Becoming a CM with an under 1

[Abispiller]

Hi all, I am looking at registering to be a childminder with View to look after a new friends children. I have a 5 month old baby the friends children are 6 months and 2 year old. I understand the limit is 1 under 1 but that exceptions can be made of own baby is one of the children. Has anybody actually had this exception accepted by ofsted? Don’t want to start spending money to fail on that account. Thanks all

I think the only exception is continuity of care so if you are already looking after the 2 year old and your own baby and then the sibling of the 2 year old comes along.

Do bear in mind though that if you haven't started the process of being a childminder at all it can take anything from 2 months to a year so your ratios won't then be a problem once the 6 month old turns 1.

It took me 6 months in total to complete the course, first aid, DBS and Ofsted registration and I was told that mine was relatively quick. You cannot start caring for children until Ofsted have been out to visit and they won't let you start the registration process until you have done your training, got DBS, which can take a while, and obtained your health declaration.

In relation to my first paragraph OR if you are looking after 2 year old and 6 month old and then your own baby comes along.

As princess says, it can take a while to get registered, so by the time you are in a position to look after the children, you probably won’t have a problem with the ratio anyway. (At the moment though, you wouldn’t be able to have the 2 under 1, it’s only allowed to accommodate continuity of care, so if you had the 2 year old and your own baby and then the family asked you to have their younger baby, that would be fine. Or if you were looking after the 2 other children, then had your own baby, that would be ok. But taking on a young baby, when you already have your own, isn’t allowed.).

No you won't be able to look after a 5 month old and a 6 month old at the same time. Your own child is treated just like a mindee when calculating permitted numbers and ages of children in your care.
As an experienced minder I would find looking after 2 very young children and a 2 year old challenging. If you had been allowed to do this care have you given proper thought to how you would manage? 2 non walkers and 1 who would probably not be able to walk very far would be pretty tricky.

Yes, you can make an exception to the under 1 ratio if you are able to meet the needs of all children. You can never exceed 6 children under 8.

Read the ratio section of the eyfs. It's true that continuity of care is given as one example of a reason for varying ratios but it isn't the only reason.

I specifically asked my Ofsted inspector about this last year as I think the eyfs is somewhat ambiguous. Re the 3 exceptions I was told that sibling babies refers to twins, triplets etc obviously. And that caring for own baby or continuity of care only applies when you have one under one and another comes along at a later date. So you wouldn't be able to start childminding with 2 under ones (except for twins etc).

Thank you for such comprehensive answers. Much better than what ofsted could manage on the phone.

If you took your child to your friends home and cared for all three children there, then you are a nanny (an employee, so must be paid at least national minimum wage and your friend is responsible for running PAYE and paying employers NI, providing pension scheme: all which can be done with help of a nanny payroll provider) and are not limited by this ratio. You can register on the voluntary part of the childcare register if your friend needs to use Tax-Free Childcare to help with childcare cost.

I was going to suggest being a nanny either indefinitely or at least until you are registered and baby turns 1 but see @nannynick has beaten me to it
My registration took 3 months and I pushed it along plus got lucky with a cancellation on my pre-reg briefing.

I think the most pertinent point made by PPs is that things may well have changed by the time you’re registered and ready to start. Ofsted may have 'target times' for processing registration applications but there are plenty of things that can delay the process by several months.

You should not sign contracts or make any commitments until formally registered. That alone might mean your prospective client gets cold feet and goes to a new established childcare provider who can offer her a firm start date.

The nannying suggestion isn’t a bad one, but there are potential problems. Having set out to be a self-employed CM, do you really want to tie yourself down as an employee to one family? And the other side of the coin: does the mum want the responsibility and cost of being your employer? TBH a lot of mums want a CM specifically because they don't want to be an employer. Or they want the same quality of care a nanny offers, but at a far lower price.

The regulations covering CM ratios are covered in EYFS paragraphs 3.41 to 3.43 but are notoriously open to a wide range of interpretations.

Ofsted used to run a system whereby you applied for their written approval for a 'variation', allowing you to take on an extra child in particular circumstances. There were problems with this: chiefly the delay caused before you could confirm to a parent whether or not you could offer them a place. This led to pressure from CMs and NCMA to scrap the process. IMHO this was a massive own-goal.

The result is the current situation where Ofsted refuse to advice on whether an individual CM's proposal will or will not be acceptable. It comes down entirely to the whim of an individual inspector on a particular day when they visit you; and a lot of inspectors' decisions are very arbitrary. In reality, going over means sticking your neck out and, even with parents' consent, and the proper resources and risk assessments in place, you still risk being given a low grade and being 'actioned' entirely on the inspectors' say-so. Essentially, it boils down to how much you want to gamble.