Child minding

longwalks1

a friend of mine wants to get into child minding, and wonders what the options are available to her? Shes a mother of 2, 4 year old and 5 year old and isnt sure about home study courses, full time college or working with day releaser. Ideally, she wants to (when fully qualified) look after a few kids at home during the week

Any pointers in the right direction greatly recieved

Many thanks in advance

feelinggood_2

She may not be able to look after many children:

"Registered childminders can look after up to a maximum of six children under eight years old, this is including their own children. Of these six, no more than three children may be under five years old, and of these three, normally no more than one child can be under one year."

See:
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Staff+to+child+ratios+in+childcare+settings?opendocument#Child

Lots of great information here:
http://www.ncma.org.uk/MainWebSite/ContentPage9df2c089.aspx?Map=6981637B0A68EE10C9C3856E314DD9D0

inmypocketnottheirs

Feelinggood is correct, but there is some quirkiness as to how the age thing is worked, the four year could well be counted as a five y.o for example. Plus she would be free to mind upto the allocated number when her own children are at school.

My wife childminds, and has done for almost 8 years. It is hard work, but financially it's worth while if you can have the numbers. We have an 8 and 10 y.o who obviously are at school during the day. Today my wife has a baby of 1 y.o from 10 til 3, and two 4 y.o (they are cousins to each other but not related to us) for the same hours. These three alone bring in around £900 per month.

So it can be very worth while.

If you proceed down this avenue, a key thing is to have proper insurance (Early Years will advise), a good contract (join the National Child Minding Assoc) and get payments up front!

Good luck!!

lindab15

The local authority / Children's Services usually run 'Introduction to Childminding' courses periodically. This gives loads of information including what training is needed / available and what grants (if any - varies on area) are available.

If your friend rings her local Family Information Service or goes through www.childcarelink.gov.uk they should be able to advise when / where etc.

Some areas have loads of childminders and more would struggle for the business, some areas really need more; the course should give that sort of advice, too.

Good luck

Bitsy_Beans

I am registered CM. Have been so since March and am still waiting for some work I would suggest she checks demand before handing in notice at any job etc otherwise she could be hanging around waiting like me!!!
If the 4 year old is born during the summer months is is going to reception aged 4 (so would be one of the youngest in the year) for ratio purposes they would be classed as a rising 5 so your friend could probably have 2 children under the age of 5 and one child over the age of 5. However this is also dependant on space in your home so those numbers are not guaranteed. She should contact the local council as they regularly run introduction meetings so you can go along, meet childrens info services team and they can give you insight into becoming a CM.
HTH