Thinking of becoming a child minder.....

[myroomisatip]

can anyone advise me if I need to take a course and if so, which one would be best?

Contact you local authority - early years department. They will advise and they might even run a course themselves.

Thanks for replying. Will do.

I've been doing an online course CYPOP5 with Pacey (professional association for childcare and early years I think!) which used to be the NCMA national childminders association.

Its not very well laid out but with a bit of navigating I'm getting through it and it means I can do it at my own (slow!) pace rather than realising I haven't done my homework for an evening class once a week!

You don't need to be OFSTED registered if you only care for over 8s and do less than 2 hours a day. If you only look after school (year 1) age and up you don't need to be on the early years register, so I've tailored a lot of my coursework to looking after older children rather than having to concentrate on all the baby/toddler stuff. Its still a lot of work though!

There's also a paediatric first aid course to do (mine was 3 full mornings for £70) again your local authority can help you and you need to inform all sorts of people like planning, environmental health, your insurers (car & home) etc.

Check Local authority first as mine do free CM course and free paediatric first aid and food hygiene.

wow that's handy MPB! Wish my LA were so generous.