Looking after friends baby query

[Sandym3g]

My friend is 8 months pregnant and has asked me to help in the childcare while she is on maternity leave and once she has to go back to work. Her husband is a student and works part-time on irregular hours. He of course would be looking after baby too. I'm thrilled to be asked and am looking forward to it. I have asked ofsted what the legal implications are and they have said as long as I don't receive any reward.

Now 6 years ago I got my nvq early years care and education level 2 and told ofsted this. I asked how easy would it be to become a childminder considering I had this. They said it would be easy for me. all I would have to do is some short courses. They didn't enlarge on this. Can someone tell me please?

Also not sure if looking after the child in my home is allowed or not?? Even though it would mostly be at the child's home I do want to be able to get my family's food ready at home and seeing them a bit. Hence bringing baby home with me.

I would take bets that Ofsted did not define what they meant by Reward. The term reward is not defined as far as I am aware in any of the appropriate legislation or guidance documents, thus it enables the regulator to decide something is reward at a later date. So to be safe, don't provide childcare at your home, instead do it at the babies home - then you are a un-paid nanny.

Registering as a childminder, so that you can care for several children at your home will take 4 to 8 months typically. It will involve you doing the ICP and a 12-hour First Aid course. Your local Families Information Service (local council usually) will be able to provide you with further info about specific procedures in your area. You will need to learn about EYFS (see Teachernet Publications: EYFS May2008. Your home would need to be inspected and meet the requirements.
Unless you are planning on doing Childminding as a business, thus will be taking on several children, then I would say don't bother... look after your friends baby at your friends house.

Couple of points:

It is not up to the regulator to choose how 'reward' is defined, it is up to the courts. In its broadest sense, if you receive something that is beneficial to you then that is a reward. A court may well restrict this to something that has an economic value, in other words something that can be valued in monetary terms.

But I think you are talking about being paid for this anyway, and that is definitely a reward.

Now you say 'mostly at the child's home'. Childcare which is provided 'wholly or mainly in the home of the child' is not regulated. So there is no reason in principle why you can't spend some time at your home. How much is some? I would suggest less than 2 hours a day.

So I agree with Nick, it would be easy enough for you to achieve Ofsted registration to provide childminding at your home, but the burden of maintaining this registration would not be worth it for one child. Go to the child's home to look after them, but if you want to go to your house to cook dinner (and provide beneficial social stimulus for the child), and provided of course that you are always taking proper care of the child and that the parents are happy with this you shouldn't find yourself encountering any regulation.

Thanks for this, it's really helpful.

MrAnchovy it would be unpaid as the parents can't afford to pay me currently. It has been loosely mentioned that payment will be given LATER when they are more Financially stable. This would be the time to be registered I guess. Just got to make it clear in the mean time that they can't pay me little bits every now and again I suppose.