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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

Appeal against deregistration as a childminder

36 replies

cmfather · 21/10/2014 21:02

My daughter is a CM, and has recently been told by Ofsted that they will be deregistering her unless she resigns beforehand. The offence was to leave 3 EY children in a locked car at a supermarket for 7 minutes. No harm came to the children, but someone rang the police, and it went from there. The children's parents have now taken them away, and my daughter has to decide whether or not to appeal or to resign. The job is very important to her, and she is obviously more than sorry about leaving the children.

If she appeals and fails, she will not be able to work with children again, but if she resigns, then she could do, but not as a CM. My question is has anyone out there any idea of the chances of such an appeal succeeding, or should she just resign?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

SoonToBeSix · 21/10/2014 21:04

She should resign and be thankful she isn't being prosecuted for neglect!

LuckyLopez · 21/10/2014 21:05

Fucking hell. What would her defence in the appeal be??

VivaLeBeaver · 21/10/2014 21:05

I can't imagine an appeal would win at all. Could she work in a nursery instead? If that's an option for her then not worth appealing. Be deregistered and look for nursery work.

To be honest even if she won an appeal I think local parents would talk so much that she'd struggle to find mindees.

fuctifino · 21/10/2014 21:08

Can she speak to OFSTED about the chances of an appeal being successful?
It might be a 'crime' that is unforgivable in their eyes and an appeal will be futile. On the other hand, there may be hope. I would say she needs to speak to them.

VivaLeBeaver · 21/10/2014 21:10

She can be as sorry as anything but it just shows such a lack of common sense that it makes you think about whether she's suitable or not to be a CM.

If Ofsted let her carry on working and she made a different error of judgement and something happened to a kid can you imagine the outcry? Which is why its very unlikely an appeal would win. Its no skin off Ofsteds nose if your dd never works again but they have a lot to lose if they let her continue and something happened.

Sunnyshine · 21/10/2014 21:10

Wtf. Is this serious? What a terrible error of judgement.

Littlefish · 21/10/2014 21:10

I can't think of a single reason why an appeal would work. Her actions were negligent. Thank goodness Ofsted have intervened. She should resign immediately.

itiswhatitiswhatitis · 21/10/2014 21:14

Of course she should just resign but I think this is a reverse, nobody would be dumb enough to think she should appeal?

itiswhatitiswhatitis · 21/10/2014 21:15

Also agree being sorry is irrelevant it's the total lack of judgement that is the biggest issue.

PourquoiPas · 21/10/2014 21:17

She should resign.

No parent is going to ever want to leave their child with her if they know what she did (and this was the first time she got caught, not necessarily
Ly the first time she did it which I imagine they will take into account)

She should look for a career not in childcare TBH.

starlight1234 · 21/10/2014 21:19

7 minutes 3 under 5's left alone..Appeal on what grounds?

nannynick · 21/10/2014 21:24

I have read quite a lot of the tribunal decisions over the years but that does not mean I could predict the outcome of a case.

I would say that resigning is the sensible thing to do, given she does not deny what happened.

There was a case which went to tribunal in early 2014 where a child was left in a car for 5 hours.
SENSITIVE LINK Judgement SENSITIVE LINK

The outcome of that appeal was Appeal Denied.
At the time of the hearing, the appellant was awaiting trial in the magistrates’ court for wilful neglect of a child pursuant to section 1 (1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Outcome of that is unknown.
Whilst the timescale involved is different, what happened is similar - children left in a car - so your daughter is lucky not to have been charged with wilful neglect (I presume due to it not being for that long a period of time) and thus should think carefully about accepting Ofsted's offer of resigning.

DaisyFlowerChain · 21/10/2014 22:23

Thank goodness someone rang the police and Ofsted got involved. I can't see them over riding at appeal as the risk of what could happen far outweighs somebody being paid.

Original poster

cmfather · 21/10/2014 22:25

Thanks to nannynick in particular, and to the others who have posted so quickly. I have looked at other tribunal decisions by following up the link from nannynick. While none is very similar to the case against my daughter, it is clear that the tribunal takes a stern view, as most of you do.

I would now like to ask that this thread be closed.

OP posts:

DoughnutSelfie · 21/10/2014 22:39

She may as well resign as her professional reputation will be ruined anyway

An additional thought: Local knowledge of happenings may preclude her from being selected for interviews at other childcare settings locally

FiftyShadesofScreeeeeeeam · 21/10/2014 22:41

She should not be a childminder. Ever again.

insancerre · 22/10/2014 06:50

I manage a nursery and no way would I ever employ her
The casexwouldcsurelyvshow up on an enhanced dbs so I doubt she would ever get a job with children again
I do monthly supervisions with my staff and I have to ask them each month if they have been subject to any investigation by the police or ofsted or social services.
I hope the ops daughter never works with children again. I'm go smacked that she did what she did

leeloo1 · 22/10/2014 06:57

Whilst this clearly shows an error of judgment, plenty of parents leave their children in cars whilst popping into shops or dropping an older child at nursery etc (I was told by a parent that they could see their 3 year old in the car as the shop windows looked out that way - what? even when you're walking to the shop/going the other way up the aisles you could see her), & if the OPs daughter is aware of people doing this then it may have desensitized her to the risk. Or perhaps she felt it was justified - e.g. thunderstorm, but really needed something? Whatever the reason I'm sure she's kicking herself & bitterly regrets it now!

Anyway OP asked a question, has taken on board the answers and is clearly just concerned for his daughter (& has asked for the thread to be closed). Piling in with criticism is not helpful.

EhricLovesTheBhrothers · 22/10/2014 07:01

You don't get to ask for the thread to be closed! Mumsnet doesn't work that way.
I'm sorry for your daughter, it must be gut wrenching to lose her job this way but there is no other option, clearly. She made a huge, dangerous error and that's the end of it.

EhricLovesTheBhrothers · 22/10/2014 07:05

I left my DS in the car once when he was about 3 and was so terrified the whole time that I never did it again. I'd do it now, but he's a sensible 6yo and that's fine. However I wouldn't leave him in the car with any other children, kids together are more likely to mess about.
Fact is, childminders are paid to look after other people's children so they don't get to take risks they might take with their own. Three under 5s in a car for any period of time is risky. It just takes one to unbuckle herself and disaster. I know someone whose 3/4 year old unbuckled himself, took the handbrake off and rolled backwards into another (parked, thank god) car. With children, you often don't know what they can do until they do it.

quietlysuggests · 22/10/2014 07:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

cmfather · 22/10/2014 08:12

Thanks again for the additional comments.

OP posts:

Jinxxx · 22/10/2014 08:17

If she is in PACEY she could ask there for advice, either from her local group or on the telephone to HQ.

cheerupandhaveaglassofwine · 22/10/2014 08:27

I wouldn't leave my own kids in a car outside the supermarket and definitely would not leave anyone else's that had been entrusted into my care

She should resign

Penfold007 · 22/10/2014 08:34

She admits she left the children unattended so what would her appeal be based on?
Her reputation is trashed, be honest would you leave your grandchildren with a CM who'd left her charges alone.

She should resign and work in another field . She's very lucky resignation has been offered.

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