Completely baffled...what do I look for in a CM??

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Any advice v welcome!

My ds will be 3 at Christmas time and I am looking into returning to work in the new year. I would (hopefully!) be working part-time (4 hours a day approx, 5 days a week) and for 2 mornings a week my ds has a been offered a place at preschool.

I hope that the CM will have my ds for 3 "full" days (ie. no preschool) and on the other 2 days, will collect him and take him home for a couple of hours.

I have been only been to see one CM so far, who lives opposite the village hall where ds would attend preschool. Her house was smoky and her existing mindee was planted in front of Cbeebies eating chocolate throughout our hour long visit. (My ds was v impressed, I wasn't so much...!)

The CM gave me a file full of certificates detailing courses that she had been on (a lot of these are a waste of time, apparently??!!) but most dated back several years.

The one issue that she was clear on was that she would charge her full rate on the mornings that ds is at preschool, as she would expect to be asked to collect him if necessary (I presume because of illness etc). I don't mind at all if this is the norm, however, having thought about this afterwards, I would expect to pick him up myself if there was a problem at preschool (should a CM take a child home that is poorly enough to be sent away from preschool??? - I don't know how this works...)

Anyway, I was not bowled over by our visit, as this was the extent of the information I managed to glean... However, it has made me realise that I really do not have a clue what I should be looking for / asking / expecting when I visit a CM.

I have another visit booked next week, with a lady who sounds lovely and very professional. I would like to be slightly more prepared if at all possible, in order to ensure that I make the most of our visit.

Can anyone help me???!!!

Thanks very much!

childrens information service

It's late and I need to get to bed soon, so just a quick reply.

The CM you have seen so far does not sound very ideal. First impressions count for a lot, and I feel your first impressions were bad. Training courses while being useful are not always that imporant as they in my view can be teaching common sense. Experience counts for a lot and some CM's have a huge amount of knowledge regarding childcare.

Charging for the 'place' your son uses is up to the childminder. While your son is at pre-school the CM can not really fill the place it leaves open, as your son would still be in their under 5's ratio. So expect to pay full rate, or at least part of the usual rate. You may find a CM who doesn't charge if you are lucky, but I wouldn't say it's the norm. I'm sure others on here will chip in with their view about that.

If a child is too ill to be at pre-school, they are too ill to be at CM's. However, there could be other reasons for being removed from pre-school, such as behaviour, sudden loss of power/water etc.

I expect there is a thread somewhere on here that says what to look for when visiting a CM. Do have a hunt through the threads in this section.

Found this thread, has a list of questions to ask CM's which may be helpful.
Questions to Ask Childminder

If you are in England, then at a minimum you need to check:
Ofsted Registration Certificate
Public Liability Insurance
Details of how to complain about CM to Ofsted.

These documents tend to be on display somewhere, I know a childminder who sticks them to the back of their front door.

Hope that's some help to start with.

Thank you both very much for the advice .

I know absolutely nothing, so this information is really useful to me...

Will continue my search, hopefully better informed!!