Welcome to your Childminding journey
You will already know that being a childminder is more than just a job; it is a truly satisfying and rewarding career. Working with children to help nurture them to achieve their potential is a vitally important role in our society.
The Care Inspectorate values childminders very highly and we want to make sure that you feel well supported as you settle into your new career. We have developed this introductory programme as a practical way of helping you to get started.
We have created this booklet to give you hints, tips and suggestions to enable you to feel confident that you are on the right path.
Getting to know the Care Inspectorate and other legislation
Now that you have successfully completed the registration process, there are some tasks you should complete before you get started.
Open an account on the Care Inspectorate portal and download your certificate of registration – you must make this available to parents and carers. You will need to have a portal account to be able to make changes to your registration. Guidance on how to register with the portal is available here.
You need to inform HMRC the day you start your business either by telephone or on the website. You can do this by visiting the HMRC website here.
Getting to know the Care Inspectorate and other legislation
There is lots of help and support available to you.
You can find out who your new inspector is by logging into the Care Inspectorate eForms system. The eForms system can be used to tell us about things like accidents and incidents, changes to your household and infectious conditions. Guidance on how to do this is here.
Maybe you could drop your inspector an email to say hello. Remember, it’s ok to get in touch with them for advice about your registration.
Getting to know the Care Inspectorate and
other legislation
Do you intend to provide meals and snacks? If you do, then you will need to be aware of the requirements set out by Food Standards Scotland and your local authority’s environmental health. Guidance is available
Information for the public, the care sector and care professionals is available on our website and we would encourage everyone to check there in the first instance.
If you need to talk to someone you can contact us on 0345 600 9527 Monday to Friday, between 09:00 - 16:00. You can email us too, at enquiries@careinspectorate.gov.scot
Support and advice on running a childminding business is available from other organisations. Support includes public liability insurance, sample documents like contracts, personal plans and training. If you haven’t already joined one, you might want to think about doing that.
Running a professional service
It’s important to keep your paperwork in order and up to date. It’s best to find a system that works for you rather than putting it all away for later. It’s a good idea to set aside a little time each week for record-keeping.
There are lots of apps available for phones which may help you keep a track of the business side of childminding.
You should already have your public liability insurance in place, please also remember to contact your car insurance provider if you plan to use your vehicle for your childminding business.
Running a professional service
Contracts are a very helpful way of setting out expectations. They help you clearly set out what you will provide and what you expect in return.
Copies of these should be available in the child’s file and they should be reviewed regularly with families.
You will have a variety of confidential documents. Have you considered where you will store these securely and how you will dispose of them safely when they are no longer needed. You will need to register with the Information Commissioner and the website will provide you with information about how long you should keep documents for.
Promoting your business and getting support
Whether or not you already have families who want you to care for their children, it is a good idea to think about how you will share information about your business with families and the wider community.
Using a social media site is a cheap way of advertising and sharing information. Remember not to share personal information or photographs without consent. You should also remember that closed groups do not always ensure privacy so think about how you can communicate privately with parents.
Cyber-security is really important. The Care Inspectorate sends out regular communications through our provider update emails – these come from the following email address - ci@public.govdelivery.com. Email communications from an individual at the Care Inspectorate will use the following format - firstname.surname@careinspectorate.gov.scot
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Promoting your business and getting support
Each local authority has a list of childcare providers in the area. You can contact them to find out how to get your business included on the Family Information Service list.
Other organisations like SCMA also provide information about local childminders. In some areas, established childminders run “Find a childminder” pages on a social media site or keep a vacancies list which you can make use of. It may also be worth letting your health visitor know that you have started to childmind.
Many childminders value the support they get from childminder colleagues. Many areas have local networking groups or attend local community groups. SCMA and other early years organisations, like Early Years Scotland will be able to help you find out about these. Established childminders may offer you mentoring or buddy support when you get in touch with these groups.
Working with children
Childminders tell us that the best part of being a childminder is the relationships they have built with the children and their families. They enjoy having the flexibility to respond to children in a way that ensures they feel valued, loved and secure in their care. We think that all children should be nurtured and supported so that they reach their full potential and should be at the heart of what we do.
Personal plans are a way of ensuring that children’s needs will be planned for and considered by all adults caring for them. They are a way of sharing information both with parents and with other settings which children attend. All children must have a written personal plan which sets out how you will meet their health, welfare and safety needs. These must be in place within 28 days from when the child first started using your service.
Guidance about personal planning is available here.
Childminders are in a unique position to support children’s development and learning. Having a good understanding of how children develop will help you to plan a variety of experiences, which will meet their individual needs. There are lots of places online which will help you with ideas and guidance, including:
• The Care Inspectorate Hub
• SSSC Learning Zone •
Education Scotland
National Improvement Hub
Working with children
Families choose childminders because they want their child to benefit from the security of being in a small, loving and safe home from home environment. It is important that you have systems in place to ensure that children in your care are safe.
SCMA provide a number of learning opportunities to help you do this. More information can be found by visiting their website. These are some of the training topics which you could start to look out for and SCMA will be able to help you with these:
• Child Protection – your local authority will also be able to help you with this.
• First Aid
Remember that you must tell the Care Inspectorate about any accidents and incidents, allegations of abuse and outbreaks of infectious disease. There are other notifications which you should be aware of, but these are likely to be the most common. You make these notifications on e-forms. The portal is for changes to your registration, e.g. change of name.
You will be asked to complete an annual return each year. This gives the Care Inspectorate information about what is happening in all services each year to help us plan, inform and carry out our inspections and improvement work. Annual returns are completed in January and February each year.
Working with families
Developing a warm and friendly partnership with families is an essential part of childminding.
Good communication which keeps parents up to date with what you have planned and what you have done helps build a trusting partnership.
Have you thought about different ways of sharing information with parents? As well as daily chats when children arrive and leave your home, there are a variety of different ways of doing this. Many childminders use apps and social media to keep parents included and involved with what they’re doing. Not all childminders are comfortable with digital and social media and prefer face to face as well as paper.
Working with families
Parents need to be confident that you know how to keep their child safe and if you haven’t done this, it is a good idea to share some of your policies and procedures with them. Parents should know what to expect from your service before they sign a contract.
For example:
• Child protection – families need to know that you have a duty of care and will seek professional help and advice if you have any concerns.
• Emergency procedures – parents should know what will happen if there is an emergency and what will happen to their child, for example if you have to take a family member to hospital. Many childminders have a childminder buddy who knows the children and who will be able to look after them in an emergency.
Working with families
Childminders often say that children behave differently when their parents are there. Understanding how transitions affect children will help you with understanding this and how children may be feeling when they come to your home. Talking to other childminders may help with this as will SCMA training.
There is useful information available online and in books. This is a helpful film about transitions.
Working with families
The Promise aspiration is that Scotland's children will grow up loved, safe and respected. As a childminder you are a key person who can keep this Promise for the children in your care.
Keeping the Promise means that babies, children, young people and their families receive the help they need, when they need it, to ensure that they can all stay together. For children who can’t live with their parents and live with another family member, in a foster or adoptive family or other care setting, the Promise is about ensuring they have high quality compassionate care and support and feel that their rights are respected and realised. How aware of The Promise are you and have you thought about how you can help to keep it? You can find out more about The Promise here.
Focus on the Future
Childminders are a unique type of care service.
Most childminders work by themselves and so it is important to have systems in place which help you to develop confidence in your own practice.
We have developed A quality framework for daycare of children, childmin ding and school-aged childcare as a tool for evaluating the quality of a service. Inspectors also use this when carrying out inspections of childminding settings.
Guidance on how to use self-evaluation and improvement is available on the Care Inspectorate’s Hub.
Focus on the future
Getting feedback from children and parents is also a valuable source of information on how well you are doing. Have you thought about how you can gather their opinions and views?
Reflecting on what you are doing is a good way of identifying what is working well and what could be done differently. Many childminders find keeping a diary to record their thinking is a helpful way of doing this. It’s important that you ask yourself “so what?” when reflecting on what you’re doing as this is a way of helping you to identify any improvements or training which you would like to find out more about.
Have you considered whether or not you would like to offer the funded 1140 hours? Guidance and advice on this are available here.
Focus on the future
Childminders work from their own homes, and it is easy to let work take over, especially when paperwork and cleaning are done after the children go home. Now is a good time to think about what you do to make sure that you are looking after yourself and that you have a good work/life balance.
Many childminders find having a buddy childminder really supportive and have developed friendships with other childminders in their area. If you haven’t already then, it’s a good idea to get in touch with your local group.
A day in the life
….
This is the story of how children enjoy their time with one childminder.
Every day is an adventure, every day is different.
This morning we took Pip the dog for a walk around the village, the cats joined us which the children thought was fantastic. Lots of people said good morning to us. We took it in turns to throw the ball down the hill for Pip to chase.
The children decided they would like to make playdoh. But I had none of the ingredients, so we popped to the supermarket with our picture shopping list and took it in turns to find and get the items. We also bought the things for pizza.
When we got back, we had time for some painting outside, each child chose a colour and they enjoyed painting the mud kitchen, trees and the slide. It was very exciting seeing how the rain and then the muddy puddle water changed the paint.
The children chopped vegetables, grated cheese and spread sauce to made pizzas and salad for lunch. Followed by washing up and wiping tables.
In the afternoon, we mixed together the playdoh and while we were waiting for it to cool down, we went out to the garden where an impressive “car race” was made using the drainpipes, bed slats and cat food boxes.
When the playdoh was cool the children enjoyed squashing in pasta, buttons and beads, it was served as cakes, cup of teas and oranges.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
