Petition to No.10 regarding Childcare arrangements!

bumpoowee

Can't speak for anyone else but I was merely referring to the situation reported where two mums have come to a mutual childcare agreement with each other and the authorities are wetting themselves in a frenzy about how it is illegal.

Anyone who runs a childcare facility as a business should of course be registered.

JimmyTheWig

So where do you draw the line?
If in this scenario one of the mums stopped working (so didn't need the other mum to look after her child) and charged the other mum to look after the other mum's child - would that need registering in your opinion?
What about if she then started looking after another friends child for money at the same time?

Or is it the changing hands of money that makes it a business? What if we didn't pay our childminder but bought her weekly shopping every week. Would she need registering in your opinion?

I agree on the face of it that this situation is crazy, but can't think of any rule that would make it work. I think these two women are unfortunate in that they fall foul of the rules and will need to get themselves registered. Whenever there are rules there are always going to be times when the rules are unfair.

Susan_Frost

Stastistics show that more children are abused by family members, than strangers, so it does all seem a farce. Hey, lets give them to the highest risk people, but the safer ones should register.

I could go along with anyone not a close family member having to have a police check certificate - I had one for my job and it was around £30. Dont know the going rate. But to have everything Ofsted inspected, etc. etc. to look after a friend's child, for whatever reason, is crazy.

My friend had my little boy for me for five days cos I had to go on a course, staying over. How would I have managed without her? Well, yes, single mum wont get the training, etc. etc. It was not a reciprocal arrangement, as she was married and did not work during the day. The boys were like brothers, always in each others houses chose who was home.

The fact it was not a reciprocal arrangement does not make the slightest difference to the risk of child abuse, which I am presuming is what this is all about. So reciprocal or not, surely parents should have some right of choice and judgement. No-one vets whether people are fit to be parents before they give birth.

JimmyTheWig

Susan_Frost wrote: »

My friend had my little boy for me for five days cos I had to go on a course
...
The fact it was not a reciprocal arrangement does not make the slightest difference to the risk of child abuse, which I am presuming is what this is all about.

There's more to child abuse than being a kiddie-fiddler. Neglect, for example, is a form of child abuse.
An earlier poster brought up a childminder who sat their charges in front on the TV all day strapped in pushchairs. I would say that this is at least bordering on abuse. There is an incentive for the paid childminder to do it (they can have more children, and so more money, by doing this than by looking after them properly). And I bet that this is much, much more common than physical / sexual abuse against children.
Now this is what I think registration should be checking against. The fact that in the above example the childminder _was_ registered shows that the system isn't perfect and needs tweaking, but I suspect that there would be more like this childminder if no registration was involved.
Yes a friend or family member could do the same if looking after your child for no reward. But why would they? There's no incentive, so nothing to really check against.

stormbreaker

Thank you to all who signed the petition. I have received an e-mail with a response as below

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20902


Hopefully common sense will preveil in the future!

stormbreaker

Edinburghlass wrote: »

A good result....:T

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8277378.stm

Just re visited this thread with the update e-mail and noticed this!

Thanks!!!!