losing a child in your care

[kittyb]

What would your view be on this? Friend's childminder in the playground picking up child from school, doesn't notice three year old sister who has wandered out of the playground and has been stopped from crossing busy road by the lollipop man.

This is type of thing that could happen to a mum, but it happened with the childminder. What to do? Do you sack? Do you take more practical approach of "we've all had a fright, don't let her out of your sight again? What do other childminders think?

As a parent, I'd probably be most influenced by how I found out. If the childminder mentioned it to me, and described her shock, then I'd probably take the view that it was a one-off and hopefully unlikely to recur. However if I heard about it from someone else then I would be more concerned: either the childminder didn't think that it was important; or it was a regular occurence or she was trying to hide it from me.

In my nanny's contract leaving the children alone constitutes grounds for dismissal. I wouldn't invoke this on the first occasion unless I'd been lied to.

I would agre with Ladymuck too.

The thing is how far is the playground to the main road - If long enough like say a good few mins away then there is no excuse for the cm not to notice - no matter how busy or how many kids they have.
As a parent I would be horrified to find out if that had happened to my 3yr old.And as a Cm myself a 3yr old should have a wrist band on and attached to CM IMO-they are far too young to be given much freedom out and about.

Do u give them notice? Well that would be gut instinct-do u still trust cm - if doubt there is no point in carrying on

I agree with ladymuck, it would depend on how I was told.

This was my friend's childminder, and she (the CM) was very upset. The CM said she was going to tell my friend that night but I dont know yet what outcome of that is. Its only 50 yards or so to the road, so not far. Thanks for the advice.

I personally don't think that there is any excuse for not noticing a child in your care to be missing from your side whether it be 50 or 500 yards from school to road. I speak as a childminder and a parent (of grown up children).

I am sure childminder was very upset; as for continuing with the same childminder, I would go with gut feeling.

That's the sort of mistake you cannot afford to make even just once. And if she had been paying proper attention to the child, then it was a mistake that was avoidable. I would no longer trust a childminder who lost my child.

my cm lost my ds in shopping centre and called 999. he was found b4 police got there but did play on my mind for a while and we parted company shortly afterwards