babysitting course

[lindseyfox]

thought you may all like to know seeing as babysitting costs are a hot topic!!!
Just finished the final session of my babysitting course some were happy with £15 for 6-8hrs work til 3am sometimes and others wanted £6 an hr!!! they are 14yrs old some have babysitting experience others not so we set them straight charging £2.50-£3.50 doing no more than 2-3hrs on a school nights and not past 10pm and no more than 2-3 school nights a week,. Weekends max of 5.5hrs and not after midnight. These are only our guidelines as no government guidance on babysitting so we cant enforce them but only advise.

thats really helpful - out of interest what did you cover on your course?

Interesting.

Do the restrictions on young people working not apply i.e. no more than 2 hours per day on school day,no more than ??12 hours a week, not after 7pm, etc?

I thought that 'personal care' was prohibited under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Section 18. Could be wrong, but I suspect babysitting could be considered 'personal care'.

Expect that it is very difficult for local councils to enforce the legislation.
Thus parents of teenagers should I feel be responsible for making sure their son/daughter is not babysitting excessively.

apparently not to babysitting we have tried to use those as guidelines and also not working til 13yrs old hence our course is for 14yrs+.

Cover childs needs, feeding a baby and child, making up baby bottles (including not heating in a microwave!!), bathing a baby and small child, accident prevention, minor illness and injuries, behaviour manangement, some scenarios, personal safety, looking for a job, practice interview questions, very basic child protection, child development and toys (look a gender type toys and stereotypes). sure there was more but cant think off top of head.

Probably doesn't apply to babysitting between 6pm and 2am, in the same way that Ofsted regulations don't apply during that time period.

You didn't go for Activity 1.7 from the book I leant you (I'm guessing who you are now )... where you give students a Hard Boiled Egg, to personalise then give to another course participant to care for until the next session.

I'm surprised at a 14 year old wanting £6 per hour. Can't recall exactly how much I got back in those days, think it may have been about £1.50. Not sure what nearly 20 years of inflation does to that... but £2.50-£3.50 sounds more reasonable than £6 to me.
When they have 20 years ish of experience, then they can try charging £10 an hour!

yes nanny nick the book you gave me was fab we used that in putting together our own 6 hr course. They did do the egg thing for first week too!!!

We ran our first course back in january with 14-17yr olds and was evaluated really highly and made a few chnages to it for this one.

i did post on nanny job after the first one to let everyone know success and thank you.

yeah i used to get £2 an hr as a teenager at 13/14yrs old and thats 15yrs ago. teenagers seem to get paid more these days i know my friends daughters now 16 and 17 have been babysitting for 3 years and have always got £5 an hr this is in their own village though so sitters hard to come by!!

I found this guidance from CAB about employing children. Babysitting is mentioned specifically as being allowed for under-14s but the sheet seems to encompass all work for under-16s/school leaving age.

Sorry Nick - not familiar with the legislation you are talking about and what you mean about personal care. Parents aren't responsible for keeping an eye on their children doing paper rounds - the newsie is!

on the young person cetificate we have a statement basically saying we are not responsible for the yp and that wwe are not saying they are competent babysitters. we also have an additional statement saying parents are responsible for their own children even if left in the care of someone under 16yrs