thinking of starting childminding

[kelly565]

Hi I have never posted on here but I am after a little advice, I have been playing with the idea of becoming a childminder for sometime, i have recently gone back to work but it is financially not working in our favor and I am leaving at the end of July. so I am now looking more seriously into something i can do from home to save on my childcare but still earn a living.

I have three children two are at school. I am qualified to level three childcare and have experience working in settings and obviously from my own children. I have gone through how i could make it work but i am stumped by one thing my boys go to a school that is a 15/20 minute drive from my house so any children I am looking after would need to come with me on the pick up along with my youngest son who is 16 months to collect my older two but i am really unsure how to do this as if i have to many children i will not get everyone in the car to do the school run. Mornings are fine as my husband can take them but it is just me in the afternoon as he is obviously at work. So with my three children that only leaves room in my car for 1 other child which doesn't leave me many childminding options. The only idea i have come up with would be to look at getting a 7 seater car but that is something financially im not sure i would want to invest in until i knew it is something i could really make work.

Any advice on how you work things within your business or what you think/ideas will be greatly received.

thank you

[sarah707]

Childminded children fit in with your normal daily routines .... as long as parents are happy with them being in the car for that long then it shouldn't be a problem - you will be doing lots of things with them in between the car journeys!!

There is lots of advice about pre-registration in the pinned thread here - Starting Childminding and Pre-registration visits (http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/starting-childminding-pre-registration-visits/)

I hope that helps :D

[moggy]

Having only 1 spare seat in your car will limit you to one mindee at that time of day. But you might find families who want care for short days (pick-up before school run) possibly. It depends on your family situation, but there is also demand for childminding in evenings, overnight and weekends (particularly if there are shift workers locally like airport, hospital etc) so there could be options there which would avoid the school run, also school-holiday care could be an option. A 7-seater would make it all easier, and may be a secondhand one and trade in your 5-seater could be viable?

[Czegluk]

Has anyone got a start up loan here when started the childminding business?

[muffins]

I collect from one school and my children go to another so I'm not usually available to collect my own. If I have room in the car mine go to after school club for 10 mins and I collect them after the mindees but I usually don't have room! If my husbands home (works shifts) he gets them, if not a friend who I also mind for her pre schooler drops them home & I knock a bit off her bill, if she's working I get them a taxi which is the grandparent of an ex mindees so I trust him.
At all other times I'm here for them, I can take them to school everyday, be at most school events, run them to extra clubs & friends etc and be here for fun days in the holidays. Giving up collecting mine from school is a small price I've had to pay for working and earning a full time wage and still being here for everything else.

[Becky1803]

Hi, i have just joined and would like some advice if possible. Myself and a friend are thinking about becoming childminders working together either from one of our homes or renting a house or flat. Has anyone ever done this and if so how easy or difficult is it to get started? We would need to do the course and get set up etc as we are currently on maternity leave. Ideally we would want to be in a different setting to our homes, and we also have 4 kids between us already (under 5) so could only take on 2 more under 5 so would need to focus on over 5s perhaps?