Childminding- advise please

[Whathashappenedtomyboobs]

Hi, I'm very interested in becoming a CM, I have contacted the local authority and the NCMA and looked on the childcare forums so have all the relevant info and currently booked onto a paediatric first aid course.

My ds is 6 months old and I'm doing this because I want to be able to look after him whilst still working. I have high pressure job in London which is a good two hour commute so not really suitable now so I'm not going to return.

I've read a lot of forums and people are saying this CYPOP 5 course is difficult/ extremely time consuming as is the ofsted reg process....and I just want peoples opinions on this please? My education is to degree level which is fairly standard these days and I've done NVQs.

Also my house is fairly small, we plan to move within the next year or two, so I don't have down stairs loo's for the children that would be in my care....do things like this matter? I'm reading some places that it does and others that it doesn't!

If anyone is willing to share their experiences I would be most grateful.

Thanks x

My assistant has just completed the cypop5 course yes it is very time consuming I believe it was approximately 40 pieces of work to submit but is all things it is beneficial to know. Your premises will be fine but in your risk assessment you must show how you will keep them safe e.g. taking children upstairs to the toilet. Hope all goes well for you

I was in a very similar position to you. I had a high pressure london job with a long commute. I was on maternity leave with my second child when I decided to become a childminder. It took me about 11 months from the time I booked onto the first course to being registered.

I am also educated to degree level and found the CYPOP5 to be very easy but time consuming. I did the online course and had to submit a written assignment. I think there were about 9 short essay type questions. They were quite open ended so you could either write a lot or not very much at all. In the end my assignment was about 30 typed pages. On hindsight I think I could have gotten away with writing less. As a very rough guess I would say it took me about 40 hours to do. This was spread over a period of 8 weeks, doing little bits in the evenings and on weekends when dh could look after the kids.
To give you an idea, the questions are things like 'how would you create a routine for the children?' and 'how would you support children who do not speak english very well?'.

I don't think Ofsted would prevent you from registering just because you have no downstairs loo. If your house is really tiny they may limit the number of children you can have but I think it has to be pretty small before this happens.

Keep in mind that it may take about 18 months - 2 years before you can really start earning a living from childminding. Around 9 months to a year seems to be the average time to become registered. Depending on the demand in your area it might be several more months before any mindees start. You might have to start out with only a few part timers doing odd hours until you are able to build your business up. There will also be a lot of resources to buy to satisfy Ofsted and training to pay for. Double buggies are expensive too. So when you finally get your first mindees it may take a while to earn back what you have spent before you become profitable.

Hope this helps!

Thanks lesbianmummy1, how long did it take for your assistant to complete the course? I've been told approximate 3 months?

I've also been told my life will be over run with paper work for ofsted with policies, risk assessments (as you mentioned)....I'm not opposed to paper work- my job in London involved a lot of it.

I'm very excited about this new career opportunity and having the opportunity to look after my ds but people (inc CM's) seem to focus on the negatives.....I'd really like to hear so positives and that it's not all doom and gloom.

Oh thanks mama - think we must have been typing at the same time! Your advise is most helpful, nice to hear about another person that was in a similar situation as me!

Regarding set up costs I've been a good girl and put all my maternity pay into savings to ensure I had the cash to set up my own business....living on beans on toast mind you but it will be worth it :)

Thanks x

Hi again my assistant has just completed the initial section which is the one you need to become a childminder. She had to attend for three Saturdays but probably put in around 10 hours some weeks of extra study. I am sure it does not need that many hours but she is like me and wanted to complete it all thoroughly. She like me agreed that the more effort she put into the coursework the better as most of her initial task as a childminder will already be completed.

Hi again, yes I completely agree about Completing everything throughly- guess you get back what you put in. I think I will enjoy the challenge.

Thanks

My CM doesn't have a downstairs toilet, my DSs need to go upstairs to use it. That didn't seem to be a problem when she was registered! (And hasn't caused a problem for us as I removed our stairgates fairly early on in order to teach them how to use stairs properly).

Quite likely by the time you are qualified your DS will be over 1 so you will still have an under 1 space if needed.