Making your home/setting safe - advice please!

[eliselady]

I am currently in the process of registering to be a childminder and have my pre-reg visit next week. I think I am up to date with nearly all my paperwork, but haven't done my risk assessments yet.

I am planning to look after a friends daughter, after school, term time only. I have no current plans to look after any more children.

So, do I have to make my home safe enough for the children I am planning to have i.e. a single child of 4.5 years old for 3 hours a day, or do Ofsted have to inspect me thinking that one day I might have more than 1 child, or I might have younger children and so would need more safety measures?

Any advice gratefully received!!!!

good question!

no idea of the answe though (sorry!)

i think as long as you risk assess and say that if you had a younger child you have a safty gate that you can put up but with older children you can teach them not to go into the kitchen or up the stairs as they will understand that. dont no if you will have to show them that you have stuff ready to use or just tell them that you are aware of what safety measures you have to have if you have younger children and tell them.

For the initial registration inspection, I think you will be ok just having a list of the things you will be doing to make the place safe. So a risk assessment of the property identifying the hazards posed to young children... then what you will be doing to fix those.
Longer term, I feel Ofsted (assuming you are in England) will want you to have measures in place for the safety of young children... so I do feel you will need to take account of safety things needed for babies and toddlers. You don't however need to put those things up when you are not physically caring for those age ranges - so stair gates are not needed initially. I do wonder if an inspector at a later inspection would ask to see one though... they might, or they might not. Each inspector is different.

If you are only going to care for your friends daughter, I'm wondering if being a childminder is viable. Would it not be easier to care for your friends daughter in your friends home? That would not require registration under current legislation.

Just go around each room and record what the risks are and what you are going to do about them. You can add a note about what you would do differently if you had different children, if you want to. I look after babies and I do not have a stair gate. This is in my risk assessment and the action to take is to supervise the children closely and Ofsted have always been happy with that. You can make a note at the top of your risk assessment, to make it clear that it is assessed for a child of 4.5 years, so you don't need to include anything about babies if you want to? Your inspector will almost certainly ask you what you would change if you take on a baby, etc. (at my inspection this week, the inspector said my risk assessment must include a 'date for review')

Thank you very much for the advice

Nannynick I will be looking after her for more than 2 hours a day and will be getting paid, so I think that means I am obliged to qualify as a childminder?

A;though I am finding the amount of work involved a bit off-putting! I dont mind the volume of work, more the fact that there doesn't seem to be a clear plan of what you need to achieve and by when. I only found out last night I needed to register with the environmental health!!!!

Don't mean to put you off but have you added up the cost involved of registering, insurance,ofsted, ncma, training etc, never going to be worth it for the hours you are going to be doing.

If you care for the child at the child's home, you don't need to register. You are only needing to register as a childminder due to you planning to provide the care at your home. You are right that if the care is for more than 2 hours per day then you need to register... but it's a pain to go to that hassle unless you really need to do so.
In the summer you could collect from school and go to the park for a picnic tea - that wouldn't need registration.
Agree with Danthe4th... I'm surprised it is financially worthwhile.

I am afraid the big cheques are already written!

I know it is a small role at the moment, but I am going to see how it goes and then consider moving to full time. Also I thought it would be good to get the qualification and then I could go full time if my husband loses his job, which is always on the horizon.