What happens to children over the summer?

[Randomfires]

Have I missed something because I’m sure the government said that there were to be childcare schemes set up but I can’t find anything further on this since early June.

Husband and I are keyworkers and the local holiday summer schemes are all closed. Some of the schools are doing a play scheme but not ours. Really confused as to what we’re meant to do when schools shut in 3 weeks.

Surely a 19 year old would be a babysitter or childminder?

They’re only a child minder if they mind in their own home.

Is there a legal definition of babysitter? Surely that’s contingent on them only doing a few hours here and there?

@Randomfires

You can employ an au pair/nanny to work in your house righty-ho I’ll just go and book that, cheers 🙄

They're no need to be rude.

Poster suggested numerous things.

Desperate parents. Skint inexperienced kids, small innocent children lumped in with another family they might not know and looked after by a bloody stranger being paid peanuts.
A decent experienced nanny is not the type of person you can use for modern day slavery anymore.

What do you think the people looking after the children at a nursery are getting paid? The young assistants supporting the usual holiday schemes? £8ph if they're lucky. We're talking about the exact same people, who would normally be doing childcare of some form this summer, doing the same thing for the same wage or maybe even slightly more, but in a private arrangement at a home. Paying someone the market rate for a job is not exactly slavery, although you are of course welcome to pay more. An experienced nanny will indeed look for about £11ph in London. Conceivably less in other parts of the country. But minimum wage is entirely standard at the entry level in childcare.

Surely a 19 year old would be a babysitter or childminder? Aren’t nanny’s normally employed by families?
A childminder is specifically someone who is self-employed, Ofsted inspected, and looks after a small number of children in their own home. A nanny is anyone who looks after a child in the parent's home and no qualifications or registration is required (although many professional nannies will have them). "Babysitter" means more or less the same thing but just denotes a more casual, ad-hoc basis.

Again, I'm not saying this is a magic solution or will suit everyone. All I'm doing is pointing out that there are lots of people out there who have DBS and experience who would otherwise be employed in some kind of formal childcare this summer but are at a Covid loose end and may well be very happy to enter into a private arrangement, and also that it's entirely legal and doable for two families to team up and split costs.

@gingajewel

A nanny is simply in home childcare, generally during the day on a regular basis rather than occasional evenings (babysitter). The kind of person appropriate will depend on age, number, needs and personalities of the dc they will care for. Most colleges have childcare courses, I would start there looking for recommendations. Dd got her work by putting leaflets through doors. I wouldn't want an under 18 in some charge but if you wfh a 14 year old entertaining your kids whilst you are in the bedroom working might work well. People are trying to help, there's a real problem and posting possible solutions is all we can do. The holiday club we ran is now "online" no good as childcare! I have 50 unhappy families but no can do, my city is still in lockdown!

@SeagoingSexpot

Desperate parents. Skint inexperienced kids, small innocent children lumped in with another family they might not know and looked after by a bloody stranger being paid peanuts. A decent experienced nanny is not the type of person you can use for modern day slavery anymore.

What do you think the people looking after the children at a nursery are getting paid? The young assistants supporting the usual holiday schemes? £8ph if they're lucky. We're talking about the exact same people, who would normally be doing childcare of some form this summer, doing the same thing for the same wage or maybe even slightly more, but in a private arrangement at a home. Paying someone the market rate for a job is not exactly slavery, although you are of course welcome to pay more. An experienced nanny will indeed look for about £11ph in London. Conceivably less in other parts of the country. But minimum wage is entirely standard at the entry level in childcare.

Surely a 19 year old would be a babysitter or childminder? Aren’t nanny’s normally employed by families?
A childminder is specifically someone who is self-employed, Ofsted inspected, and looks after a small number of children in their own home. A nanny is anyone who looks after a child in the parent's home and no qualifications or registration is required (although many professional nannies will have them). "Babysitter" means more or less the same thing but just denotes a more casual, ad-hoc basis.

Again, I'm not saying this is a magic solution or will suit everyone. All I'm doing is pointing out that there are lots of people out there who have DBS and experience who would otherwise be employed in some kind of formal childcare this summer but are at a Covid loose end and may well be very happy to enter into a private arrangement, and also that it's entirely legal and doable for two families to team up and split costs.

Have you seen some of the kids who work in nurseries? Childcare level 1 & 2 are very easy to pass and anyone in a nursery is dbs checked. In the nursery at least they're supported by the rest of the team. Send them off on their own, to double up with another family as suggested on here is an absolute disaster. And minimum wage for a teenager is much less than for someone in their twentiies. Whoever suggested doubling up annd using a kid for childcare is essentially condoning modern slavery

There is only one reason for private nurseries employing school leavers in their government funded 'apprenticeship' roles.
Look at state run nursery school staff. Half the dbs checked kids employed in private nurseries wouldn't even make iit through a state run nursery school application form .

By all means don't use that option and find your own least worst option, famousforwrongreason. But it's perfectly common for students, especially ones with some childcare experience, to do some ad hoc babysitting and nannying and often works out well for everyone, and nobody is twisting anyone's arm to get them to hire someone they don't trust.

@SeagoingSexpot

By all means don't use that option and find your own least worst option, famousforwrongreason. But it's perfectly common for students, especially ones with some childcare experience, to do some ad hoc babysitting and nannying and often works out well for everyone, and nobody is twisting anyone's arm to get them to hire someone they don't trust.

It's not an option for me anyway but thanks. I'm responding to patronising clueless throwaway comments 'just get a nanny', ' just get a kid and double up on their work and underfund them' 'Just find academically gifted dbs students' We and our kids might have been through hell trying to manage through this lockdown period. How about parents and children with anxiety and other difficulties? How do you suggest these families a) find this magical random gifted stranger with low self worth and b) how do you suggest kids with anxiety, stranger anxiety suddenly adapt to being cared for by a stranger in their home after all the upheaval and stress of the past few months. It's not black and white and noot as simple as people with a vague overview are suggesting here.

@famousforwrongreason 100% agree, the mythical teenager/nanny and the mythical kids that have no problems so in the next week you can find childcare/leave your kids with them/ oh and also employ them!!! I genuinely think people on Mumsnet live a very different life to me!

Maybe get in touch with the local college and ask about girls who are on child care courses that's what i did when i needed a baby sister

If you are too anxious to let a childcare worker with a DBS check into your house, likely while you are there, to care for your children, I think you have bigger problems than no holiday club.
Presumably you didn't know the teachers before your child went to school, the holiday club workers ditto...

It isn’t quite the same thing drspouse, because in the above examples it’s a public building with numerous adults coming in and out.

I'm aware it's not the same but being afraid to have an adult in the house that you don't know is a much bigger problem than having no childcare.

@drspouse

If you are too anxious to let a childcare worker with a DBS check into your house, likely while you are there, to care for your children, I think you have bigger problems than no holiday club. Presumably you didn't know the teachers before your child went to school, the holiday club workers ditto...

It’s not remotely the same thing.

All the people who’d have worked at the holiday club I run are checked, however none have one-on-one responsibility for children, none are alone with children, none have responsibilities for every single activity for the entire day.

They have back up, they have breaks, and it’s completely different

@drspouse

I'm aware it's not the same but being afraid to have an adult in the house that you don't know is a much bigger problem than having no childcare.

Seriously? Wtf? 😂 being afraid to have an adult in the house that you don't know is something bad now? You never watched the telly? read the news? Seen horror films? Read books? It is a pretty standard fear to not want strangers in your house. . Heaven forfend that some children might be unsettled by an archetypal fear that authors and film directors have made their fortunes writing about. Lols. School, nurseries and childminders etc are set up in order to support the kids at each transition stage. No child suddenly appears in scho or nursery without a settling in period. And not every parent is working at home. Typical mn, being obtuse just for the sake of it. Get a broader world view or stop offering weak 'solutions' with such certainty regarding situations about which you have zero comprehension.

I hope those facing difficulties are able to find solutions that they and their children are comfortable with. Not easy times, and for many, not an easy path to find a solution.

A lot of this has to do with the age of the children...

I remember growing up, my brother, sister and I had random teenagers and university students looking after us from around age 8 onwards (youngest child). We were sensible kids and our parents left snacks and pizza/chicken nuggets or money to order in. Most of the time we watched scary movies with the babysitter, or played on our own upstairs or in the garden while they watched TV. We required very little input or safeguarding, and certainly didn't get much. We had our parents' number to ring if there were any problems. I guess they were just there to ring for the ambulance if required !

A four year old is totally different.

It is a pretty standard fear to not want strangers in your house.
It really isn't. It may be a common pathology but that doesn't make it "standard".
It's totally normal to have the occasional stranger in your house and it would be very limiting if you never allowed anyone in.
I'm talking about someone who IS DBS checked.
Teachers run and organise a whole class activities for a day and are often alone with a group of children (what there is to be afraid of with a nanny/babysitter organising a day's activities I do not know).
Likewise when my DS is working on something different to the rest of class he's frequently 1:1 with, er, his 1:1.
This is all feeding people's anxiety disorders. Which are, you know, disorders.
And as for horror movies - good grief. They are fiction, or didn't you know that?

We have ours booked into holiday club. A few are running round here. Tennis clubs tend to be good ones and reasonably priced plus they’re outside. Our childminder is also working so might be worth checking with any nearby if they have capacity.

Working as part of a team in a holiday club or nursery is totally different to being solely responsible for every part of the day like a nanny or childminder

Yes, it is, and different people will feel confident doing each of them, but if a holiday club leader who you already know and trust says they are up to the job, you either trust them or you don't.

If you think a DBS means someone is trustworthy and will treat your children and your home with respect and kindness then you are wrong.

@drspouse

Yes, it is, and different people will feel confident doing each of them, but if a holiday club leader who you already know and trust says they are up to the job, you either trust them or you don't.

Very few decent holiday club leaders will risk their reputation recommending people to do a job they haven't seen them do

Plus they have to be very careful as any problems then reflect back on the holiday club

Very few decent holiday club leaders will risk their reputation recommending people to do a job they haven't seen them do
They have seen them look after children.
Of course they'd provide them with a reference to look after children!
They'd be on really shaky ground if an employee who did their job well applied for a similar job, and they refused to supply a reference.
It's completely ridiculous to suggest otherwise.