Illegal Childcare

[NotQuiteCockney]

In our neighbourhood, there are a couple of illegal nurseries. They're parent-run, and take place in parents' homes.

The nurseries advertise quite a bit, in the library and in local stores. I even saw one of them mentioned in a newspaper article on the weekend (with enough details that anyone who knew anything about nurseries would know it was illegal).

How illegal is this? Who would be charged? And with what?

I'm concerned that something will go wrong (accident, fire). I'm also a bit concerned that the childcare co-op I'm in (which is Ofsted inspected etc etc) will suffer as a result, as people are made nervous about parent-run childcare.

i interview for our nursery and wouldn't let a miserable worker look after my children.

I really don't know how they can do places for 25/30 (is that teh price for under 2's?)

No, it's the price for over 2s. I think the parent led nursery only takes over 2s, but I might be wrong. Anyway, there are lots and lots of cheap registered nurseries around here, maybe they are state subsidised, not sure. Horrible, horrible, but of course they are there to help parents on low wages.

our lovely nursery has community places which are subsidised by our local authority (10 out of 28 places), private places have to pay the full price

There's a chain of non-profit nurseries around that are really nice, and quite cheap.

The parent-led one I know of in Wapping, that's official, only takes over-2s. From what I know.

This in-house thing takes babies, not just bigger ones. Again, from what I know.

I 'think' I know the one you are referring to. My son goes to Montessori on the Park, am I in the right vicinity?

The advertising of the place I think you're talking about bothers me too, as did getting flagged down in the street by one of the parents who runs it and having to defend my choice to use MonthePark rather than the local creche/nursery thing.

Or am i barking up the wrong tree?

Yeah, there's one near Montessori on the Park. There are a few of these around.

My son goes to a parent-run one which is just west of Vicky park, but is part-time, and Ofsted-registered, and not in people's houses. Hence part of my anxiety about all this.