heating urgent please

[mushpea]

HI our boiler has just packed in the engineer cant come out untill the morning and tommoro is my busiest day with 3 under 5s and 4 over, am i still ok to have children with no heating? do i need to inform parents then give them the choice of sending them or not? and if they choose not to send their children can i still charge or not because its my thing due to the heating?
was thinking of texting them 'please send in warm cloths tommoro as heating broke , man comming to look at in morning" would this be ok or do i need to ask if they want to still send the kids or not?

[Blaze]

IMHO you should offer parents the choice given the circumstances & extreme weather...& if they choose not to send their LO then no charge - that's what I would do HTH

[Pipsqueak]

doesn't there need to be a certain minimum temperature? I think the EYFS just says about maintaining a constant adequate temperature. someone will be along soon who knows more about this stuff! sorry to be no help

[Blaze]

doesn't there need to be a certain minimum temperature? I think the EYFS just says about maintaining a constant adequate temperature. someone will be along soon who knows more about this stuff! sorry to be no help

LOL - I was just looking as that's what I thought - can't find it though!

SARAH>>>>

[mama2three]

agree with Blaze - its really cold and I think you need to give parents the choice of whether to send their children in. I know it may mean quite a drop in income though.

[tulip0803]

Do you have a plug in radiator type heater or could borrow one? I have one as an emergency & was told that it was fine particularly if behind the fire guard. I gave parents the option - they still sent but I did have heat in the room.

[jelly15]

I would borrow a heater and put it behind a guard, if you can't then I would give the parents the choice and if they didn't come no charge (but don't tell them no charge unless they choose to stay home).

[mushpea]

No havent got them radiators but am going to look in argos and c what they have, trouble is we are broke after christmas as everyone probably is and loosing a days money isnt going to help when we need to pay for the boiler to be fixed although obviously i dont want cold fed up kids here and would do the best for them.

[sarah707]

The Eyfs says -

Rooms should be maintained at a temperature which ensures the comfort of the children and staff, including non-mobile children.

The Eyfs does not give a set temperature but the accepted for comfort especially (as the Eyfs says) considering non-mobile children, is around 18 - 20c.

If it drops below this, then parents should be contacted to collect.

I would say give the paernts the option but explain you will monitor the temperature and if it drops they must be available to collect.

Do you have an electric fire you could use / borrow and stick to one room until the boiler man gives his 'I need parts see you Friday' verdict?

You might warn parents that there are no guarantees he'll be fixing it tomorrow as well

Poor you! Stay warm. hth

[margimum]

If it's likely to be fixed in the morning I would probably open. Can you get one room warm? even the kitchen if neccesary. Kids don't feel the cold if they're wrapped up and dancing around!!
Hope it's fixed asap.
margi x

[sweets]

it depends how old the children are. if they are babies then i think i would say i couldnt have them but 2,3 and 4 year olds could wear lots of layers to keep warm. I would ring the parents and ask them to wrap them warmly, you never know one of them may have a heater you could borrow.

[mama2three]

can you go out - softplay / toddlers? or do you need to be in to observe the boilermans sharp intakes of breath and shaking of the head?

[Ripeberry]

Camp out at the library or even just visit a shopping center for the afternoon, just to keep warm.

[FizzysFriends]

I would ask neighbours and local friends to borrow a heater or 2 and if not then go to soft play or something or to a friend childminder locally?

[Tink]

Poor you, no heating in this weather. Hope it can be fixed, you'll have to do some dancing keep yourself warm xxx

[Chimps Childminding]

I would ring parents, tell them the problem and give them the option. As has been said, there is no guarantee he will be able to fix it tomorrow and although he is supposed to be in the morning the way the weather etc is he might not even get to you until lunch time!!!! Good luck!

[PixiePetal]

I had no heating today - well after 10.30am. Power cut so our heating went off too.

Stayed in the warm - heating had been on till then. Was supposed to be on again by 2pm so thought we would manage, then elec people said 6pm Phoned mum to fill her in and she said she would come a bit earlier.

Mindee went home early at 4.30 when mum could get him. I didn't want him here when it got colder and dark, but as he was moving about he did not get cold in that time, if he had been younger I would have asked for sooner.

[jaja]

do you have a condensar boiler? look outside at the pipe and is it frozen?

We had the same problem about two weeks ago and the pipe was frozen and the boiler had a cut of saftey meter and it switched its self off....

Hope you are ok and somewhere warm, sending hugs xx

[tashaleee]

I think you have to be honest with the parents and tell them the situation and then allow them to make the choice if they want to bring their child - if they choose not to then unfortunately I dont see how you could charge as you are not able to provide your 'normal service'.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Don't you have another childminder you can call on to help or even invade?

Surely you would lose more money than it would cost to buy a heater from Argos, especially if you need parts and it goes beyond tomorrow?