really cross at council

[JCrakers]

I have had no enquiries for new Mindees since Nov10.
I have just had an enquiry about after school care that I can't do so I told the lady on the phone of a couple of other mindees in the area and asked her where she got my number from.
She said she rang the local council at first for a list but they just gave her the local childminding groups number. So she rang the local school and found me.
The childminding group is a group that has been going for years and it has a vacancy list that quite a lot of childminders are on. 4yrs ago when I started minding I went along to their group but found it very hard to get into so stopped going after about 6months...everyone was pretty close and I found myself sat there.

I am now on this vacancy list but dont go along to the meetings..I am really cross that the council are only giving this number out...what about the childminders that arent part of it?

Theres no wonder ive had no enquiries for over 6m...Rant over :angry:

But in the back of my mind I'm wondering if the vacancies will go to the well established childminders first over myself :rolleyes:

[Mouse]

I would phone the council yourself & ask for details of childminders - see for yourself what info they are giving out. If they only give out the name of the group, ask if they can give you the names of individual minders. If not, ask why not. Ask what happens with the cms who aren't on the list. Then tell them who you are.

Years ago we had 2 groups in our area and there was a lot of tension between them. The "leader" of one group was the vacancy co-ordinator for the whole area and should have given out everyone's names, but in reality only gave out the names of cms in her group. The other group asked me to be a vacancy co-ordinator for them with the idea that the council gave out both of our names. Of course, I never got any calls, so phoned the council myself & asked for the numbers of the co-ordinators. They only gave me the other minder's details. I said, are you sure there isn't another one. I was sure I'd been told there were two. They were adamant there was only one. I said "oh, that's strange, I AM the other one and you are supposed to be giving out my number as well"...long silence on the phone, before she admitted that my number was on the list!! Needless to say, after a lot of complaining, my number was given out.

Find out all the facts for yourself, then confront them if you're not being treated fairly.

[kentcfis]

Could I ask which Council area?
feel free to pm...

[snufflepuff]

I'm pretty sure the same happens in my area too.
The childminding group keeps a list of vacancies. I don't go to the group (you have to be an NCMA member and i'm not, plus I don't work the day the group is on) so my name won't be on the list. I have only ever had enquiries because of my own advertising or word of mouth, never had any from parents who asked the council for a list. My guess is that the council only give out the number of the vancancy list holder from the childminding group....who doesn't have my details!