How would you feel if you knew a CM smacked a charge?

[warmsummersday]

This has happened on 2 occasions. Not going to go into detail but what would you do?

No not upset. I have just phoned her and had a chat and told her it is unacceptable and it shouldn't happen. She knows how I feel now and if it happens again I will have to take matters further I guess. Thanks for your help though.

If this is your mother who is smacking the child, you sound uncomfortable about it, and this is a hard situation as you sound uncomfortable to bring this up to her. Importantly do you want her to smack your child?....possibly not...the situation could be, how do you stop her from smacking your children, as you do not want her to do this....situation hard. Is this is what going on or is it something else?

Correct me if I am wrong but I was under the impression that it is no illegal for a childcarer to smack a child in their care?

Sorry meant it is NOW illegal

If she is a Registered Childminder she should already be well aware that smacking is not allowed and that she's putting her registration (and reputation) at risk.

I would also have difficulty reporting my own mother. Who is not a childminder but would probably agree with your mum's approach to discipline. But however sure she is that this is a successful way to discipline she needs to understand the potential harm to HERSELF here.

Instead of focussing solely on your own disagreement with her methods of discipline, I would try telling her your fears about potential newspaper headlines and the damage to her reputation if a complaint is made. What may have been one short smack can, in a newspaper report, be written to sound like a story of children being continually battered and abused. She needs to do all she can to preserve her good reputation and protect herself from allegations of abuse. And that means adopting methods of behaviour management she may not agree with. If someone else complains (another parent, postman/passer by etc) she'll have to face Ofsted and a complaint on her record. Thats if she is allowed to continue childminding. I know someone who lost her registration because of a single incident like you describe.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Also she will have contravened (invalidated ?)her insurance, as well as Ofsted regulations.

Oh dear

I reported a Cm for hitting a child in January. Ofsted rang her (BIG mistake ) to tell her they were coming to see her. She also had 6 under 5's at the time I saw her hit the child. So on the day Ofsted visited, she was down to 3 under 5's. NOTHING happened.
Ofsted wrote to me stating a visit had taken place, and that all guidelines were in place.

TOTAL waste of time if you ask me.

You are in a very difficult position, warmsummersday.

It is hard to say what I would do in that situation, but I think I would have to speak to Ofsted about it.

I am amazed that a registered childminder thinks it is acceptable to smack a child in their care.

I would be very concerned for the children she looks after; their parents have a right to know that their children are likely to be smacked, and given the chance to act accordingly.

You must be feeling very upset about the whole situation.

BradfordMum, that shows how useful OFSTED are.

CMs get notice for regular inspections which is wrong, IMO. I know CMs will say that they might be planning outside activities/ on school runs etc which would mean that they might not be in when the inspector turns up, but notice means that they can make sure that they don't have over their amount of children etc.

Unsurprisingly very few CMs (in our area) seem to get unsatisfactory reports.

Bubble, I always ignored OFSTED reports when I chose CM's - I suspected they were practically worthless and just went with who I liked. Now I feel vindicated!