Getting started as a childminder from my home.

[Lilylu6]

Good Morning,

I have finally after months of procrastinating decided to finally get started on becoming a childminder. What’s been putting me off starting is all the various things you need to do before you start, seems so complicated.
I believe this is my absolute calling. I adore being around children, I am extremely patient, kind and generally just love being around children. I all ready spend my days going on adventures, going to the park, farm, doing messy play, painting, drawing reading and playing. I have two little ones of my own under 5…. So I would only be able to take on one extra young one….but I’m perfectly happy with that as it’s not our main source of income and would like to start sooner rather than later.
I have a decent sized opening plan living room/dining room and a conservatory off the back of the dining room - which is all ready set up as a play room - it’s hot huge but it’s not a bad size and stays warm all year round. I also have a downstairs bathroom and a large garden with swings/slides/trampoline etc. Does this sound like an idea amount of space?
Has anyone become a childminder recently? How’s it going? Is it all you’d expect it to be?

I’ve spent this morning researching what I’d need to do. And I’ve made a list.
Attend Pre registration briefing or online via pacey (£5)
Complete training course: Preparing to Work in Home-Based Childcare course (England) (£294)
Child first aid training (£95)
DBS (£56)
Health declaration form (£100)
Ofstead visit.

Have I forgotten anything? I’ve ran a self employed business before, so I’m used to doing the books for that. There do seem to be a few childminders around me, is this likely to be a problem?

Just wanted to check id got it all right before I start booking course etc. Thank you!

You sound ideal for the role.
I can't advise on starting up. But can tell you that as I started childminding 27 years ago when my children were young and same as you could only care for 1 at time, but it fitted in with my family life and I'm still doing it today and wouldn't do anything else. I love the being able to take the children on outdoor activities all the time and being my own boss. Good luck x

The only thing I would say is it requires a lot of paperwork now. Lots of monitoring child and recording all things in terms of early years and ofsted, everything has to have risk assessment etc even a trip to a farm or playing in your garden. With two small children of your own, would you have the free time each evening or weekend to do this?

Your local authority (Suffolk is family information service) will have a checklist that includes other things such as:

• informing your mortgage provider or landlord
• informing planning
• informing house and car insurance to add business use
• setting up hmrc self employed
• any adults living in your home must be dbs checked, any regular visitors such as your mum during work time also
• health check from your doctor

Look at the group independent childminders on Facebook as there's lots of us on there. Or there may be a group in your town. I started randomly chatting ti an childminder when I was feeding DS at 4 months in a playground, she's now one of my best friends five years later!

The alternative to Ofsted is to go with an agency such as Rutland for a monthly fee, I've never been tempted but I worked early years for a long time. Any questions just shout x

You've missed that you need a local authority safeguarding course in addition to your pacey course. When you contact them they'll advise you

Thank you so much for all the great advice! I’m really excited to take the plunge. I’ll get contacting people tomorrow, is it better to go with ofsted or an agency? Or are they the same but different if that makes sense? Would be one be more appealing to parents than another?

Ofsted is much more long winded but ultimately it's up to you how you run your business and keep yourself up to date with everything. You'd get a pre registration visit, then inspection within 30 months. After that, it's within six years.

Agency: you pay monthly but have them available for support and guidance, they give you their contracts etc. they would be with you when inspected by Ofsted because it's them Ofsted would be checking on, not necessarily you. But if you're only taking on one child (you can go to two even with your own children in ratio) is it really worth it to be paying out a monthly fee?

I'm with childcare.Co.uk rather than pacey as then I have my advertising sorted too. Pacey is the old school way. Both offer training to childminders.

Appeal to parents: your Ofsted inspection report is about you personally, so parents would know it's just you. I don't know if you get a personalised inspection report if you're agency.

I also recommend childcare.co.uk

Look in to how to register for the government tax childcare account as a provider.

Your set up sounds lovely!

You could still have some school-age children before/after school or in holidays as they're not in the under 5's ratio, if that's of interest to you as well. Can be handy if you find someone with a toddler who has an older sibling who may need some days now and then.

Sounds like you're a classic "home-from-home" sort of childminder - and I in no way mean that to be disparaging! A lot of parents would be hoping to find a homely setting for their child, that's actively why they want to use a childminder rather than a nursery. They understand that part of the experience is things like popping out to the shops or sometimes helping count out socks when hanging up a load of washing to dry mid-morning, it doesn't have to be all singing and dancing or encouraging a session of mark-making or some phonics, it's like what they'd be doing at home.

Childminders don't have to have written risk assessments, or written policies and procedures - but you'd have to be able to explain your risk assessment when asked, and how you communicate your policies to parents. So in practice most find it easier to have some. But you don't need to have a specific risk assessment written down for a trip to the park versus a trip to the woods or a trip to the beach; you can just generally think through what are the risks of outings, and factor in common sense. Might be different when it's a nursery who need to instruct several staff members of the things to think through when they're taking 20 kids out!

@givemushypeasachance

You could still have some school-age children before/after school or in holidays as they're not in the under 5's ratio, if that's of interest to you as well. Can be handy if you find someone with a toddler who has an older sibling who may need some days now and then.

Sounds like you're a classic "home-from-home" sort of childminder - and I in no way mean that to be disparaging! A lot of parents would be hoping to find a homely setting for their child, that's actively why they want to use a childminder rather than a nursery. They understand that part of the experience is things like popping out to the shops or sometimes helping count out socks when hanging up a load of washing to dry mid-morning, it doesn't have to be all singing and dancing or encouraging a session of mark-making or some phonics, it's like what they'd be doing at home.

Childminders don't have to have written risk assessments, or written policies and procedures - but you'd have to be able to explain your risk assessment when asked, and how you communicate your policies to parents. So in practice most find it easier to have some. But you don't need to have a specific risk assessment written down for a trip to the park versus a trip to the woods or a trip to the beach; you can just generally think through what are the risks of outings, and factor in common sense. Might be different when it's a nursery who need to instruct several staff members of the things to think through when they're taking 20 kids out!

We do need safeguarding and complaints procedures, which are then pretty lengthy. Going with childcare.Co.uk or pacey will help as they have standard ones you can tweak