Have you ever reported a 'childminder' who is not registered?

[blueberryupsidedown]

What is the process like?

Out of five people who provide 'childminding' services at our school (that I know of), only two of us are registered... and one is looking after two pre-school children and picks up her own child from school so I know about her and she told me she was not registered...

I am not sure what to do!

It's a very Daily Mail view of the world to suggest that because you hear the occasional child abuse story, all unregistered childminders must be in that bracket.

Fairly regularly you see stories about parents abusing their children too. Should parenthood be regulated? Maybe we should all be licensed?

And there are evidently plenty of registered childminders not doing a proper job anyway. I read a thread on this board only this week about mum whose baby had been left in the sun by his childminder and had developed serious burns that required medical attention. The CM apparently insisted the baby had only been in the sun a few minutes.

Regulation is obviously not a mark of quality assurance as it is.

There was that lady in Scotland who called herself a childminder and when she was reported, she was found to have 15 babies strapped into car seats around her living room walls! I'm glad someone reported her.

Tbh I think the issue of it being illegal and the issue of it being safe are separate.

I don't think we need the levels of regulation we have to keep children safe. I would welcome a change in the law.

However, until that law changes I think people should abide it. It is not fair that some childminders are spending time/effort/stress on running their business legally/gaining approriate qualifications etc and other people are just not bothering because they think the law doesn't apply to them.

I also think there is a huge difference between someone who is not registered looking after a child under a law that allows that and someone who is of the opinion that the law doesn't apply to them. At the moment unregistered childminders fall into the latter category.

Er,no, they do not. Unregistered childminders fall into 2 discrete categories:

1. those who care only for over-8s and therefore are not required to be registered; and

1. those who care for under-8s and therefore should be registered.

You really shouldn't tar both groups with the same brush. The first group may impinge upon the commercial interests of childminders who look after under-8s as well as over-8s, but that is called free market competition. Deal with it.

I don't use one either. Do explain what you mean by my 'processing problems'?

I mean you don't seem to read/understand the posts.

Like for example I'll post 'I'm not a childminder' and then you'll tell me to 'deal with the free market competition' , which obviously makes no sense given I'm not a childminder.

I would have thought it was obvious from the thread that we are talking about unregistered childminders who should be registered, not those caring for over 8's, but you don't seem to understand/process that information.