Childminding courses

[tittytittyhanghang]

When my first ds was younger and I returned to work (I was a single parent and in receipt of tax Credits) My mum looked into becoming a cm so that she would be able look after ds1 and I could pay her. She was told that if she only intended to look after her own gs then she would not be considered for the course and that checks would be made once she registered to see what mindees she had. Does anyone know if this still the case? I would point out that dm would not wish to look after other children, only her gc.

Sorry, I should have said this was about 7 years ago.

AFAIK yes. However she wouldn't have to be registered, you just wouldn't get the financial help.

Argh it cut a whole chunk.

There are options other than local authority courses, which is where I suspect she was told that, such as distance learning, and then she could register as a CM. However....

As she would only be caring for a relative she does not need to register as a childminder.

If she was not registerd she would not be considered to be Approved Care, so you can't use taxcredits / childcare vouchers as payment.

Would she be wanting much in terms of payment? May depend if she still has a mortgage.

You looked into this quite a while ago... how old is your child/are your children? If they are aged 8 or over, then no registration is needed regardless of them being relatives.

Is the problem that you need to use approved/registered care due to the amount of money they would want to be paid?

Being a childminder myself I don't think she would be approved, but why would she have to disclose this? TBH it may be a little sneaky but she could say she is willing to take other mindees, but then just not advertise and not let on to anyone she is a registered CM. The worst that could happen is that she has to take on one other mindee for a few hours would that be so bad? TBH registering as a CM is very expensive, by the time I was registered I had spent £1000 on start up costs, locks, gates, fences, toys, courses etc.. Also the registration process can take up to 3 months. It does seem like though you are trying to fiddle the tax credits to pay granny...not so cool

Thanks for the replies. I dont get any tax credits etc so would be paying out of wages. I was asking because I asked this on thread. I want to 'give' my mum 6 hours of employment to bring her up to 16 hours a week and wasn't sure if tax credits would accept her childminding without being registered.

mrsrantsalot, am not trying to 'fiddle' tax credits and rather insulted that you would even suggest this.

Hello, I am hoping to become a childminder. Does anyone know of the best online training course organizations so I can qualify? Thank you!