Claiming funding for looking after my son

[RandomAccessMemory]

I'm a Childminder in Essex and as well as looking after other parent's children I also look after my own son, my son turned three a week ago and I was looking forward to being able to claim free entitlement funding for him from the spring term.

However I have just discovered that because I'm looking after my own son the local authority will not allow me to claim the funding for him, they say that there is a blanket ban on childminders claiming funding for children whom they are related to.

I don't want to send him to another childminder so should I kick up a fuss? I don't see why I should miss out just because I happen to be looking after him.

Childminders are what they are called...minders of children, for working parents. They are not really educators. You might send a child to a preschool if you don't work, you don;t send them to a childminder

hahahahaha. where have you been for the last 15 years??!! have you any idea what being a CM involves nowadays? ( obviously not).
CM's follow exactly the same EYFS curriculum as nurseries and pre schools. ( you ignoramus)

People like you boil my blood, he's your child, you chose to have him, look after him yourself!

I just think that's a nasty thing to call somebody when you don't know their full situation. I don't know any childminders who could be labelled as that. Op didn't know things had changed, now she does I'm sure she'll work it out or carry on as she has been (which I very much doubt is grasping the profits).

But kidsathome, other parents don't get a government subsidy to top up their income to the max they would get had they not had children because they can't work to maximum capacity because they have childcare responsibilities.

Obviously, people get tax credits, etc so I'm not saying there are no subsidies at all,y point is they don't get the subsidy the OP is hoping for, for the reasons she thinks she should (i.e. because she can't earn the maximum amount available to someone doing the same job with no children).

By that logic Flake, then home edders should receive a teacher's salary from the government

And people who own houses should be able to rent them to themselves and claim housing benefit.

Sorry kidsathome, my comment was in response to this:

'Whilst op does not have to physically pay out for childcare, her income will be reduced by the equivalent of a full time paying child'

longines it's nothing to do with not trusting parents, parents parent, early years professionals educate. If the cm is providing early years education for her son (which involves tracking his progress, observation, planning and assessment) then she should be receiving the funding.

'Whilst op does not have to physically pay out for childcare, her income will be reduced by the equivalent of a full time paying child'

Eh? Their own? Which they're choosing to keep at home?

It does contradict the general principal to not allow a qualified child minder to be subsidised for looking over their own child.

That depends on what the principle behind free childcare is.

Imo, it's so that single parents can be forced to look for work without them claiming that they can't work because of lack of child care. As OP is already working, that principle doesn't apply.

Who's the biscuit for lala?

As far as I was aware, (until today), your own preschool aged children counted in your ratios at all times, even when attending another setting. So previously, you couldn't take on another child whether you kept them at home or not. If that has changed, then yes, she could financially benefit by sending him to another setting and filling the space.

*As far as I was aware, (until today), your own preschool aged children counted in your ratios at all times, even when attending another setting8

YES THEY DO. yOU'RE RIGHT; UNLESS THEY ARE DOING A FULL SCHOOL DAY HOURS AT A PRESCHOOL

oops, sorry about the capitals!

Childminder's were able to claim funding for their own children until a couple of years ago.
If she sent him to another childminder then she would still not be able to take on another child as your own children are always counted in your numbers until they are at full time school (or at least this was the case 2 years ago) as if your child was poorly or injured and you needed to collect them then it would send you over your ratios.

Op has another option if she doesn't like the rules about finding and not being able to take another child of her own son goes to a different childminder - she can get a different job which doesn't involve childcare and send her son to a childminder. I reckon she will be worse off by the time she pays out for childcare even if she takes advantage of the funded hours.

Who's the biscuit for lala?

It was for the OP Strawberry, though having see the latest post explaining that her DC would be counted as her own minded even if at a different nursery & the system has changed fir the worse in recent years, I take it back

Was I for years missing a trick? Up until two years ago could I have just registered myself as a childminder and got funding for looking after my own dcs? Surely not.

I thought there was a rule that someone is only classified as a childminder for the purposes of childcare vouchers if they regularly look after at least one unrelated child (in addition to a child they're related to)? This prevents people claiming money when all they're doing is sending them to Granny, but allows them to claim if Granny is a registered childminder.

I don't think it's ludicrous to suggest that a similar allowance could be made for the OPs situation- as long as you register, do the relevant training, and regularly mind, say, 2 other children who are unrelated to you, if the third child happens to be your own, then you should be able to claim (this prevents the SAHMs signing up).

After all, OP is saving the government money at the moment by not claiming the free hours for her child. She is also losing out on money.

I'm not saying she absolutely SHOULD be paid, but I certainly don't think it's as ridiculous as people are suggesting.

lady only if you also had non related children that you looked after and jumped through the 8000 hoops expected of a cM, and paid out all the insurances etc. etc.

Actually I can see OPs point.
When you think about it, there is absolutely no logic in the rule. There is a child that needs care. The OP is a CM. the govt pays for 30 free hours. She can send the child to another CM and they can claim the money. Which is bonkers. The argument that 'if that were allowed than every sahm would do it' is actually bollocks as most sahms would not want to jump through all the hoops required to be a CM.

In many Scandinavian countries the government does exactly this. Paying one parent to stay home, if that's their choice. It's not 'entitled' (god I hate that expression - such a lazy expression) it's entirely practical and could be set up in such a way that only official CMs could claim and they must look after other children besides their own. It is doable though.

I haven't read the whole thread yet but this reminds me of people who keep on claiming benefits when they no longer need them using reasoning such as,

"Just because my BF moved in why shouldn't I still get my benefits"

and

"Why shouldn't I get my benefits just because I am doing some paid work"

All of you saying you should just register as a childminder in order to claim the funding, you do realise how difficult it is to register to be a childminder don’t you? It’s not just deciding that’s what you want to do, filling in a form and then being a childminder. But also be aware before you all start contacting your LA, the funding rate is pretty crap for the vast majority of the country, what the government pay, won’t cover your costs, free childcare from the government is having to be either subsidised by settings in a lot of cases or go against the rules and be partly funded by parents still. Settings are having to jump through hoops and mess around far to much for this government to keep their pledge. The early years sector is in the middle of a massive crisis.

The amount of courses and training new minders have to complete, all of which are now paid for by the minder is quite a long list. First aid and safeguarding also have to be renewed at least every three years. It isn’t just sitting around watching them play (my mindees are all asleep, which is why I’m on mn before anyone comments), we have been out this morning, done a craft when we got in, had lunch and started dinner for later. My own dc are now at school, but if they were young enough and been here, they would have joined in all those activities. We would not have been so busy or child focused if I wasn’t working as a minder. So, their early years at home was better because of my job (in the same way it would have been if they had gone to another childcare setting).
The rule used to be that if the parent or relative was also caring for another child at the same time, they could claim the funding for the related child. This changed a few years ago, by the time dd now aged 6 was 3, I couldn’t claim for her. The most frustrating thing was that because of the rules, I couldn’t fill her place and be paid for that either. That rule has now changed and cms can send their own children somewhere else and take on an extra child, which is what I would suggest the op does in the meantime.

There is a massive (amongst cms) campaign at the moment to get this funding issue changed. I’m surprised the op didn’t know about this rule until now, I thought it was quite well known, especially with all the attention the subject is being given by PACEY and other websites. FWIW, I think it’s ridiculous op can’t claim for her own child. A teacher can teach her own child and no one thinks any more about it, why is this different?

You do get benefits OP..You get to work full time with no childcare costs..

If you want him to have a different experience from been at home then you can get funding for that.

I am a childminder...Today I have done breakfast/ school run/ Play/ group/ nap/ lunch more play . child just gone home..

Tell me which part of this you think I should be paid for if it were my own DS. I will be writing up observations for Mindee later, also wrote handover book for parents.. I don't feel if mindee was my own child I would of done anything more than the paperwork. I mind my children the way I raised my DS, picking up on there interests and using them to give them opportunities to move forward. I simply have to share myself between more than one child than I did with my DS so probably more groups work than individual.

Around where I live there are several 'miniature' nurseries that are situated within the owner's private homes and take maximum e.g. 6 children, with two nursery workers (one of them being the owner) and some substitute people who fill the gap if one of the two main nursery workers happens to be ill or on annual leave or some such. They are nurseries (registered as such) and do all the same things as nurseries do except that they operate from someone's home. So one difference to CMs is that they are open for 50 weeks/year whereas CMs would close for CMs holidays/illness.
In the aspect of being situated within the owner's home, they are like childminders of course, but they aren't childminders, and they don't do things such as school pick-ups etc that many childminders would (though they DO do outings/trips etc).

So presumably the owners/employees of these nurseries will still get 15h (or perhaps 30h) free childcare even if their children attend the 'nursery' they own/work at?

And this would all be fully above board? Because nurseries are completely different to CMs, as PPs have argued?

In which case it does seem a bit illogical that the simple difference of the legal framework you operate under, even if you are doing pretty much the exact same thing, will mean that in one case the place is funded for an 'own' child, in the other case not.