minimum age for babysitting..

[nearlyfree]

My daughter will be 16 in May and has been asked by neighbours to baby sit for their 2 daughters ages 5 and 7. I was delighted she has been looking unsucessfully for a part time job to supplement the money i give her. Her father has vetoed the whole idea and not only is he refusing to let her , he has now informed me that if i leave her with her 11 year old sister he will report me to social services for neglect...I am not particularly worried about that (i'm sure SS have much more pressing concerns) but i'm not sure now whether she can legally babysit..what if anything went wrong...who would be held responsible...maybe a bit gloom and doom but just wondered if anyone new the actual legal position....

I don't know why I've got 15 in my head, have I made that up?

I presume you and the father aren't together any more? What a knob end.

There isn't an official age legally.

I have employed 14 year old babysitters before now. To be clear, there IS no minimum age. With an under-16 however the parents are responsible, in other words if something bad happened while your children were in the care of an under-16 you would be considered responsible for them and it would be up to police/SS to decide whether your actions were justified - hard to see how anyone could object to leaving a 5 and 7 year old in the care of a sensible 14 or 15 year old though.
There would be absolutely no problem from SS or anyone else allowing a 16 year old to babysit (and as I said, very little likelihood of being seen to be unreasonable by leaving a 14/15 year old babysitting in normal circs (eg not popping off to Marbella for a week perhaps).
So basically your ex is being INSANE and SS would laugh in his face.

I agree with what NighbyNigh said on your other thread - call SS yourself, then you can tell him where he gets off.