Pls Help~Did my childminder breach the contract

[VivianwithLOL]

Hi, does anyone can give us advice for my struggle situataion,please?

I found a childminder in Jun and we made a contract with her in July for part time in Aug, and will renew full time in Sep.Before we agree to sign this contract, she know I am going back to work in begning of Sep, and agree to look after my 4 months old baby for full time once I go back to work.So we try to let her and my baby get use to each other from July, and let this childminder to look after my baby twice per week in Aug.

However, she just told us she think she prefer to look after older baby as it's too much resposible to look after younger baby yesterday, and she think she is not able to look after my girl anymore..My husband and I were so upset as she didnt give us 4 weeks noctice as ourcontract agreement and she know I have to go back to work in this week, where and how can we get another childminder within 3 days?

We are really upset about her decision and think to not pay her for Aug salary as we think she breach the contract ,but we are not sure if we can do this.Also it's really awful she only look after my little baby for 1 whole day last week and didnt notice she got a big scath on her thigh .

We are going to complain to OSFTED.Can anyone give us adivce how to deal with this situation or recommend a childminder to us in London,please.

Thank you !

oh no ! I am so sorry

Ofsted will not be interested in breach of contract

wrt not paying fees for August, I would be inclined to ring NCMA for advice 0845 880 0044 with your contract to hand to refer to; they will be able to talk through your options

the scratch may not have been obvious, the child may have arrived with it, the CM may have forgotten to mention it to you, so can't really comment on that

You could ask the CM to supply you with details of local CMs - it's the least she can do in the circumstances

Or input your postcode here

good luck

Have you signed the contract? What does it state re settling in?

Thank you, PedlarsSpanner.
I will phone NCMA for advice tomorrow.

I'm not sure if I can still trust this CM or not as she seems to hide something about her childcare working history.

Thank you for your repaly again.

Hi, SillyMillysMummy

We did signed the contract for part time first and also wirte it down will renew in Sep.
Due to this CM has her own young kids ( betwwen 8-12 yrs) and they both are summer holiday,I think this CM focus on her own kids more. My girl seems to be easy to be shocked or scaried after she look after.

You can't refuse to pay for work already done.

They should have given you notice as per the contract but if things are not working out ending sooner may well be for the best - plus means you don't need to pay for 4 weeks of care where you know the CM isn't really interested in doing it, and your baby is unhappy.
Caring for a baby is hard work and
babies don't always settle very easily. Imagine having a screaming baby for 8-10 hours a day, it isn't nice for anyone.
Call it quits... settle up for work done... move on to someone else.

It's not going to be easy... but staying with this CM won't help as you have lost trust and they don't want to care for your child.

It sounds like the period you already have is a settling in period with the actual contract to start in September, that being the case, the point of settling in periods is to make sure that the child/parent and the childminder is happy with the whole situation, if not then either party can end it without any notice. It sounds like the childminder wasnt for you anyway, nothing ncma can do about not renewing after the settling in period, and if the contract states that you must pay for the settling in period then the childminder has to be paid or she could take action.

hth

hahahaha nannynick said everything so much better

As others have said, you can't refuse to pay your CM for work she has done so you must pay her August salary.

As far as your position in relation to her changing her mind about looking after your baby in September goes, that depends on whether your contract with her was for (1) part time care during July and August with an option to enter into a full time contract in September or (2) a contract for part time care during July and August and full time care from September.

From your post it sounds more like you are in situation (1), in which case I'm afraid if the CM has declined the option to enter into a full time contract with you from September there is nothing you can do; as it was only an option, either party may choose not to take it up. Unless your contract said something specific about what would happen if either party decided not to renew in September, I think you probably just have to put it down to experience and find another CM as quickly as you can.

If you are in situation (2), and your CM was required to give you 4 weeks notice of termination and has failed to do so, you can take action against her for breach of contract. She would be liable to you for foreseeable losses you suffer as a result of her breach of the contract, so for example if you couldn't find alternative childcare and had to postpone your return to work, she could be liable to you for your lost earnings. You have a duty to take reasonable steps to mitigate your losses though, so you would have to show that you'd tried to find alternative care and couldn't; you couldn't just decide to use this as a reason to delay your return to work and expect her to compensate you. Although this may seem like the outcome you are looking for, in practice it may not help you: first, there may well be something in the contract you signed which excludes or limits the CMs liability for this type of loss. There are limits on the extent to which this type of provision is effective but you could end up getting into a complicated argument about it. Secondly, and probably more relevant to you, if you threaten to sue her for your loss of earnings if you can't go back to work, her response may be to agree take your baby for the 4 week notice period - as you seem to have lost confidence in her anyway you may not want to send your baby back to her. If that's the case then again you just have to put it down to experience I'm afraid.

If you are looking for childcare recommendations, whereabouts in London are you, VivianwithLOL?

Hi, Malovitt:
I am in East of London, E1 Area.Near Tower Bridge.

List of Day Nurseries in E1/E2 area
List of Childminders from Childcare.co.uk
List of Childminders from Direct.Gov

Families Infomation Service phone: 020 7364 6495

Childminders listed in E1 area, on a Map (note: in beta testing)

The Map View may not list all providers, as is the case with many of the databases. For best list, contact FIS 020 7364 6495 tomorrow morning. Meanwhile use the databases to get e-mail and phone numbers of local childminders and then hit the phone & e-mail, see who answers... leave messages on answerphone etc.

Thank you for your help, nannynick

Hope you have good luck in finding someone. It's hard to leave a baby that young... so finding the right person (or right nursery) is important. Trust your gut instincts.