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spottywellies
10-10-2010, 01:13 PM
Looking for a bit of help/advice really, I have been working alongside a well established registered childminder in carmarthenshire for the past 9 months. We recently had our inspection and everything went well apart from me not being a registered childminder. I have to become registered in order to be left alone with the children while my boss is on the school run (literally about 20 minutes throughout the whole day!). Now, what I want to know is about the 21 policies/procedures/statements, obviously we already have our own policies etc in place but i have to re-write them all again in order to submit my application to become a registered childminder in my own right.

Has anybody done this before? or is it just a case of re-writing my own? We are registered for 12 children at the moment, obviously they dont allow numbers like this anymore so I will have to put that i am registered for 3 children, so it wont all be true facts & figures throughout my paperwork. I have spoken to the local CSSIW office about it but they dont seem to be able to help a lot, just recommended that I attend a mentoring session, which I will do but its not until the middle of November, also its on the first day of the ICP course (that day will be a very long one i should imagine!!).

I also havent heard anything from the NCMA about the ICP course that im signed up on, its not until november but im getting slightly worried about the fact that i dont even know where it is being held :eek: Are they usually this laid back about letting people know?!

Sorry about the long winded first post and a big thankyou in advance for any help/advice :)

Pipsqueak
10-10-2010, 05:04 PM
hi and welcome to the forum.

i don;t have any experience in this area, but hopefully this will bump for you:thumbsup:

tulip0803
10-10-2010, 08:32 PM
Hello and welcome:clapping:

I am also in Carmarthenshire. I think that you will both have to rewrite your policies in light of 2 childminders working together. And you will both need to write exactly what you will do individually. I think you would need to do this together using the current policies as a basis.

I am also not sure about Carmarthenshire Council as you will have to fill in a form about how you will work for the planning department and they are very hot on only allowing 6 children to be cared for from one address at any one time at the minute. Not sure how long the childminder that you have been working for has been registered but at one point they counted all the family members as well in the 6:eek:. If you do not follow this you could be in breach of planning regulations and the other childminder may have to apply for planning permission .

In your application you will need to write exactly how you will do everything, including working with another childminder, it DOES need to be true facts and figures throughout. If you register for 3 children that will be the amount that you can care for when the other childminder is on a school run any more than this and you will be over your numbers and in breach of registration.

Speak to the NCMA development worker at Carmarthenshire Family Information Service about the ICP course. Normally you do the mentoring sessions at the end of the ICP course.

Registration with CSSIW can be very long mine took 11 months with Carmarthenshire and I had been a childminder in England and had ICP etc.

spottywellies
10-10-2010, 09:01 PM
Thanks tulip. The childminder i work with has been up & running for 19 years. Everybody I have spoken to upto now has said that I should just write my own policies & procedures as if i were setting up on my own, which i will double check on. Also, there possibly will be times where I will be left with more than 3 children which will be a no-no so the numbers will be affected greatly, possibly half the children on the books will have to be told that they need to find somewhere else (childminders are very rare in this part of Carmarthenshire,lol) I have a feeling it could all end up getting messy as I have to put in all the effort to get nothing back in return, i would be more than willing to do it all if I wanted to start up on my own but Im working my butt off for minimum wage and can see myself having to leave the job because nobody knows what we're meant to be doing :( This is obviously worst case scenario and I dont want it to happen!!

Im attending the carmarthenshire mentoring session but im attending an ICP course in Ceredigion, thats why the dates clash & I'll end up doing the mentoring before finishing the ICP course.

I have a feeling if we go ahead with it, its going to be a very long & drawn out process :rolleyes:

tulip0803
11-10-2010, 12:48 AM
If you stop being an assistant and become a registered childminder the 3 children that you have will pay you - as you are not being employed you become responsible for your tax/expences etc and the fees are yours as you are not being paid a wage you are self-employed. There are some co-minders around the UK so it might be worth specifically asking a new question about minders working together.

I tried to register 6 years ago when Carmarthenshire Council had the silly 6 people rule - as a family of 5 I could care for one child:rolleyes: . They changed that a few years ago but they still limited it to 6 + my own children, that's ok as I have to drive to the school and can only have bums on seats numbers IYSWIM.

I take it you are not far from Ceredigion borders then - me too. I am with a group in ceredigion so can access both training. There is a development worker at ceredigion FIS too. so give them a ring. She is really good and on the ball. I will PM you the numbers of them both.

spottywellies
11-10-2010, 07:15 AM
yes, we're right on the border, most of our children live in ceredigion, which is why i got on to the ICP course there :) The plan up until now is that I would carry on as normal, being employed by my boss, I hadnt even thought about the becoming self employed thing, thanks for bringing it up :idea:

This brings up more problems,lol, i only work there 3 days a week so the 3 children that would be 'mine' so to speak are also there on days that im not, they all chop & change during the week to suit Meithrin days/parents' days off.

I think today will be spent on the phone trying to get it sorted, as far as I can see, my boss would be better off looking for somebody to get registered & work there full time.

Sorry for all the moaning, it must look like im afraid of the hard work involved, Im actually looking forward to the challenge but just don't want to go down all the wrong routes and have to do it all again :o

manjay
11-10-2010, 10:46 AM
Bit of a strange situation really. My dh registered and completed his application form after me. We work in the same setting and so obviously all our policies are going to read exactly the same. Our inspector advised him to write exactly that on his application form. Surely you can't have two minders with different policies working from the same setting! Sorry not much help:rolleyes:

spottywellies
11-10-2010, 07:36 PM
Bit of a strange situation really. My dh registered and completed his application form after me. We work in the same setting and so obviously all our policies are going to read exactly the same. Our inspector advised him to write exactly that on his application form. Surely you can't have two minders with different policies working from the same setting! Sorry not much help:rolleyes:

Thats what we thought, there's somebody coming out tomorrow that can (hopefully) tell us a definite answer. We shall see, most of the policies could probably do with an update anyway :rolleyes: There are a few childminders in this area that are doing the same thing and are in the same situation so its nice to know its not just me:laughing: