Childminder taken money after contract terminated

[MaryHowell]

We had a contract with our childminder with my 1st child which we terminated verbally when I went on maternity leave. I returned after a year with my 2 children, this time she did not get me to sign a contract for both children and we started paying a new rate. Everything was ok (ish) until we mentioned to her in may that we were thinking of changing childcare in sept when my oldest goes to full time school (this was 10th may), on the 16th she was ill. On 20th may we turned up at usual time and the door was locked and no answer to her phone or reply to texts. Over 2 hours later she texted me to say she thought we no longer wanted to use her services and she finished out the week. We told her we did not terminate the contract and she texted saying "if people feel they have to move on I won't stand in their way" - there was no apology or offer for us to drop the kids off that day ( we had to take emergency leave). We were left with a difficult decision as her text appeared like she no longer wanted to look after our kids.
We paid in advance and she had 7 x days after the date she said terminated + 1 sick day (we don't pay her sick days).
We decided to not go back to her and made alternative arrangements.

She said she would pay us back but since 31st may she will not speak to us. We have sent a letter but still no reply.

Any thoughts on whether we should take to small claims court, the amount we we is £384

Could she have misheard or misunderstood the bit about the change of childcare being in September? Perhaps if she was taken aback or upset about you suggesting taking your children elsewhere, anything else may not have registered, or perhaps you did not make it clear that this is what you intended. She does seem to have acted as if she thought you were withdrawing the children immediately, and given that there may already have been one misunderstanding, I do not think it would be sensible to go forward based on assumptions concerning what she may or not have meant by a vague text. Can you not speak with her directly? If you are now planning to take the children elsewhere and claim against her I would suggest you make sure exactly what she understands the situation to be. I would specifically ask is she willing to provide care as per your contract (and if not, why not?). The fact that she has not "offered for you to drop off the kids" on a particular day is hardly conclusive. As things stand I suspect you could have difficulty winning a court case as it could just be one person's word against another's and nothing concrete to show that she refused to fulfil the contract as opposed to you withdrawing your business.

Sorry, just reread and realised all this happened a while ago, so probably too late to try to retrieve the situation now. As things stand I would write asking for the return of your money and see what her response is before deciding how to proceed.

It sounds like she was pretty upset that you were thinking about finding alternate childcare and as a result decided that she didn't want to chidmind for you anymore. I am surprised that you mentioned this to her at all before you had made a firm decision. Imagine if your employer casually dropped into the conversation that they are thinking about firing you in September! This doesn't excuse her behaviour though, I think she has been unprofessional.

I agree with minderjinx, it could be hard for you to prove anything, particularly as you don't have a written contract. You yourself said "We decided to not go back to her and made alternative arrangements". The childminder could easily argue that you verbally terminated the contract and chose not to bring your child back.

Everything that was said was via text message, she did not answer the phone :-( our issue we paid until the end of the month and 7 days extra than what we received.
We told her as we did not want our 4 year old telling her which also would not of been nice.

Not a childminder but I think not answering the door and the immediate stopping of the childcare was not very kind to your children. If you have paid for childcare you have not received then morally she should repay you, but not sure what the legal answer is, as no contact.