childminder safety

[TotallyBonkersTotti]

Hallo to all.
Am new to mumsnet and really like what i see so far.
I wonder if anyone has any ideas on my perhaps strange question:
I have an 18 month old who attends nursery 3 days a week. For various reasons we have decided to cut this down to 2 days and 1 day with the child minder.
Have visited a lovely one nearby and will see her again next week to take things slowly.
Here is the question: while obviously the childminder showed me all her certifcates and hopefully is a very trustworthy person, safeguarding the child etc...how can we be sure that her family or any visitors to the property are safe???
This really occupies my mind....
I look forward to hearing from you guys and girls.

You can't be sure, in the same way you can't be sure at nursery.
You probably know very little about the background of nursery staff, may not have seen their individual CRB checks, you may not even know the name of all the staff at nursery.
With a childminder, as there are less people involved you do know their names, the childminder and anyone else age 16 plus has a CRB check and if you have spent some time chatting with the childminder you may know quite a bit about their background, such as what they did before being a childminder.

The CM should not leave your child with any of these other people, so as long as you trust her to be the supervising adult, then it's OK. I know it's very hard when you hardly know the minder. The children in my care meet all sorts of new people at my house, toddler groups, parks, etc, but I personally ensure their safety at all times.

I'd just like to point out that not every childminder has a CRB, this will be because s/he would have registered many years ago. The checks would have been carried out by another body such as social services and Ofsted are fine with this and the EYFS requirements allow for this. Thought i would mention it as people do not always understand. However the rest of the adults over 16 living or working there will have a CRB.The childminder will not leave any child with a visitor and children must be within sight/hearing at all times- just as they are in nursery.

A lot of minders have a visitors log, I tend not to have too many visitors during the day as I am working, so not available for social stuff anyway, however when people do call they sign in and wear a visitor badge, visitors are Never left alone with mindees they are with a registered person at all times.

At the end of the day choosing a minder is a trust thing, get to know the minder a little better when you start the settling in and see how she handles leaving you alone with other mindees if she needs to nip to another room etc.

Dear nannynick, HSMM, coasting and atworknotworking,

many many thanks for your help.
I dont think I saw a CRB though did see all the other certificates.
Visited again today and left my toddler with her for 2 hours...no problem. when I asked him shall we come again there was enthusuastic nodding and smiling...
Will repeat similar test run on wednesday and then go for a full morning, extending to full day.
Many thanks again.