Childminder cancelled no notice

[Allaboutthetrilogy1985]

Our childminder has text tonight saying a complaint had been made against her to Ofsted and that she can no longer have our twins. She has been struggling with them the past couple of weeks and we have been a little concerned (but didn't make the complaint).

I'm really concerned she has made this up so as not to look after them anymore as she couldn't cope with them. She's offered to refund us our paid amount, but she obviously claimed our funded hours for this term.

Where do I stand with this. She's breached our contract (less concerned about this as we were we were gonna issue notice due to injuries (unsatisfactory explanation) and smelling of smoke) but surely she can't still claim our hours?

Also will Ofsted tell us if a complaint has been made or not?

Thanks

It's a bit bafflig- if this is real- that your concern is with her claiming money fron the government and breaching contract. Surely you're more concerned about what's being going on, and why someone who's been caring for your children is under investigation?

Yes both had head injuries on the same day. My son we took to the walk in/minor injuries. He didn't cut his head but his whole forehead was black with bruise. They assessed him and sent him home.

I haven't reported to Ofsted as i said, accidents happen and they can both be a handful! And generally the childminder is nice enough but older/old school - I didn't have any safeguarding concerns, but more that they were both too much for her to manage with the other children she had.

However, when she text to say that she had a complaint from Ofsted and couldn't watch them anymore, I thought she was just saying that as an excuse to break the contract. Until I posted on here I had no idea that Ofsted could close them pending investigation (I've only ever used nurseries previously and this doesn't happen - but makes sense now I think about it as a childminder is one person/sole care).

Now I'm wondering if someone witnessed what happened to my son which was the cause of the complaint. Of course I'm now concerned there was more to it all and my children may have been avoidably harmed.

I'll ring Ofsted when they open on Monday to see if they will tell me anything else as she has still not responded to me

Yes it can and does happen with nurseries too. This isn't a cm only situation. You just haven't experienced it before.

Accidents do happen but not that bad and to both children at once. Why are you so passive?

I had this. I did ring Ofsted and they confirmed she had been banned with immediate effect and wouldn’t tell me why other than to say I had no need to be concerned about Dd. DD’s place wasn’t funded so there wasn’t that side of things to sort out. Obviously there had been no notice period, we just paid for the hours she’d already provided. We did not pay anything beyond that.

I'm not passive in anyway. Children have accidents and id not been given any reason to doubt CM. She is well known in the local community and has great reviews on all platforms as well as unblemished Ofsted reports (no previous incidents reported)

My concern was more around her ability to cope with 2.5 year old twins who can be a handful - and help develop them as needed.

However, now I know she's under investigation from Ofsted it of course makes me question what happened.

Nurseries can be closed with immediate effect.
When you took your child to the walk in I assume they asked how his injuries happened? Could they have reported the childminder?

We said at the childminders but they didn't ask who

Ofsted only require certain information re accidents such as broken bones.

Are you concerned she’s negligent or that she’s abusing them? In either scenario, you should change setting. If you suspect she’s injuring your children then you could report her to your local council and Ofsted.

Op, I hope your children are ok. I would explore a nursery place for them both.

This 👆

No I didn't have any reason to think she was hurting them at all (and I still don't)

I did worry that they were too much of a handful for her. I had a niggle around whether she could have been supervising them properly for them to get injured in that way.

We had already decided that we were putting them in alternative provision from September and after the injuries on Tuesday (before we knew about Ofsted), I'd started to look at temporary care arrangements to bridge the gap.

She smokes around your children and injured your son? Why would you wait til sept anyway?

I don't know that she smokes. I thought I could smell it by my husband couldn't. As I said this was the first time they had been hurt and we didn't send them back and were making interim arrangements until September.

U should still be able to get any hours that u haven’t already used as she has given u notice/ofsted have suspended her, just contact yr LA. Good luck in finding suitable care for yr children.
Ask for accident forms for both of yr children, as by law she needs to provide that, you can contact Ofsted yrself if she doesn’t, just Google their contact details.

You need to report her.

Did she say she can’t have your children or any children ? So has she shut ?

Contact ofsted

I find it really weird she didn’t ask you to fill in an accident form

head all bruised is def a red flag. Yes sone kids do head bang. My friends son consistently did it. He’s now an adult but we remind him of it. He does remember

if 2.5 can you ask twins what happened

So we found out what the complaint was. She left the twins in the car unattended whilst she did a school pick up. A parent of the school reported her to Ofsted and sent photographic evidence. Just waiting for Ofsted/LADO to call. Turns out nothing to do with the head injury 😔

Jeez op. That's awful.

Huge concerns about leaving toddlers unattended in a car. I'm only familiar with nurseries and school but I would hope she'd be shut down asap for such an horrific lapse in safeguarding.

Have you checked the ofsted website? They publish reports after incidents reported that require investigation.

Ah. A total no go

cm must always be able to see /hear kids

sure you aren’t impressed about your twins being left in a car alone

Did she indeed - totally inexcusable

Re the head injury at the childminders. My son was at a childminders from 9 months. He walked at 9 months too. When he was about a year he was playing with the other kids and ran in the hall, tripped up and head butted the front door which was supposed to have extra secure safety glass in it. The door got a big crack in it. The first thing the childminder did was run with my son to the gp who was literally 2 minutes away from her house , the second thing was to call me to let me know, meanwhile her husband who happened to be off that day was being super assertive to the window company who’d put in the “ extra secure safety glass” my son was absolutely fine, bit of a lump on his head which had gone by morning. Accidents happen of course but it’s how it was dealt with. My son’s accident was handled by the book and I was happy for him to go back and probably more importantly so was he as he had 2 little friends there that he loved. Oh and the glazing company were out fitting a new properly secure door that evening.