Saw something at the school gates!! made my blood boil!...advice please

[Iceorlemon]

In my area we have a co-ordinator who shares out the inquiries(same all over I think)we locally call this holding the book.

A new woman took "the book" on last term before we broke for summer,she is relatively new to cm maybe 2 years..Anyway we ( cm's who cover this school and local area)wished her luck and enjoyed the summer.Imagine my shock when arriving at school this morn spotted her full to brim!!! new babies new infants,when good friends of my are struggling to fill places its so quiet at moment!

Fortunately Im fine right now,But i feel I should say something.Problem is what?

Oh Iceorlemon - what a tricky situation

We don't have that system here & I'm not sure I have any advise for you

How do the parents know who "has the book" iyswim

Could she have had enquiries through a website or her own advertising? Or must they have come through her position as co-ordinator?

Well iv seen her advertise locally, shop windows and such, data base gives her pofile but no mention of site and theres always word of mouth so yes, I see your point some could be genuine.When a parent makes contact with council asking for list of cm's they are given whole list for shire and also list broken into small area ,suburbs,estates with a co-ordinator who is in touch with all cms in that catchment,they then match inquirery with cms known to have suitable vacancyIt usually works well,but this just does'nt feel right??

i am a co ordinator for b4 and after schools. i personally dont want any for myself, just do full timers if i can.

i have a website and i do get lots of enquiries coz my name is just about everywhere i could think of to put it!

i always pass stuff on, we all help each other

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Our Childrens Information Service used to have local co-ordinators for different areas, and we felt that the system worked well - we tended to know who had vacancies, who did particular school runs, who could offer emergency cover etc. This was scrapped a few months back as our Childrens Info Service felt that the website worked well enough on its own.

We can unofficially continue to help each other out by giving out other minders' telephone numbers because we already know each other, but we are unable to find out if there are any new childminders in our area. Parents are running round in circles and the rest of us come across as completely unprofessional.

Parents have to know the postcode where they are looking for a childminder (not necessarily that easy), and the lists sent out do not include any addresses, so they trawl through lists without any clue as to where the minders actually live.

This system was open to abuse in that co-ordinators could have chosen to only give out phone numbers of friends, "kept" the work for themselves etc., but most of us weren't like that.

Iceorleomon - you will have to (nicely and "just out of interest") ask this minder where she managed to find all her mindees! Or could one of the minders looking to fill her vacancies ask her for some tips?

Giddy1 - previous history of depression is not something that would stop you being able to childmind (but I would start a new thread to get more answers!)

The prisoner I agree when this system works well it cant be beaten for cm's and parents, as I said this woman is new to the whole thing and I dont think she understands the support we have always offered eachother she acts as though its every man for himself! Do you think it would be to sneeky if I phone as a parent with inquiery and see which numbers she gives out???

i would def try calling her and seeing what she does.

Or get a friend to call!!

hi we have a group of childminders in our area we meet once a week with the children in our own hired playgroup room
anyway each of us does a job i'm the sec
the girl who deals with enquirys never passes on numbers on when shes quite even if she cant do it and keeps them to herself so now we all just pass each others numbers on

Thank you I am going to call today !!!!

I have been unofficailly appointed the CM "co-ordintor" for my area, and i always hand out all the numbers, even if i know one of the others has no space, or even if i have a space myself, i say
" I have a space availiable, however i'll give out all the other numbers and then you can make a choice".
We also all help each other out, if one of us gets appraoched by a parent and we have no spaces, we say
#" oh, so and so has room, here's her number"

Our Co-ordinator is very good and passes on other CM's numbers. However most of my work comes from word of mouth. Also local school have given my name to several people.

You could ring to see her response and if she is "cherry picking" all the good jobs can you have "the Book" taken away from her?

Hav'nt had chance to call her today and would rather do it in work hours when she's busy and has to think on her feet? frannyfroo Im in same situation as you (website) and so are some others and we always try to pass on work.
DMO We tried to start a group! set up stall at local fair under ncma banner,raised lots of money! 5 of us turned up! arranged evening to decide what to do with money (toy box for all,advertising?) 15 cm,s turned up lol.
Busymum your local school are stars wish mine would do that??

Anyway thank you so for advice I will deffinately get this sorted out before tomorrow eve and let you know what happens again thanks cant talk to anyone here because of grapevine!!

Hi Well before I could do anything it really hit the fan!! another cm was amongst the lunch time run (dropping newbies off for reception) She was asking if anyone had had any enquries passed on from "book" the reply was mainly NO She was insensed to see bookholder this morning with 2 babes in tandom and one travelling in "tray!!!" also infants, her words were "I think someone is creaming it" She intends to report her. I am just pleased I did'nt imagine it all.What do you think of this and what do you think will happen?

Was she over her numbers?

I think she's too clever for that well to do it blatantly but you know what its like in a rush you cant always tell.. to be honest I think her infants are over 5 not sure though. I never really noticed her before this she does'nt really chat with other cm's which is what surprised me when she put herself forward for co-ordinater....

she sounds very greedy. you should all get together, write a letter from you all and post it to her if know one wants to give it her, sacking her. perhaps someone else more trustworthy could take over. good luck.

agree with frannyfroo, it may be a good idea if you all wrote a letter and effectively scaked her, it does sound like she is using this posistion to her advantage.