childminding-advice please.

[bubblepop]

hello..I am thinking of setting up as a childminder,for primary school children providing before and after school care and maybe school holiday care. could anyone please advise me, how do I go about setting up-I have no child care qualifications whatso ever. what would be a reasonable rate to charge..and what would the adult-child ratio be(i need to know this as I have my own children to care for aswell) thankyou you are all a fab bunch

It depends what ages you want to care for. If you go on the ofsted website it will explauin the different registers. There is one for under 8's and a voluntary register for over 8's. The maximum you can have on each is 6 including your own. You can only get insurance cover for a maximum of 12 children in a house. If you also go on the ncma website it explains what you have to be registered for and also what you don't. But even if you only care for the over 8's you still have to be insured and have class 1 business use for your car. Hope that helps a bit.Caroline

The rates differ from area to area go on the childcare link website and look in your area I charge £4 per hour others charge £10 per after school session.

You will need to do quite a few courses as well and if you don't have a level 3 qual in childcare you will need to start one asap, as it will be a requirement as of next year, as long as you are working towards it you should be ok I think, but best to check.

If you contact your local families info service they do a meeting to explain the ins and outs of it all (or at least thats what they think, its soooo much more complicated than filling a form in) Ofsted site will tell you what you need to do re: ratios and standards of care.

You can aslo request a list of minders in your area of families info service to see what they charge, but bear in mind that a lot of schools offer breakfast and after school clubs now as well and they can afford to do it much cheaper, so worth checking what your local schools provide.