Swindon Childminding - Bad experience

[BuggsieMoo]

There has been the comment about complaints being removed from view after 5 years and people saying that they must not have been upheld as they are not to view. The parent has said its been since 2007 - thats 5 years ago. If any of the complaints were before the date the parent enquired/signed contracts they may not have been readily available for her to check online.

However, if she has signed a contract that states the deposit is non-refundable then irrespective as to why she changed her mind, it is a legally binding contract and she may well spend more money trying to claim back something she has legally signed to say she would forsake should she not take up the place. I don't think morally I could keep £700 though - thats a large amount of money to me, and indeed to parents.

[Redstart2]

I didn't mean to cause an uproar. So will end the discussion. Just for information as a couple of people have raised a few questions I will try and answer them.

All five complaints mentioned were upheld and things were found that meant registration was not being adhered to. It was only after other parents telling us about these complaints we found out about them. When I spoke to Ofsted they acknowledged that all five complaints have been within five years and should have been on the website. They are now on the Ofsted site.

As I have said I have a lot of respect for childminders and personally find that childminder settings offer the best care and setting for children. I am thankful that we found out everthing before the contract started, but am also upset that despite asking questions about complaints and relationships with parents I have been misled to a great degree. If I had known the full circumstances I certainly would not have entered the contract.

The first months fee would have been about £450 so I feel that over £700 was excessive. The contract is one of NCMA standard contracts. I will highlight the issue as this is an area that we cannot agree on. The contract states that if on the specified date the childminder is not able to offer the place then the deposit is refundable. If the parents do not take up the place when it becomes available the deposit may be kept. The space was not available for another six weeks so the CM had six weeks in which to look for a replacement and had not lost out at all.

I will leave it at that. I had originally posted to find out others experiences but it has somewhat turned into something else. Again I thankyou all for your input and wish you all happiness and succes for the future.

[georgie456]

I'm going to disagree with the vast majority of posts on here, looking at it from a parents view point not a cm.
If I was going to leave my children in the care of a complete stranger and I found out there had been several complaints about her then no matter whether they were upheld or not and whether she seemed nice there's no way I would leave them with her.
Now I appreciate the mum paid £700 deposit and as non of these issues were disclosed she feels kind of mislead and wants her money back I would as well but if the contract said non refundable then on that issue I think it may be difficult.
I also appreciate that cm do get malicious complaints made against them which are completely untrue upset the said cm and I've read on hear about some of them and it's just awful but as I said as a mother I would be the same in all honesty and I think alot of cm on here who are parents deep down if they wern't in this profession would do the same.
As for £700 well as a cm I personally wouldn't keep it but that's just me, I wouldn't feel right keeping it, I don't ask for deposits or retainers so I would never be in that position anyway.

I agree with you 100%. You pretty much said everything I was going to say!

[georgie456]

As professional registered childminders, we know how we feel about contractual disputes but our comments are not going to help and I am wondering if we ought to step back from this conversation? The original poster has already stated that she holds childminders in general in very high regard and I would hate for anything we say to change her mind on that

Well said!

[Mummits]

The children have never been in the care of the childminder. This parent just wants her Deposit back.

I know that now, but cross=posted. Did you see how she answered my question before I posted it?

[Erika]

It's a contractual dispute. As others have said, Ofsted are regulators of care; they hold no authority in regard to contractual disputes.

A court will deal with your dispute (on the small claims track). What they will be interested in with a contractual dispute are three things only:

Was there a contract in effect?
Was there a breach of that contract?
Was any loss suffered as a result of that breach?

They will be completely uninterested in any matters arising from historical third party complaints about care (or lack thereof) as they are irrelevant to the issue before them. The issue before them is whether you are entitled to a return of the deposit and will be determined based upon what has been agreed between the parties (you and the childminder).

How successful a civil suit will be depends heavily on what is in your contract. A court will not over ride a contract term unless it is deemed unfair by virtue of the law (for example the unfair contract terms regulations 1995) or it is illegal (criminally). In other words, if it is in your contract that the deposit is non-refundable and you have signed in agreement to that, they will not over ride that unless you can prove that the term is unlawful. If, on the other hand it states nothing about the deposit being non refundable, then that is an issue that the court can rule on either way.

[sarah707]

Redstart2 has replied to all your posts - see post 22.

Sorry Redstart2 but due to the moderators being childminders we were not able to release your post until the end of ourworking day so there has been a delay in your reply showing.

Redstart2 has asked that the discussion is closed now please and thanked you all for your comments.

I hope the situation is resolved to everyone's satisfaction in due course.