Training as a childminder

[Chanel05]

I have a young daughter and have been thinking about work that I can do which fits around her needs.

I am currently employed as a primary school teacher (have taught mainly early years) so have considered that childminding may be a good route to explore. A number of my colleagues were also childminders when their children were young.

Can anyone tell me what I'd need to explore and start up costs for this? Or share personal experiences. I feel that my teaching experience would give me a great advantage.

I'm a childminder. It's normally great but sucks during Covid so I'd say stay at your better paid job & send your child to a childminder.

If you're in England you need registered & inspected by Ofsted. I'm NI so it's slightly different. Teaching experience may give you a slight advantage but you'd need to carefully check the market demand in your area.

A friend of mine who was a primary teacher and didn’t want to go back to work did this. It lasted five minutes. Turned out she had no real interest in caring for other people’s children she just wanted to make some money while not leaving her own. You need to think carefully about whether your motivation to be a childminder is as a way of being at home with your own child, or because it’s a vocation to provide high quality care to other people’s children. If it’s the former then I can’t see it working out and it’s not fair on your clients. Personally I would never use a childminder who had their own child within their care at the same time. It smacks of someone doing the job for the wrong reasons and I wouldn’t trust that my child’s needs wouldn’t inevitably come second to their own child.

But if you do go ahead, on a practical level you need to get ofsted registered.

Do you have a partner? How are they looking at changing their career to work around the needs of your shared child?

I'm training to be a childminder. Go to your local council. Ours provides free courses and will reimburse start up costs up to a couple of hundred pounds for PVG, ofsted application and insurance.

Bit worrying that people wouldn't leave their children with a childminder who has their own children as that's what I plan to do. Primary school children though, after school and holidays when I have my own (self employed doing something more lucrative during the day).

There's a demand locally though as the childminder who used to do after school has gone on to do something else. Holiday clubs are few and far between etc. I do a lot with the kids though and I live rurally so we have loads of outdoor stuff on the doorstep.

I suspect I'll feel a bit cheeky getting paid for having the kids friends over but it's a really important service to offer. I had to turn down a job recently as no holiday/ wraparound care even when there isn't covid.

I have been back and forth on the idea for 3-4 years but I feel that now is as good a time as any.

@WhateverJudy my husband has a job, which for reasons that aren't important to this question, is fixed term for the next three years. He then receives quite a substantial redundancy and we have decided, together, he should remain in his role based on this. He is very supportive of my potential venture.

You're still throwing away a decent steady career for an unstable & untested job though.

If you really hate teaching then fine. Is your husband likely to get another role after 3 years?

Also I mind my own dc, although they are 7 & 11 now. I wouldn't have wanted to start childminding before my own were nursery age as that would have been harder. Good luck if you do go for it Op. but it is full on!

I was a childminder for about 3 years a few years algo for the same reason. I tried everything, from having only 1 child full time with my own - and they became very close friends- and that would help me with some income and I also tried having the full 4 children plus mine (sorry if the numbers are different now or wrong) plus after school
Club for 3 older than 7 ... and the last was a nightmare ! In the end I kept with 1 full timer and I loved it.
The great points were that I chose to have with me my own and another child almost same age full time, including half terms and I used to take them to each and every park and beach you can imagine. I love it.
The down side was that I had a very rude Ofsted inspector that put me off of it - I ended up giving up because of it after some time- I became sort of a hoarder because every milk lid, or piece or rag, or empty jar was kept for a project with the children and third, my living room looked like a proper nursery, I had so many toys, so many trash that I decided to never do this again.
I couldn’t wait to get rid of it when I stopped and I was happy when I did.
If you have the space and the idea of what you want to do, is worth a try. But I would never, ever give up my job to do it.
Is lonely ! And sucks ..

Sorry for this x
Good luck

Really interested in this thread! I’m exploring job options for a return to work in about a years time. I’m just closing down my company which is a career I have done for years working as an early intervention consultant for children with autism. Lots of teaching experience also. I love kids and would like to find out more about this as a potential Avenue to explore. Ideally I would just take on one child full time so that we could do lots of lovely activities in the day, would that be financially viable or worthwhile? I have no clue what the going rate for a childminder is (I’m in South Wales). I would also need to consider being able to do the school run so just having one child on the books would allow me to do this if the parents were happy with this as I can imagine it would not be worth while financially or for the pick up to be before then. Thanks x

Childminding has its pros and cons like all
Jobs.

In terms of registering you need to speak with your council to see what you need to do to begin as I believe different local authorities require different things. It's great you have been an EY teacher as you know already how to prove stuff to ofsted as well as having a great understanding on how to create the best environment for the children in your care. You will need paediatric first aid and safeguarding and a crb. Ofsted need to do a pre reg visit to check you and the premises are suitable.

It's then things like ICO, public liability insurance etc that you'll need before you start properly. All which you can get guidance through your local LA. You will also need to look into the kind of paperwork you will need. Contracts, child record forms, illness and absence forms, existing injury forms etc and medicine forms as well as getting policies and procedures in order.

The day to day job can be exhausting. It's full on. A lot of us do 10 hour days as we need to be ready for parents before and after work or school. It's been so tough with no where to take the children lately and be isolated at home, however after tonight's announcement it looks like it's possible playgroups may be opening back up soon!

It's does cause a lot of extra stress on the house, you're forever tidying organising or sorting. You constantly feel like you're on show. My older child or partner can't come down in pants for example. You're always very aware that your house needs to be ship shape and if anything my children come last to minded children always. I think a PP
Mentioned childminders having their own children around. This is why I make sure the minded children come first. I would hate for the parents to think their kids are just convenient for me. I had one of my children whilst childminding and took 5 weeks off for a c-section, but still my little boy has got the patience of a saint! Haha.

The positives are that you can create that wonderful environment you want for your own child, for other people's children. Your children will get to make loads of friends and probably enjoy company of others. This isn't always the case though... be professional and you will hopefully be treated professionally. We do the exact same as a primary school nursery, yet we never seem to get the recognition unfortunately and it can be lonely at times. Some parents don't always feel the need to pay you on time either and you will be sent sick children (but then you've worked in a school
So you know that). Also if you take on funded children, be mindful that they pay less than not childminders going rates in a lot of places I'm aware of. Oh also I have had one emergency day off in 9 years! That was for a hospital visit. You won't feel guilt like it! I cannot let myself get sick. It will Impact too many families! And also families come and go so income can vary.

Wow I really waffled on there!! Basically it can be brilliant and fantastic! Just not an easy job like some might think.

Also forgot to mention the house gets completely taken over. My youngest is 5. I still have cots downstairs, two high chairs, bouncers and a million car seats and buggies!

I did wraparound care, which I think is probably the closest to primary teaching. Ratios are higher so you can earn a higher hourly rate (albeit for filling your house with kids) and you can have peaceful days while the kids are in school. I loved it, it was the right thing for that stage of my life (my younger child’s last four years of primary school). I even ended up looking after some of the kids’ friends, which is like getting paid for play dates. Paid for feeding the kids breakfast, paid for walking them to and from school, paid for cooking dinner. It was brilliant. The kids I looked after were (mostly) lovely. I really enjoyed it.