What to ask a prospective childminder

[JBCG]

My DS will be 7 months when he goes to a childminder in the new year and I've lined up meetings with 5 prospective childminders. The trouble is that I have no real idea of what I need to ask them, what I should be looking for and what I need to know before I meet with them!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated for this extremely nervous FTP! Thank you x

You need to ask:
What they charge
What is included in charge and what is extra
What hours they work/offer
Notice period
Do they offer settling in sessions
Ask to see their policies/qualifications/Ofsted report/insurance
What routine/activities they have for your baby
Where will baby sleep
How many other kids they have

However, a lot of it comes down to your gut feeling and whether you prefer one over another. It's great you are seeing 5 as you will be able to compare.

You can have a look at the FAQs on my website if you like. They might give you some ideas. You will probably know when you've found the right one though. www.3mxchildcare.co.uk

Think about what's important to you, at the moment and later - TV? Organic whole foods? Rear facing car seats? Pets?

You definitely need to have it set out in stone how many holidays a year they take and whether they take their holidays paid or not. Same with sick days - do you have to pay them if they ring in sick or not? I've used two childminders in the past - one took five weeks paid holiday a year and got sick pay but we still had to pay if we didn't send our child on an agreed day (sick or holiday). The other (and better) childminder didn't have sick or holiday pay.

I can't stress enough how big of a deal the holidays thing is. We didn't factor in that we would have to use all our holidays at the same time as the childminder. If the childminder has 2 weeks off in Jan, you need 2 weeks of in Jan for example, too. If they take school holidays off, it means you can only go away in school holidays which is obviously expensive!

I agree with all the above. My decision was made after the childminder only had eyes for DD1 at 6 months and barely noticed me!

References? I got a childminder in a rush once literally got a job on the Thursday I started monday she picked the kids up on the monday luckily she was recommended by my friends and it worked out great the kids loved her

Everything above. Please also keep in mind the childminders will also be interviewing you to make sure you will be the right fit for their setting.

Another thing worth mentioning, I met with four childminders when my daughter was around 4 months and only one of them asked to hold her!

Great thank you all so much. I've messaged all five of them today (mid morning) to confirm our meetings and only one has actually replied during the day .. which I think is a good thing as I'm hoping it shows that the others are busy with looking after the children rather than checking their facebook messages! Obviously I am not ruling out the one who has replied as I'm sure there could be a 100 reasonable explanations as to why she has ... can you tell I'm overthinking everything haha?!

I will take a look at some FAQs, thank you.

I'm accessible to parents during the day - lots of them (especially with babies/first babies!) like to message asking how they are or suddenly remembering about the spare dummy/hat. If it's during a school run or nappy change obviously I can't read or reply, but in quieter moments I will read and respond to messages.

I use to give my parents a list in Jan for the year for holidays
I would ask if they have a backstop for dc (another -friend- childminder & I use to back each other up if either needed emergency time off) if the cant work
I use to do full first aid course every 3 years (& got my dc to do this when they were 14 - always useful)
Ask if anyone smokes in household (in immediate family)
what schools/playgroups et al do they "do"
how do other dc she has there react to her
what does she do about food/early on weaning she may ask you but later on
do they do outings?
& do you feel comfortable there - is it homely

As a childminder Iam also interviewing the families, how comfortable I feel around them and any new child has to fit in with the existing children. I have had parents come round and have been rude to me, let there children run round trashing the place and did not like it when I told the children to stop! 😡So unsurprising no space offered to them. My tips would be, be relaxed ask questions but not like you are interrogating her. Ask about fees, what’s include. What you need to provide, if you have to pay for your holidays, her holidays. Most childminders I know will provide a list of all holidays each year so you know when you need to arrange alternative care .

It's definitely a good idea to ask;

• How long they have been operating (many give up after a couple of years)
•If they have young children of their own (may need time off for their own kids sickness)
•What training they have undertaken in the last 3 year (First Aid and Food Hygiene is a must imo)
•Their holiday policy (self employed people have no entitlement to paid leave) - anyone who charges while their service is unavailable and closed would be struck off my shortlist immediately
•Payment policy (most are monthly in advance)

They should also be registered with ICO and must comply with GDPR. Any who post unedited pictures of minded children publicly on Facebook or elsewhere would also be struck off my shortlist.

Two visits would be recommended, you'll get a vibe.

CallMeRachel has some good points, but

• Food Hygeine is not essential for all Local Authorities and many childminders are perfectly capable of cooking and preparing food safely without it.
• Some Childminders charge for holiday, but charge less at other times, so the overall total is the same. Also - who wants a childminder who hasn't had a break all year, because they couldn't afford it.
• Some post pictures on Facebook, etc with parents permission, so don't assume they are doing it without full consent from parents.

I'm not being defensive here, because I have food hygeine, don't charge for holiday and don't post pictures online, but that doesn't make me any better or worse at caring for children.

Try to cut through all that cuddly stuff and stick to the practical stuff. Any fool can look good holding a baby (even politicians do it) but that doesn’t necessarily amount to a good working arrangement. This is a decision you need to make in a mature, considered way with your head, for the sake of your child: not with your gut for the sake of your feelings.

There are some good lists above of what to ask. You can also get good, neutral advice from your local authority's children and families department, and Pacey (search online.) Think about what matters to you and, above all, make sure you both have your expectations in line.

Childcare arrangements rarely fail over standards of care (and never because a childminder didn’t hold the baby the moment they met.) It’s usually because of differing expectations: you don’t have to spend long on MN to see examples. And it’s frequently mums disputing something they actually agreed to at contract signing.

Do not underestimate the importance of 'boring' formalities and paperwork. Get a written contract (not just the promise of one at some future date) and receipts for all payments: again, MN has a current thread running from a mum who now regrets ignoring this basic safeguard.

Btw, if the cost is important to you, be careful how you compare one childminder's fees with another. Raw £-per-hour figures are not the whole story. You need to factor in whether/how they charge for meals, holidays, groups, etc.

It will also make a huge difference if they will take payment through money saving schemes such as tax-free childcare, and will they offer funded places ("free hours") at 3 years old. Don’t assume.

You might want to consider the longer term. Do you want the same childminder for school runs and holiday care when baby is older?

Thank you all very much. I'm lucky that I live in a small community so it won't be difficult to get recommendations and feedback from others who have used these childminders. I'm sure we will find the right fit.

As above re the practicalities but, two years in as a mostly SAHM: go to some of the groups that they (and other CMs) go to, and see how they are with the kids. I have seen a few lovely CMs that I'd put DD in with tomorrow, but also some that I wouldn't leave my hypothetical dog with. Recommendations from friends also helpful.

OP one thing to find out is why they have a vacancy.

My CM has vacancies commonly as people move as I'm in London and lots of people rent. However in my case it was because a mother was having a second child so couldn't afford to send her son while on maternity leave. (We got references from a variety of former clients.)

Also if your child is under a year you need to give formula and some of the bottles/cups he uses at home for the childminders sole use.

Oh and I pay my CM in arrears, she takes vouchers from various schemes, does free hours, gets paid holiday, doesn't have her maximum allocation of children during the majority of the day and her children are grown up. In other words the rules a PP gave you aren't absolute.

One thing I've been quite surprised at is how vastly different each childminder charges for holiday. Some ask for 4 weeks paid and others don't charge at all - I guess I thought there would be an industry standard?

We've met with our first childminder and she seemed nice enough and was a good starting point I think. We've got another two to see this week and I'm still waiting to confirm times with the others. It seems they get snapped up relatively quickly so I'm getting myself in a bit of a panic just to get this all sorted having been let down by a nursery!!

General chat around parenting issues to find out what her feelings are/if she has a policy. I agree with focusing on the bits which are important to you, rather than trying to ask everything :)

e.g. Food, Sleep, Car seats, Behaviour management, Screen time, mild illness (teething/sniffles).

Does she have any pets? Does she have any backup carers (e.g. my old childminder's husband was approved as a temporary carer so e.g. if she needed to take one child to the doctor sometimes he would be there alone with the mindees)

One thing I've been quite surprised at is how vastly different each childminder charges for holiday. Some ask for 4 weeks paid and others don't charge at all - I guess I thought there would be an industry standard?

As said previously upthread, for self employed people the 'standard' is no holiday pay. There's zero entitlement to any benefits employed people have.

On the face of two Childminders, one offering no charge for her time off (correct) and one who is chancing her arm and charging parents when her service is unavailable so they may have to pay twice...

I can't see what's to think about. The type of person who try's to charge for nothing doesn't bode well with me and I wouldn't want to have any type of working relationship with them.

Look at the overall annual cost. If the one charging for holidays is the same / similar over the year as the one not charging, then they are charging the same, but in different ways.

Also, look at what they are including in their costs - nappies, wipes, outings, food, etc.

"for self -employed people the 'standard' is no holiday pay"

This is a false dichotomy because it wilfully ignores the many less favourable comparisons of paying for services provided by self-employed traders. Suffice to say, if childminders charged exactly like other self-employed people, then parents would be paying a lot, LOT more for childcare.

"the type of person who trys [sic] to charge for nothing doesn’t bode well with me"

This is bad advice. If the OP treats every childminder who charges for holidays as a bad person, she’ll be ruling out many excellent childcarers. In contrast to this blinkered view, most childminders put in a lot of unpaid hours every week: perhaps you’d like to pay for those instead?

Those childminders who don’t charge for holidays get just as much aggravation, as parents complain incessantly that their bills vary from one month to the next.

It’s a bit sad when the type of people who would say "my children are my world" engage in penny-pinching when it comes to paying for them.