Should childminder have told me about dog bite?

[ButterflyWitch]

I've just found out that my childminder's dog bit a mindee recently. Didn't break the skin, but certainly bruised.
I can't help but be worried that not only did this happen, but she didn't tell us about it? I need to talk to her to raise my concerns, but surely she was under some kind of obligation to tell us about it and let us know measures she was putting in place to prevent it from happening again?.
Any thoughts? We're in Scotland if that makes any difference

As wasn’t your child dog bite I don’t see why cm has to tell you

Whilst I wouldn't expect to be told, I would expect the dog to be away from the children at all times.

I doubt she'd be obligated to tell you. But whether she told me or not, I'd be removing my child if I found out there was a dog that bit.

It wasn't your child so no but she shouldn't have the dog anywhere near the children so I'd find somewhere else and if you have ofsted or similar report to them.

Yes, I agree with others. I don't know if they should tell you or not about things that happened to other children. But I won't be sending my child to be looked after by the childminder, unless the safety measure has taken place. Children are unpredictable. Can't risk it.

I would argue it’s reportable under RIDDOR as a dangerous occurrence/near miss. Probably worth asking OFSTED what the protocol here is.

In any case I would remove my child immediately as she has proven untrustworthy in not telling you, and lacking judgement in allowing it to occur in the first place.

Why does she have a dog
If she's a child minder?

Odd! V odd!!

What breed?

Thanks all, some useful comments.
I think it's a delicate balance - whilst I don't expect to be necessarily updated about things that happen to other kids I DO feel that we should have been told there had been an incident with her dog, and told about measures she's now (hopefully) putting in place.
It's a difficult one as we live rurally and she's literally our only childcare option :-(
I feel a bit calmer about it all, thank you - but I need to ask her about safety measures she's put in place and will take it from there.

We don't have OFSTED in Scotland - I think it's the Care Commission that's the relevant body.
What's RIDDOR?

I agree with you OP, whilst usually you wouldn’t expect to be told about an injury to another child this is different. I would expect to be told that the child minder had a dog that had bitten anyone recently, mindee or otherwise, and what plans she had in place to ensure that the dog never came into contact with any of the mindees.

Childminders are allowed dogs, it's their family home. You can't ban them from having pets. You just don't use a cm who has a dog if you prefer that option.

OP it is perfectly reasonably to ask the cm about her pet policy and specifically any changes she may have made in light of the recent event.

We use a CM with several pets, and I would 100% expect them to tell me if this happened - yet in our circs where they have had younger animals they have kept them away from the children / spent time teaching both on how to interact safely, I have no concerns at all

It has been really valuable for my DC to be around a range of pets and seeing how you need to think about your behaviour and the responsibility of being a pet owner

From my POV the lack of communication here is the worrying thing - they should be explaining that an event happened, and what they are planning to do as a result

What's RIDDOR?

It's the recording of injuries, diseases and accidents. All employees and self employed must report incidents by law. I'd say this should definitely have been reported.

Due to confidentiality she can't tell you about an incident with another child but she can tell you an incident occurred.

A couple of months ago a child at DS nursery had a nasty accident. All parents were informed of the details (not the childs name), including what changes had been made to avoid it happening again.
I would expect something like this from any sort of childcare.

Why does she have a dog
If she's a child minder?

Odd! V odd!!

Really??

No way would my kid be going back there. I presume you checked beforehand that the cm had procedures to not allow the dog to mix with the small children in her care? Small children can be unpredictable and lack personal safety awareness so no matter how well trained the dog is it can't be expected to never react to anything a child might do.

Olsi109 beat me to it- yes it’s the reporting body for accidents in the workplace. Obviously you don’t log every blister or paper it (or fall with toddlers etc) but this is serious enough to meet the reporting threshold and should have triggered a process to ensure it cannot happen again.

I suspect she won’t have reported it because as a childminder with a dog she likely would have already been required to have something in place to prevent mindees being in contact with the dog unsupervised so she will need to explain what happened.

you don’t need to be told the details of the other child, but you absolutely should have been told an incident occurred and what will be done to prevent it happening again.

man’s yes it would be care inspectorate in Scotland, sorry,

Of course childminders can have pets. Lots of families choose a childminder because they have a pet. I’ve got two families on my roll at the moment, who specifically wanted a cm with a pet as they wanted their children to be around animals but for whatever reason couldn’t have one at home (one rents, one doesn’t have the time to look after a pet).

Although there isn’t any expectation for you to be told if the dog bites someone, I would expect major changes in the running of the childcare. The dog and the children should never be in any kind of contact. To be honest though, however much I think pets are fantastic for children to be around, I wouldn’t want my children to be around a dog who has bitten another child, so I would probably be finding different childcare. I just wouldn’t be able to relax with this situation.

do you know the circumstances around what happened? Were the child and the dog alone? Had the dog had enough and no one recognised the signs the dog was tired and didn’t take the dog to it’s safe place? Did the child pull the dogs tail/ears/hurt the dog? I would want to know the full story.

Agree don't think she has to tell you but if I found out I my child wouldn't be going back

I’m any country, that’s wrong. I would take my child out immediately. Good luck.

Childminder here who has a dog, if my dog was to bite anyone it would be evident as he would no longer be here to ensure the safety of all the children instead depending on the circumstances and severity either rehomed with a family member the alternative which you can all guess.

As a responsible dog owner and a childminder it's my duty to ensure the safety for all so I never leave my dog unattended with the children and he's never around them when there is food about. It's not that I don't trust my dog but I certainly do not trust that 3 children under 3 wouldn't try and feed him and that children this age are often not very gentle.

I would certainly ask you childminder about the circumstances of the bite and what measures she is putting in place to ensure nothing like this happens again.