Home Educating other people's children

[offtoseethewizard]

Hello, quite new here, really interested in Home Ed but I'm a single parent who needs to work. A very close friend of mine home educates her ds (very successfully) and has offered to home ed my ds. Does anyone have any experience of this? What are the legalities? And any opinions either way, thankyou.

I think, depending on the age of your DS and how many hours your friend would be looking after him, that she would have to register as a childminder. Unless she looks after your DS in your home, in which case she is effectively a nanny and not subject to registration etc.

Or you could just arrange very regular playdates. Like 4 days a week... If no money changed hands then who was "babysitting" your child would be entirely up to you. Could you find another way of meeting your half of the obligation, by doing laundry or something? Not sure what the legal situation would be with a cash "present" but I wouldn't advise you to embark on any dodgy black market cash in hand stuff...

Legally, depressingly too IMO, even if no money changes hands it can still be considered to be unregistered childcare. They talk about 'for reward' which can mean anything from having your children in return to you buying them some wine to say thanks.

I think it would be fine if your child/ren is over 8, or if they care for your under 8 child in your home not theirs.
And odds are you would even be fine if you ignored the fact I told you and went ahead anyway. But as a word of warning I have heard of situations where people have been reported and it has been followed up on.

oh, but if you work nights you'd be fine because you don't have to be registered if its after 6pm.

Or for less than 2 hours.

And no idea what the worst case scenario would be if you were found out - I've only ever heard of people being asked to register or stop. So it might be worth doing it anyway but you do probably need to look into it to make sure.

If she did want to register as a childminder maybe you could pay her and claim some back through tax credits? But it is a bit of a pain just to look after one child.