Early Intervention Childcare Scheme NI

[MessyBun247]

Do any childminders have experience of this type of thing? Providing specialist childminding and mentoring services for children and families who are being supported by social workers?

It is a new scheme in my area in NI and will be starting in January.

Would love to hear from anyone that has experience doing this kind of childminding.

I often have children placed by ss for various reasons it can be very rewarding you have the chance to make a real long term difference to children and families. It can also be emotionally exhausting and I've had more than a few sleepless nights, not because of safeguarding reasons but because of the emotions and hoping that actions will turn out well for the LO's. We had a peer support scheme that allowed us to talk in confidence about what was happening and this was invaluable as you can not share things with anyone else.

Thanks so much for the reply. The letter said you need to work exclusively for the Trust and they pay you to reflect this, however I have a 20 month old and obviously she will be here too. I wonder would that be a problem.

Do you know anything about the mentoring aspect of the work?

I have emailed the Trust to get info to no avail so far!

Im afraid not as its expected we do other work too. I would look into things like the support your given and if you have access to the full case history so that you are aware of any risks or special adjustments you need to make. Sometimes your only told part of the situation and find out later its wider maybe involving parental problems like health issues that obviously effect the child. You would also need to know if there are factors that put your own family at risk.
Would they continue to pay you if the service was not needed? say if it was decided to put a child into care, if you have given over completely to working for the service and only have one child or the scheme is pulled you could loose all your income.