or less than teachers, nursery workers or doctors to abuse.

Your facts are incorrect.

[Thebodyloveschocolateandwine]

No probs treakle

[Thebodyloveschocolateandwine]

Of course some of this stems from posters maybe not being in the UK. That's understandable.

Op report your concerns as children are just too previous to risk.

[FuckTheseSixFishInParticular]

Tikimon There actually isn't a higher risk of a lone working childminder being more likely to abuse the children they care for. In fact, if you look at recent cases of abuse or negligence in childcare recently they are almost exclusively all carried out at nurseries, and only picked up on by parents, not by the 'qualified' people working there. Some of the people doing the abusing have childcare qualifications.

I cannot, offhand, think of a single recent case involving a childminder. Thinking that your child is safer because they are surrounded by others is flawed thinking. Because nurseries have higher child:carer ratios, co-workers are less likely to have the time to spare to keep an eye on their colleagues, and more likely to assume that 'someone else will do it'.

You only need to google them both to see that the difference is stark.

[realitygone]

daisy I think you need to have a better google search.

when I trained as a cm, I had to do a 6 week home based childcare course, involving essays and a classroom lesson once a week.

first aid course every 3 years by an approved trainer (this is too much of a gap in my opinion)

dbs, social services and indepth police checks.
health certificate from a doctor

safeguarding training... which is also to be refreshed every 2 years

And make a commitment to attend the refreshers for different training types.

All of this was government funded when I registered, most new childminders are having to pay hundreds of pounds to just get to registered.

ofsted have several hoops that must be jumped through, and a childminder is more at risk of allegation so generally they are more aware of it.

I have always used a cm before becoming one, and interestingly have now started to use a nursery becausr I need a senco worker for my daughter. Would she go there otherwise? No way!

tikimon

where's your facts? I can count several cases of nursery shut downs and reports of abuse.. There was one where several of the staff were involved, another two where children have left the building and walked home!

[HowardTJMoon]

An alcoholic who has only recently stopped drinking has a very high chance of relapse. AA itself acknowledges that relapses happen frequently in early sobriety.

I'm all for people with substance abuse issues being able to move on with their lives but I think she's way too early in her sobriety to be doing a job like CM.

[DaisyFlowerChain]

A six week course isn't much and whilst can be put on a cv it's not a qualification to sing home about be it CM or nursery nurse. Safeguarding involves very little exercises and first aid is standard in a lot of jobs.

It's not just the lone working though but a combination of things that are negatives which a nursery outweighs. It's perfectly ok to prefer a certain type of childcare and to discount another.

In the case of the OP, it's very unlikely that if the person worked in a nursery that either somebody wouldn't know the issues or if truly hidden and drinking started again they would smell it etc.

[Notagainmun]

daisy I would love to see a list of negatives for childminding that outweigh a nursery. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion but it is my opinion that you are unreasonable in yours.

[adsy]

I'd love to see that list too.
maybe it will include the terrible things like getting out and about most days/ getting a lot of individual attention/ forming a very close bond with the children/ knowing your child will have the same person looking after then every day/ going on school runs which prepares them for when they start school/ getting the continuity of care which goes from caring for a baby right through to secondary school.
yeah, you're right, it's a terrible option; give me a baby room any day.

[Tanith]

Childminders are expected to gain at least a Level 3 qualification - that's the qualification expected for a Room Leader in a nursery - and OFSTED expect us to continue our training.
We were advised that the NVQ2 (that nursery workers are working towards) was a waste of time for a childminder.

My neice started work in a nursery. She has no childcare qualifications, nor are they required. She has elected to start her NVQ2. She can take further qualifications if she wishes, but there is no requirement to do so.

[Notagainmun]

I am a CM I have an NVQ level 3. I am also an experienced mother who understands a parents concerns and works hard to make both parent and child feel safe and worry free.

In regards to the OP I do think this is too soon for this particular woman to be a CM as it can be a very stressful occupation.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Ofstead are currently saying that the registration process takes up to 3 months.
And they also say they only inspect once you have mindees so someone who is registered recently and does not have any mindees is quite likely to have not even received a visit.

However it pisses me off that it seams you cannot have a discussion at all about inappropriate childminders without the 3/4 usual posters jumping in a telling you that because they are good they all must be.

I prefer to use childminders or a nanny because I personally hate nurseries but that does not change the fact that there are some pretty shitty ones about,I've known ones who just treat childminding like they are on a jolly with their mates baby sitting yet get paid £25 ph for it (I've had one like that)

Just the same as every other area of life it has ok good bad great and shocking.

Of course a very recently fessed up alcoholic whose also currently experienceing issues as a result of DV should not be actively looking for mindees.

If the op posted my sister has just had all of the above happen should I let her look after my kids most of you would tell her she's not thinking right and should report herself to SS.

[Tanith]

Really, Needasockamnesty?

I haven't seen that at all. What I have seen is several childminders correcting misinformation about their profession.

[adsy]

However it pisses me off that it seams you cannot have a discussion at all about inappropriate childminders without the 3/4 usual posters jumping in a telling you that because they are good they all must be.
What we have all got upset about are the 3 or 4 people implicitly saying that CM's are far more likely to be abusers than any other profession. Niot hard to see why that is a little upsetting

[shareacokewithnoone]

I don't think it's that: it's more that it would be easier to conceal abuse at a childminders, not that it's more likely to happen.

I would be reluctant to send a non verbal child to one for that reason. It's not because I think anything bad would happen, but that if it did, the child wouldn't be able to tell anyone about it.

I broke a vase by mistake at a childminders and got my bottom smacked really, really hard and had to sit in the corner for what seemed like hours - it was horrible! So I wouldn't be sending my child to a childminder.

[Thebodyloveschocolateandwine]

What a load of ridiculous bollocks.

Children can get abused or neglected in any setting and these are sadly by nursery workers and teachers working in busy settings with people working alongside each other.

There is absolutely no evidence at a that children are at more risk from cms do please don't trot out crapike this without evidence.

Of course parents can choose the child are they prefer but to proclaim that you wouldn't use a cm or a cm who had a dh/dss at their house because they could abuse your child is really stupid.

As a cm I had counties a children come to me after the parents had been shocked by the care from some nurseries ,
That doesn't mean all nurseries are bad.

Cms are qualified and cannot practise until certain training has been achieved unlike nursery staff and of course TAs who can be taken on with absolutely no training whatsoever.

[realitygone]

daisy be a little more belittling I don't think you've been quite rude enough...

Have you registered as a childminder? Just wondering as you seem to think you have all the facts.

the first aid course is 12 hours specific to children, most include epi pen and allergy training.
The safeguarding course (that I've been on) is a full evening of looking at and being told about the most harrowing of ways a child can be abused, I don't know one person who didn't leave there feeling emotionally drained.
The 6 week course is actually a credits towards a diploma, I have just completed the level 3 diploma in children's and young persons workforce and if you were to have a look in the contents of the book (by penny tassioni if you want to find it) you will see the course (CYPOP5) is part of the diploma, as I had already done it I didn't need to and transferred the points across.

I am starting a degree in october, which when finished I will be more qualified than the manager of my daughters nursery, yes on paper its just a degree however it involves a lot of being monitored and seeing the interaction with children so being good with children is part of it

I think you need to have a little bit more of a look into it before making sweeping generalisation on a subject you really don't seem to know a lot about.

There are some shocking CMs out there, I reported one myself before decided to do the job. She used it as a social meet up and didn't care about the kids atall. So whilst there are bad ones there are tenfold the good ones which outweigh

[Thebodyloveschocolateandwine]

shateacoke

I got smacked by my parents and teachers in the 70s. Cm were allowed to physically discipline children then as were all adults teachers, nurses, etc.

Excuse me but your argument is ridiculous as the whole of society has changed now as had the law.

[Thebodyloveschocolateandwine]

Yes I too am far more qualified and far more experienced in child care than the nursery manager near my setting.

She's great by the way but I do wince at the ignorant posting here about cms.

[shareacokewithnoone]

I didn't grow up in the 70s. It certainly wasn't legal :)

[Notagainmun]

On the safeguarding courses we are taught the subtle signs to look out for as most children who are abused are abused by family members. We have to produce our own policies and procedures should we have any suspicions and how and who to report it to.

I can, and will, whistleblow on parents and other CMs if I have good reason to, as would any good childcare provider.

[Notagainmun]

By the way I have the day off today before I am accused of neglect.