Accountability for childminders

[ByAzureBird]

Hello all,

I am reaching out to all the mamas out there who’s been let down by nurseries/childminders.

My current childminder (Montessori) has informed me that my son (3 next month) has lost his place at their setting. He’s been attending there since he was 1 1/2. His last day being after Easter. My daughter ( 10month at present) who is also due to attend their setting this September 2025 has also lost her place. The reason being was that they need to accommodate other children. They presumed I would want them to be together. They never discussed whether we would be happy to change the days my son and daughter attends together. No discussion or whatsoever.

Although no deposit was taken for my daughter it was clear on our what’s app messages that she has a place but not until September 2025. This was settled back in June.
Had they told me back then they can’t take her or no space for her then I would have secured a place at a nursery nearby as they had one. I now lost this!

Now I’m back to square one looking for nurseries for them and I’m supposed to be back at work in May which I delayed until September as there were no space for her until then (so they told me).

We live in Bristol and space for nurseries are super tight. This has caused us so much stress and it’s not the first time they’ve done this to us. The first one was they told us that our son might have dyspraxia (April 2024, and I was less than a week postpartum), in which they’re retracted after consulting our health visitor and other special needs discipline. We let that one go. And now this.

I did speak to one of them and expressed how it was unfair and unjustified that we were not consulted and there was no discussion. I stated that since I’m still on maternity leave I’m happy for my son to change his days of attendance if it means he can stay there longer. They agreed for him to stay until September. But my daughter’s place is uncertain.

I feel like I owe it to other parents and does not want anyone to go through what they put us through. There must some form of accountability to their actions and I fear that if nothing is done, they will continue to do so to other parents.

Could somebody please point me in the right direction. I would very much appreciate it.

Of course there isn't. It's annoying it's happened but the contract you signed will be clear that both you and them can terminate the contract with X amount of notice. I presume 30 days.

If nurseries are struggling they'll aim for as many full time kids as possible to guarantee funding/cash rather than accept a child for 3 days a week and struggle to fill the other 2.

I suspect this may be due to the drop in funded rate when your son turns 3 & the new rules about what childcare is able to charge. The funded rate is completely unsustainable, most settings make a loss & they are probably going to fill spaces with as many younger children as possible. Unfortunately it's likely this will become more common in England.

On the comment about the mention of dyspraxia - I would say it's much better for early years staff to be proactive about flagging any possible concerns they have about development (as long as they are referring elsewhere rather than attempting to make any sort of diagnosis themselves). A proportion of children whose parents/preschools are worried about x won't actually have it because neither parents nor staff are qualified to make a diagnosis. That doesn't mean the childcare setting was wrong to raise their concerns. So I wonder whether there was a bit more to that situation? Sometimes as parents we feel upset if we feel someone is suggesting there's something 'wrong' with our child and sometimes that can lead to a breakdown in trust between childcare setting and parents despite good intentions. But it's hard to tell what happened here in relation to that.

Are you suggesting that the notice periods in contracts should only apply one way? Because I'm sure if you needed to give notice for whatever reason, you wouldn't give them childminder a second thought!

Of course she can give notice, I don't even understand why you think they shouldn't? Without discussion with you? Why??

Hi,

We commend them for spotting something in our child, definitely! I totally agree with you. No parent would want to hear this however, there is a way of executing it! And the fact that she said he might have dyspraxia without consulting the specialist. Her own diagnosis!

However, the way they handled the situation was appalling. They didn’t ask to speak to us in private or by phone or email. Instead they, made a sweeping comment while we were picking our child up. Obviously this got us worried.

What kind of ‘accountability’ are you expecting? I’m a childminder and sometimes things change. I may agree to take a child on but something may happen in my life which means I can no longer fulfil the requirements of that particular child. It’s not happened yet but who knows what will happen in the future. What would you expect to happen to me in that situation? There may also come a time that I have to pick and choose contracts for business reasons, likely due to the funding issues. I may have to choose children who will maximise my earning. Sounds terribly heartless but there may come a time when I just don’t have a choice.

the nursery may have found that they need to maximise earnings because of the poor funding payments. Perhaps they’ve gone down on staff numbers. You could ask them for more details but I’m not sure what you would think would happen by holding them ‘accountable’ 🤷🏼‍♀️

They gave you loads of notice and then agreed to change the day to give you even more notice.

What if your circumstances changed and you needed to change childcare? How much notice do you think you should give?

Of course they are within their rights to withdraw the place and vice versa within the given period. However, having children and going to back to work needs at least a year planning. Especially if you live where we live where there is a very long waiting lists to get in nurseries. Had we live in the countryside for example like Wiltshire we would have no issues.

We believed them and relied on their word that there is space for our second child and siblings are prioritised. We get it with my son- he’s very active and physical and he does need to go to bigger settings. But with our second child just seems unjustified.

We are now looking to loss of income in our household and missing out on the free hours the government offers. Additionally, the NHS would also lose a staff. But, equally looking after my children would be a joy as I will never get that time back. This is a blessing in disguise should we not find a place.

Had it been the other way round, it’s very much likely that we would have given a more than required notice to ease the waiting lists in our area. Because that’s the kind of people we are.We know how hard it is to find a place.

More importantly, had they come to us to discuss that our children are at risk of losing their place to try and accommodate others. My husband and myself would have sat down and work at what we got instead of losing their space altogether. We understand they have a business to run and it is their livelihood. This did not occur and hence we are miffed.

Thank you for your input. Much appreciated.

Hi

Thank you for your input coming from a childminder yourself. I appreciate it. I have a lot of respect for you.

Perhaps, I misjudged the use of the word accountability. The reason they gave me is that there are days they would only have 2 children and some days more. This totally understandable from an income perspective. Had they given us the day that maximises their income to take on more children, then obviously we would have agreed to it. We just wished they communicated to us. They just presumed.

She's given you 6 months notice. You're being very very unreasonable!

Expecting a 12 month notice period is completely unreasonable. 6 months is more than enough!