if LO not well enough for school surely he is not well enough for CM?

[Numberfour]

mum wants to drop him over later.

I agree and would say thanks but no thanks! Too ill for school = stay at home!

From a mums POV childminders are childcare no? I'd be mightily pissed off if I missed work because My CM wouldn't have my dc.

If he just has the sniffles or something, maybe he just needs to rest. Which he could do with you. Obv if he is severly ill, she would have had him at the doctors.

shiny surely even if he has the sniffles he will not wanted to be bundled off to the CM. He will want his own bed and his own toys, and his mummy.

He won't want to be at the CM and having to do what the other children are doing, or being dragged off to the school at 3.30pm to pick up the CM's other charges.

Nor should the other charges be exposed to coughs / sniffles from this poorly child.

If he is too sick for school, then he should be at home or with grandma etc, not at the CM.

If the child isn't well enough to be mixing with children at school why is it ok to expose CM to whatever s/he has? A CM being there to provide childcare is one thing but to be expected to look after a child who isn't well enough to go to school is unreasonable IMO.
Not very fair on the poorly child either.
OP - what have you said to the mum?

mum is absolutely LOVELY! i probably should not have posted in the first place. i said that we should rather see how he is later because i have a busy afternoon with others and it may not be very restful for him here. she replied of course that if he was not well enough she would keep him at home - i know that she is not trying to use me as a nurse!!!

it just niggled me a bit.

shiny, yes, i do offer childcare and would not turn a child away for reasons that are not justified, but i have a responsibility to other people's children, too. i always have LOs with sniffles but if they have been awake night after night with temps going up and down, i would be at the doctors, rather than trying to see if my CM could take him.

but, i second LisaD1's equation. well put!

I put in my handbook that I cannot care for children who are away from school because of sickness. The HPA guidance for sickness, diarrhoea etc applies to childcare just as it does to schools (although this is guidance and not law). Also, if the child isn't well enough to cope with the school routine, gym/playtime etc then they will also have difficulty with the school run, park, toddler groups and any other activity the childminder has planned.

ome childminders will accept children who are "off-colour" and have no sickness/diarrhoea/temperature and don't need a gp visit - just lots of rest. But this will normally not be guaranteed but be decided on an individual basis - on whether there are any other mindees present, whether the other mindees have the same condition and whether there are any commitments, eg school runs, that day.

agree to ill for school, then too ill for cm

I don't look after children who are too ill for school. To start with, I don't have a contract to care for them during school hours.

I care for a three year old girl who was here last week with a bad cold. The 3 year old boy I care for is at home with Dad today because he has picked it up. So his Dad had to take time off work to be at home with him. However as they all bring their pre schoolers to me with colds they can't really complain if they pass it around.

I know this is going off on a bit of a tangent but when blondes commented it made me wonder, what would a nanny do if a child were off school sick? Would they still have the child? What if it was something like chicken pox and the nanny had not had this / was pregnant?

(Is chicken pox one of the things dangerous to a pregnant person? Brain is fuzzy this morning! Hopefully you'll know what I mean.. I would have used swine flu as an example but it usually illicits a mixture of responses, some VERY dramatic!)

i agree too ill for school = too ill for childminder.

i think that parents sometimes forget that there are other people to think of - the c/m doesn't get sick pay and if she doesn't work she doesn't get paid - if her own children pick up a mindee's illness then it is likely she can't work then either - plus passing it on to other mindee's - i wouldn't turn away a child with the sniffles but neither would school. I've heard plenty of cases of parents dosing up child with calpol before taking to minder so they look/seem ok until it starts wearing off.

number 4 - sounds like the Mum is nice and sensible

vInTaGeViOlEt, mum is LOVELY!

she is keeping LO at home today and going to see how he is tomorrow with a view to taking him to the doc. her DD has been ill too, so it is doing the rounds.

aww my Mum's are all lovely too - isn't it great

there are so many nasty bugs going round atm.

i need to update my policies with this..i had a child whose mum constantly sent him when he was ill, keeping him off nursery as he wasnt well enough and said oh he can just rest at yours...well this little boy was poorly a LOT..it got to the point where me and the other mindees had to cancel playgroups as this little boy was laying asleep on the sofa most of the day...mum gave me notice becuase i said we couldnt carry on like this!, she felt i was asking too much of him expecting him to get up to do a school run for the other chldren inc my own dd when he was ill...Go figure!...hes in a nursery as well as full time ed now..they point blank refuse him if he cant join in!so she has to take time off or get help from family...she lost a bloody good childminder here!

I'm a nanny and if kids are sick I still work (one of the benefits of having a nanny!). If it was something that would put be at risk - like chicken pox, swine flu or German measles while pregnant - then I wouldn't work. Employers have to do a risk assessment when you're pregnant which would cover this kind of thing.

I'm very shocked that someone thinks that because CMs are 'childcare' that means that they should accept children that are too ill for school. Surely the fact that they are too ill for school means that they've obviously got a bit more than just a snotty nose ....

yy

my sick child policy excludes a child who cannot participate in our normal day to day routine viz:

I cannot care for a child who is not well enough to participate in their normal activities eg Toddler Group, Music Class or School.

Obv there is more on it than just this bit but relevant

simple as abc - yes a nanny would have ill child/ren

thats is a huge advantage of employing a nanny to a cm/nursery

if a CM refuses to have a little one as they are ill, can they still charge for that child??

I agree it does depend on WHY the child is off ill. A child recovering from chickenpox is not "ill" in my opinion. I recently had a mindee that had it and once the spots had scabbed over and he was no longer contagious then he was fine to come to me. If a child is too ill for school, too ill to join in normal day to day activities and/or poses a risk of infection to others then they should remain at home and yes I think that day should be charged for (as it would be at nursery, childminder is available and therefore should be paid). A child that just wants to lie on the sofa all day and watch dvd's should be at home, why should other mindee's and the CM have to stay at home because one child is unwell? Parents do have to take responsibility for their own unwell child, it is not and should not, in my opinion, be the responsibility of the childminder.

There does of course have to be common sense applied, I wouldn't turn away a teething child, a child with a common cold/runny nose, a child that was no longer contagious with chicken pox etc and I would expect parents to respect my home and my children enough not to bring a child that is clearly ill.

I mind a child who has had really bad colds for months it seems and I've not been well for weeks myself. But he never has a fever, vomits or has runny nappies so I can't really exclude him.
His parents have had the same bugs but whilst they had time off work, he still came to me.
I can take it...up to a point

hmmm coming back to this

If you have a sick child policy then you can implement it, No4

WHen you next review contract then update all your policies, hand copies over and then ta daaa problem solved.

here is mine in toto:

SICKNESS POLICY

I cannot care for a child who has sickness and /or diarrhoea. In the interest of infection control they must not return until at least 48 hours after the last symptoms of illness.

I cannot care for a child who is not well enough to participate in their normal activities eg Toddler Group, Music Class or School.

If a child develops a temperature I will contact their parents/carers to arrange collection as soon as possible.

I can administer medicine only with the prior express written permission from the child?s parent/carer for each day that the administering of medicine is required.

Child?s name ???????????????????????..

Parent/carer?s name ???????????????????????..

Signature ???????????????????????..

Date ??????????????????? ????..

Childminder?s
Name ????????????????????????

Signature ????????????????????????

D ate ????????????????????????

Then there can be no misunderstanding and all know where they stand

(now I'm looking at mine and thinking is it now 72 hours for D aV ?? I think it is)

re: charging if c/m refuses to take sick child.
this is what contracts are for!
if it says on your contract that c/m charges if child is sick and you signed the contract then you pay - simple.

it isn't fair if c/m has less money that week due to no fault of her own.She still has a mortgage and bills to pay. Now if parent is self-employed and can't work due to caring for their sick child that is a shame but unavoidable.

if a child is ill and cant come on a day that has been booked in for them to come then the parent still pays for that time, the childminder can not get other work as they wont know if theyre off for half day, one day, one week, theres no certainty..thats why we have contracted so parents know if they just dont bring them in (as i have had) they DO still pay if theyve already requested that day/hours.