Childminder leaving children unattended

[Ambn1]

Today while I was leaving a baby group I was getting my daughter into her pushchair in a corridor area with open public access. A childminder who had been attending the group with 4 children, aged 2 and under, left 2 of the children unattended in this corridor area while taking two others into a toilet. I waited until she was back until I left as I felt it wasn’t safe leaving the children unattended but she didn’t ask me to keep an eye on them.

I felt she should have wheeled the pushchair into the large toilet area so the children were within her sight while she helped the other two go to the toilet and think it was dangerous to leave children unattended in a public space where anyone could have walked in.

I know the chances that anything could have happened are low but I think as a childcare provider it was irresponsible. Am I being a precious first time parent or would it concern you if that was your child?

Is a registered Childminder even allowed to mind 4 children in that age group at the same time by herself?.
A few years ago I worked for a registered Childminder & the maximum amount of children aged 5 and under was 13 and that was with the registered minder, myself & 2 other assistants.
No, she definitely should not have left 2 of the children unsupervised. Breach of her registration?.

A Childminder can only have three children aged 0-4. They are only allowed to break this in an emergency or an exceptional circumstance. So I would call OFSTED to report her for breaking ratio rules and for leaving children unattended. I would report her. I say this as an ex-childminder myself.

I did think it was a lot of children for her to look after, but I read that if you can justify it then you can take on more children than the usual ratio. However, if she can’t safely take the children to the toilet, I would say it wasn’t safe. I don’t know who she is so don’t know how I couple report it?

I would go back to the playgroup next week and try to find out her name. Ask around if she isn’t there. You don’t need to say that you need her name to report her to Ofsted 😂 but could say you are looking for childcare and noticed a childminder there last week.

Or you could look up the childminders in your area https://www.gov.uk/find-registered-childminder and see if they have Facebook pages to identify the lady.

How do you know she was a childminder? Could they have been all her own children? (Still not good practice, of course).

She is definitely a childminder, I spoke to her briefly earlier in the session.

@madameparis thats a good idea!

The children need to be in sight or hearing at all times whilst in a childminder's care.

You usually know who the childminders are at playgroups.

Do they have a signing in book? We had to sign in write the children's name's and pay subs.