Childminder with Special Needs Experience

[jubee]

Has anyone had trouble finding childcare in the school holidays for children with special needs. I work part time 2 days a week but I need to go to work full time, but i am having real trouble trying to find someone local(Colchester, Essex area) to look after George who is 10. He has severe developmental delay, communications problems etc. My friends and family will have him on the odd day here and there but find him difficult to cope with when he 'goes off on one'. He has been going to the local Kids Club a couple of days a week but they say he needs one to one support, so i have to apply to social services before each holiday and they are making it more and more difficult each time. This easter holiday they will only fund one session for a one to one. So i have had to take the second week off work as holiday.(I feel another thread coming on about social services!!) Im sure there are people out there somewhere. Or even thought about doing it myself, there must be a market out there if i cant find anyone!! Dunno how you go about setting up something like that??? Any ideas anyone???

I have same problem with ds whos3.9 has gdd,sli,hypermoblityand hypertonia and asd traits.hence not working

oddly enough have been thinking about registering as childminder to do just that. were in same area tojubee.Iknow of a few others in same situationthink maybe time tolook intoit more

I was in the same situation & there are no daycare nurseries around here either (rural suffolk).
I didn't find a c/minder with sn experience but I did find a wonderful new c/minder who cares & wanted to look after ds2 & learn more about sn, she is my hero, if I hadn't found her when I did I would of had to give up work & I'm sure i'd of lost my sanity too.
Good luck ladies

I have the same problem. In the past I found a CM who was perfect (ex paed nurse)but had to pay double as obviously she could not care for as many children when looking after ds (now 9- also with LD and ASD). Sadly for us she went back to nursing!
Mencap (in another town) run an afterschool club with pickup service from the local sn schools (sadly not in our area but ds may have to travel there for senior sn school) - so it may be worth checking what Mencap run local to you. The mencap club is run by a group of parents who got together to get funding etc.

Mencap in our area seems to deal soley with adults ((

Have you tried to get direct payments for someone to care for your DS Jubee? Although getting such things is very hard work.

As Magso says, it comes down to childminders not being able to care for as many children at the same time when dealing with special needs.

Personally I only ever care for one at a time which is the standard thing when working directly with families as a care worker instead of a childminder, even thhough I could cope with more depending on the individual needs of each child.

No help to you but I know a good one near Gatwick if anyone needs a recommendation.

I don't know how doable this place would be but I'm on a course here and I think they run holiday schemes. I've found this charity helpful Families in Focus and someone there may be able to point you in the right direction.

Good luck getting it sorted

Have you contacted specialist health vistor for help?
(I'm Colchester area too.)

Don't know if she could help - but worth a try?

thanks everyone for your thoughts. Glad Im not the only one. Problem is there is nothing I have found in the Colchester area. If you go towards Chelmsford, Braintree, Basildon etc there seems to be a lot going on for special needs, which is great if you live in that area. Problem is I live the other side of Colchester and all these places take ages to get to. Will have to get up about 4 in the morning to get to these places and then come all the way back to Colchester to work. What a bloody nightmare. Colchester needs to get it's finger out.!!! I have thought about the direct payments route, but still cant find anyone willing to look after George who is not going to let me down. Think I need to chat up some LSA's from Georges school to see if they want some extra cash. But i'm sure they want a break from the kids in the holidays!!!

I know of atleast 7 LSAs at our school that do work out of school which is also term-time, the hours at school are 28 a week so a bit short of full-time hours anyway. Ask them or put a note in home/school contact book and there will probably be someone looking for extra work.

lolbsac15

you dont mean Hazel Bore do you , in my books shes worse than hopeless she only comes to our reviews, spouts of what she thinks not that she seen my ds in the last months or ever returned calls

yep i second Colchester is lacking way behind ,for courses for anything

Ah!
I'm new to all this - so anyone we see is 'wonderful' until proven otherwise!

Good luck with your hunt.

I would like to say that Charlie has looked after my girls (dd1 is ASD), and they both loved her. She was prompt, reliable, and very capable.

She was dropped into the deep end a bit with us, as we were out all day (and then a train delay meant we were home later than we should have been too!),and dd1 was not very well.

But Charlie was brilliant, and the girls still mention her from time to time.

Hi Silverfrog! I hope you and the girlies are doing ok! I am still waiting to start my job in the NHS, as my second CRB check STILL hasn't come through!! It will be 3 months tomorrow that they recieved it, and THEN I can finally complain about the delay!

But do get in contact if you need me again, and hopefully I can take the girls to the park.. the foot of snow made it impossible last time!

Charlie xx