Starting childminding

[fjalladis]

Hi all. I'm looking at starting child minding in the next few months. I'm currently working for minimum wage as a cleaner in a care home and am looking for a change that enables me to be at home more and earning a slightly better wage/ do a more interesting role than cleaning 35 toilets a day!

I do have a few issues however and hoped you could give me some advice as to whether it would be possible to even consider becoming a childminder.

1. I am currently housesharing to keep costs low. Whilst I don think this is a bar to childminding? I do wonder how much it really takes over your home or can you manage to keep the house relatively kid clutter free (neither me or my housemate currently have kids ourselves). I don't want to make life difficult or take over our home as the house is not mine alone if you see what I mean.

2. what are the true set up costs? How much stuff do I need to go out and buy or can it just evolve as time goes on? Would not having a massive mound of toys put off parents?

3. both myself and my housemate have dogs and other pets would this cause any problems?

4. how quickly can you be come ofstead registered? Do they come out to inspect before I take on any children? Do they need to see permission from my landlord that I'm allowed to be a childminder?

5. how long did it take you to get your first children? And where are the best places to advertise for children?

Thanks in advance for any replies

I would not be happy to leave my child in your care sorry. I would be put off by the house share issue, i don't think i would be comfortable that your housemates could be at home or have guests over and i would have no idea who they were. I am a childminder with over ten years early years experience and i can honestly say you seem very naive about the responsibilities and requirements of a ofsted registered childminder. I am sorry if this sounds harsh but if you have any questions i will be happy to answer them

Ok if you want my history in terms of child care here goes

1. spent six months working in special needs unit of a school. Working mainly in preschool and reception years. Following this I became a support worker for a family with children with complex challenges. I did this role for 21 months. I then did night work for awhile before working in a unit for children with challenging behaviours. During this time I was also living with my friend who had a baby and a toddler and looked after the children whilst she worked in exchange for rent. Following this I did despite breaks for children with disabilities and also was a support worker helping with reintroducing a child with learning disabilities into mainstream school. I then started working in adults services again working mainly with those with learning difficulties but more recently due to a house move I became a cleaner in a dementia care home.

Oh and in my free time I also have run pony club as taught kids to ride.

Still think I have no childcare experience?

What about your landlord? U would need permission to run business from house?

Well, I think the very first thing you need to do is speak to your housemates. (Fri 17-Oct-14 22:10:55, you said you hadn't spoken with them yet) You seem to have thought it through fairly well, but you don't know if your housemates will see it quite as clear cut as you do. They could come up with all manner of objections.

I was thinking the same that you do also need landlords permission.

I never said you didn't have any experience, and neither did Lucy. She was suggesting ideas to get more experience if you didn't have any, I was pointing out that you didn't tell us so we can't advise well without knowing. Stop being so defensive and let us help you and ask questions without you jumping down our throats.

That's a lot of jobs, was that in a relatively short time? I ask because I jumped from job to job a bit and that made parents a bit nervous about my stability at first.

Don't mention the fact that you lived with a friend and provided childcare for a friend, just that you provided childcare for X, who is willing to give a reference (if she is?) It's the same principle for childcare for family if you've done any.

Make a point (but be realistic) about your special needs experience if you are willing to take on children with SEN, but think seriously about doing that as obviously all children have individual needs and you may not be able to take on a child with SEN with other children, depending on what those needs are.

How long ago was your last childcare experience (seeing as you've been in adult services for the last two jobs)?

I think you would benefit from doing some voluntary nursery work as childminding is very EYFS heavy, it's a good way to get exposed to it. It'll also give you recent experience if your last experience was a while ago. The experience you have is very different to running a childcare setting, for a start, it seems that you would have been in a team. Working alone with kids is a whole different experience and is something you'll have to decide whether or not you are comfortable with. It's very lonely and can be isolating.

It was over a period of about 6 years and I often had more than one job at a time. Last time I was working with children was around six months ago.

It will take you the best part of 6 months to get ready to sign up for Ofsted if you have other work going on, and goodness knows how long Ofsted will take to get you registered, could be a week, could be 6 months, it varies wildly. So you may want to look into something childcare-related if you have time around your existing job. Just so that you have more recent experience.

As the others have said though, this idea rides on your housemate and your landlord. I wouldn't risk it personally, as either one of them could withdraw their 'consent' of you working in the house at any point, which leaves you up shit creek without a paddle. I'm a housesharer too. I had Ofsted come visit me in August and it was a pain in the arse. I have more housemates (four, not including my DP) and trying to ensure that they'd stay out of the way wasn't easy. I'm a nanny so the inspection only lasted half hour or so, but a childminders inspection lasts for a few hours IIRC.

Have you thought about nannying? There is a real need for more SEN nannies around.

My primary reason for childminding over nannying is that I want to work in my own home, I think I would feel much more comfortable working in my own environment. I think I would continuously stress over tidying up and keeping things clean to ever feel really comfortable working in someone else's home. I also have the dog and don't want to leave her for extended periods of time. With regards to housemates I haven't asked them as I suspect one of them is about to give me her notice anyhow and my other housemate works 9 - 5,30 with an hrs commute each way. She rarely takes time off as she goes back to her native country for extended periods. She also loves children and lived in a house share with children also living there for along time (she has youngish children of her own being brought up by her parents in her native country)

So when you interview new flat mates are you going to ask whether they have a DBR check? You may be lovely and fab with children, but it just sounds like it will be a real pain working around your flat mates and the dog and the landlord. Good luck if you manage to make it work. We could do with more good quality Childcare.

I don't see any reason why you can't?

Obviously there are a lot of things that you have to take into consideration but if yourself and flatmate(s) are willing to work round it then I can't see a problem.

I am only an assistant but the Childminder I help has a dog and the kids and parents love her, so I definitely can't see why this would put you off (we care for about 15/16 kids a week!!)

I'm sure people have Childminder in worse conditions, we don't have a separate room for the kids to play in, they play in the living room, so the fact you have a separate room will pose beneficial.

Your flat mates will of course need to be DBS checked whether they come in to contact with the children or not.

With regards to them having visitors, I think the best thing to do here would be to ask them to sign in to a visitors book (this should keep ofsted happy)

At the end of the day the decision is down to ofsted, they will look at your home etc and make the decision from there.

If you want to do it I would just try it!