Becoming a childminder while working...

[mrskbpw]

Hello all

I'm halfway through my Introduction to Childcare Practice course and thinking about becoming a childminder (obviously!). The course is good, but I'm quite daunted by the enormity of it all.

At the moment I work four days a week and I can't quite see how I can get ready to childmind while I'm working. Being inspected by Ofsted just seems such a massive deal when I struggle just to keep my house clean and tidy on an everyday basis!

Also, I'm slightly concerned about finances. Things are very tight at the moment, because of our huge childcare bill (which is why I'm looking at childminding) and I'm worried about the initial outlay for childminding. I know I can write it off against tax, but it's finding the money for equipment and insurance etc.

Has anyone else managed to get set up while working? Can anyone give me an idea of how much I might need to fork out initially? Am I crazy to even be thinking about this?!

Main outlay will be insurance ( mine was about £25) ofsted registration, Medicaid for ofsted etc, if you don't have all safety things in place just write a wish list to show ofsted, they are not as bad as you imagine as long as they see that you know what you do need and just say you will have them in place before needed as money allows.

As you have kids you maybe have toys etc, good luck!

I am just starting out as a childminder, and I agree that there are a number 'hidden' costs involved in setting up.

I got my first year's insurance free by joining NCMA. However, it cost me £35ish to register as a data controller (so that I can take digital photographs of children and store them on my hard drive). The paediatric first aid course also cost £40 (hugely subsidised by the County Council.

I have spent £20 on safety film for the glass on my internal doors and windows, about £30 on printer cartridges for doing my assignments and printing all the forms I need, and many other odd fivers on things like extra paintbrushes and aprons.

However, I haven't had to fork out for smoke alarms, fire blankets etc. because I already had them. I also have lots of toys (although they are mostly for younger children) - and there is also a local toy library that I can use.

I agree that getting the housework done when you have a houseful of children is a daunting idea. However, it's probably not that much worse than doing it all when you get home from an office job. Some of the day-to-day maintenance stuff (e.g. washing up the lunch things, a bit of light dusting, cleaning up any spillages) can be done while the children are with you if you get a quiet moment when they are all involved in playing something safe, and they may even like to help with some of it (e.g. drying up, folding clean washing, sweeping the floor under the table after a snack).

Good luck to you!

Sorry, I misunderstood your concerns about housework
Still, as hayleysd said, Ofsted acan be fairly forgiving so long as you are aware of what you need to do. When I had my initial inspection, the house was not even vaguely ready (e.g. fence in back garden that had rusty nails sticking out of it) but I showed the inspector around anyway, pointing out all the things that I would have sorted by the time I started minding, and she seemed quite happy with that.