Nursery or childminder?

[Betty20]

Hello,

I'd be very grateful for any opinions on choosing a nursery or a childminder? My son will be 11 months old when I have to return to work in October.

We will be moving to SE19 / SE27 type area so will be looking for childcare there.

I've made appointments to view four nurseries in the next couple of weeks but they all seem to have so many children. Because my son is so young, I'm now wondering if he might be better looked after by a childminder who only has three or four children at a time?

How do you find a good childminder? I've been to Ofsted, directgov and childcare link websites - all of which are a good resource for contact details but with the exception of the Ofsted 'outstanding' childminders, I don't know how to choose ones to call!

I'm a first time mum and would be very grateful for any advice / suggestions.

Many thanks.

Betty - this might not be the best day to ask this question if you want a balanced responce

There was a TV programme about bad childcare on BBC1 at 8pm & a lot of people on here have been a bit upset by it

IMO - a good childminder is someone who when you meet them, you 'click' you are happy in their presence and you feel you could ask them or tell them anything

Good luck - visit a few - you will know when it's the right one

personally I'd go for a childminder - if you search previous threads you'll see lots of opinions on this. to find one your local council should be able to provide you a list and then it's a case of ringing them to see if they have vacancies and then going to meet them. you'll probably find that the council list isn't entirely up to date with regard to who has what vacancies - the cm I found was listed as being full. You'll also probably find that by the time you;ve taken location into account you won;t have a huge choice. in fact I didn't really have any choice at all. thankfully she was lovely.

HI Betty -- this prog highlighted the fact that Ofsted reports on nurseries can't be trusted. Katymac's advice is right.

Yes I would go with a childminder especially for a baby. He/she will get lots more love and attention from a childminder rather than a nursery where there is lots and lots of other babies.

Visit a few and see what you think. Goodluck.

I can't agree that a childminder is always best.

At a good nursery there are plenty of people around to deal with any situation and managers supervising. A childminder has to deal with everything herself and is completely unsupervised.

Mixing with a lot of other children will give your child a head start in social skills and our little girl has really benefited from it. She started at nursery when she was only 1 year and settled in quite quickly. Obviously if your child is particularly shy, a less busy environment, such as a childminder may suit better.

Personally I prefer a good nursery to a good childminder, but a nursery may not suit every child and a good childminder is better than a bad nursery.

I'd personally prefer a nursery too. With a childminder there is no one to check what happens on a daily basis, no restriction on visitors and more likely to have to find cover for holidays and sickness. I'd also worry that a mindee would always be "second best" as its natural instinct to put your own child first.

Another thing with childminders is the school runs, shopping etc regardless of weather, nap times etc.

With a nursery, staff holidays etc are covered so the place is always available. Usually more activities are available as they have more space and equipment. As there are lots of staff, there is always somebody else there to see whats going on and visitors are more restricted to other parents or potential new parents.

There are both good and bad nurseries and childminders and the Ofsted report should be read but should never be the basis on making the decision on. Personal recommendations, your own instinct to the nursery etc are more important.

Scaremongering programmes on TV are frankly not worth watching. They are biased and dont give a true insight into things - they only show what they want too.

Please please do not discount childminders because you think we go "shopping etc" - my household tasks are restricted to evenings and weekends, like any other working person. We may go to buy milk or bread from the local shop, but this is one of the outings that small children enjoy.

Taking children on the school run is also one of the highlights of their day - they adore going to collect the "big children." One of the advantages of a childminder is the interaction that you can have between children of different ages, rather than just mixing with same-age children.

And my own children certainly do not come first as they are all in their 20s!

I do appreciate that parents can be nervous about trusting an individual to leave their child with, but would still recommend that you visit nurseries and childminders before you decide.

It must depend on your own preferences really, there is not right or wrong I think. I would like a childminder because I think it's nice for a child to see normal life going on - bin men collecting the rubbish, postman delivering the post, going to the post office to pop a letter in the postbox, collecting children from school and seeing schools as part of their future life too. Some people are happier with a more structured environment and supervised carers with more emphasis on correct procedures, it reasures them.
Only when you get the right vibe from a place or person will you know it's for you.

Thank you all so much for these valuable replies. I'm sorry to have taken so long to get back to you - I'm sure you appreciate the difficulties of even sitting at a computer, let alone logging on when you have a wee one! Where does the time go??

I think the overriding advice is to visit both and see what feels right. I'll be on that phone first thing tomorrow morning - small son permitting!

Best wishes,

Betty

Just thought I'd add to this - we've had a fantastic experience with a good childminder. However, you've got to feel confident that you have the right person. Nursery staff come and go but if you're not sure about something you can query with the management and not feel that it gets too personal.

One enormous plus point about a good childminder (and with the Ofsted regime, most childminders are good at what they do) is that your child can be looked after in friendly home environment and make some really good friends, older and younger - substitute siblings, even. It also smooths the transition to school. That may seem a long way off - but when deciding who on earth to contact, think a little bit about what primary school your child might end up going to, and whether there are people who pick up in that area. The difference between a crowded after-school club and a more relaxing but well organised home environment is pretty important.

This is a difficult one as it depends on many factors - the baby/child involved, the available childcare, how flexible you need it to be, what back-up plans you have available etc.

For me a nursery has definitely been the better experience (and I have used childminders and nurseries). I felt very vulnerable using a childminder, and so dependent on their provision but then I have no family to help out. If the childminder was ill, or on holiday, I had no fall-back plan and I don't have the sort of job where I could take time off.

There are some great childminders, where your child is part of the family, and some not-so-good ones where the child is literally just "minded".

Similarly there are great nurseries (my DD2 and DD3 are at an outstanding one at the moment) and some poor ones. I like the safety of nursery, in that there are a number of staff to share the care and many pairs of eyes looking out for your child. I also like the socialisation and opportunities that nursery can provide.

So no hard and fast answers! Go with what suits your needs and lifestyle, and look at A LOT of childminders and nurseries to really get a feel for them.

I wouldn't necessarily set too much store by OFSTED reports - the first CM I visited had an excellent one, but I wouldn't have been happy for DD to go to her. The second one I visited had a less positive report (although still good!) but was absolutely the right person to look after DD. HTH

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I personally prefer nurseries to childminders, unless you can get a personal recommendation from someone you know and trust.

Many thanks for the latest comments too. Golly, this website is fab isn't it? It's GREAT to be able to get so much advice so quickly and easily.

Thanks sally84 for the link to tinies - that looks very interesting and useful. In answer to the online help about 'what childcare is best for you' it came up with a nanny. Unfortunately, the cost is beyond us but then I had a brief look at all the families offering nanny share. Does anyone have any experience of this?

When I had my first child, I needed to return to work for financial reasons. I chose a nursery near to work that had recently opened. At the time, babies (mine was 6 months old) and toddlers were not separated as is the norm now. My baby was bitten by another child and I was not informed until I collected my son at 5.15 pm. I got an appointment at the doctors for the following morning and got antibiotics for my son. Unfortunately, my son got very ill and died two weeks later from acute endocarditis, due to an infection that had entered the bloodstream, probably from the bite.

For this reason, I would never use a nursery again no matter how much I struggled financially. Your child is most precious to you and you need to be sure that you are making the right decision. I would do anything to turn the clock back but I can't and I will always regret that.

This happened nearly 20 years ago and I still think of my son, although I don't suppose the nursery does.

I apologise if I've scared you.

I've just gone back to work - finished my second week back today. I chose a childminder and so far it seems to be going really well.

I've taken my baby out nearly every day whatever the weather, I felt we both needed to get out to baby groups or whatever. So I'm happy for her to take him shopping if she chooses, to take him to drop the other two mindees off at school and collect him etc. One advantage of this minder is that she has a grown up daughter who has been approved as an assistant. While that TV programme raised questions about CM inspection, I thought what it showed of nurseries was far more telling.

I may well look to get DS into nursery when he's a bit older, say 2, particularly if I can get him a place in one of the Council nurseries, which are only half my take home pay not all of it like the private ones.

Otherwise, I'd agree look around at everything possible and go with your instincts.

I had a bad expreience with a child minder. I was very surprised that she had a 'good' ofsted report. She had very little control over her own 10 year old on the day I went to sign the contract. Her daughter completely ignored any instructions and intimidated my 10-month old. There were other issues too - but bottom line I realised that my DD would not necessarily get more 1:1 attention as she was minding three children most of the time which seemed to exclude her own. I also found her inflexible. I know this is one personal story and I am sure there are many good CM out there, but this experience made me realise that DD would not be able to tell me what was going on. At least in a nursery there are always two or more adults around. We found a lovely flexible nursey instead with a fab nursery nurse. I feel it is better for her to mix with other little ones rather than older children and the ratio at the nursery and CM are the same ie 3:1. In the baby room they have max 12 little ones. DD seems very happy there.

Don't forget Betty that while nurseries do have lots of children, there are strict ratios for staff per number of children. I think for under one's which your DS will just be, it is 1 staff per 2 children, and think it is 1:3-4 between 1-2 (could have these figures wrong though)

So actually you could have BETTER care than at a CM on those grounds, though of course nurseries are busier in some respects.

i've always preferred the nursery option because I like the idea of people who are looking after my precious child having more training, breaks, someone else to offload on if they're having a bad day...

Dippy mother I am so sorry for you! What an awful thing to have happened to your little one.

I am a cm and am minding from tomorrow: a 3 yr old, 4 yr old (nearly 5)my 5yr old son,(nearly 6) 6 yr old and an 8 yr old! I cant wait really, I've loads of things we are going to be doing like crafts, going to the park etc. They new mindees came on friday and I think I'll be kep busy!

My lad got bitten once too at tots group, he drew blood too which I was shocked about but at least I was able to see what happened. The nursery should have informed you starightaway.

Wwel, gotta go, lots of planning to do!

A good point was made earlier on. When your child starts school quite often the only option is a childminder. If you have one from early on it might be easier.

A nursery is institution-based childcare and a childminder is home-based childcare. You pay, your choice.

There was a mention about experience of nursery staff. Although it will be a requirement to have one qualified person per room the others could be 18 year olds with no child experience either in employment or with their own.

I'm glad it's not my decision! Good luck

You have to go with your instincts, and trust them. See both nurseries and interview lots of cm. You'll know when you come across the the right choice!

All I'm saying is that you need to listen to all opinions but ultimately you'll know what's best for you and your DC.

Good luck.

Many thanks again for the latest replies.

dippymother - I'm so, so sorry to hear your story. I don't adequate words to convey enough condolences but I'm honoured you felt able to share your story.

We visited two more nurseries today. The first which has only 20 children, 6 in the baby room being minded by 2 seemingly very nice ladies. The other nursery had 118 children on their books and 9 in the baby room. The lady showing us around proudly told us that the ratio was as government requirements, 1 minder to 3 babies. I looked at her blankly and just wanted to leave immediately. Did she think we couldn't count??... Bonkers.

So the update on my story is that from the 5 that we've visited, I've chosen 3 to apply to register and we'll have to see which has availability nearer the time. Each registration application costs a non-refundable £50-£80 - it never stops does it?

I haven't given up on the idea of a childminder - I understand that I need to contact them about 3 or 4 months before I need DS to start, which isn't for a month or two yet.

Phew! It's all so exhausting isn't it? I just wish I didn't have to return to work at all!

Many thanks once again.

As a childminder and a mother I reccomend visiting both nurseries and childminders. I found some nurseries have high turnovers of staff can not always accommodate your child's routine and can hush problems up between staff. Thankfully not all.
A childminder is not just someone who takes in minded children childminding is very responsible and even more dedicated than nursery work. A childminder has to have equal standards to that of nurseries and is very often proactive in their training. Many are also members of a network which is regional and ensures childminders on networks work to higher standards and are regularly assessed planned or unplanned by a network co-ordinator. Many childminders take children along to various groups in the community and enable integration in these groups there are also many everyday activities in a childminders day which children become familiar with just like home e.g. waiting for a post man. Childminders particularly if on a network can cover for other childminders in emergencies or due to illness etc. Ultimately trust yourself and your child with where you feel happiest

Hi

We are looking for a childminder with a vacancy for our one year old son in the Stoke Newington/N16 area.

Can anyone recommend someone?

Thanks