As the majority of child minders work alone, it is sensible to have a back up plan in place in case of an emergency: What would happen to the children if the child minder suddenly became ill in the middle of the day and was no longer able to take care of them?
When I was working as a registered child minder, my husband was also self employed as a painter and decorator so he would be my first point of call should the need arise. And because the children knew him they wouldn’t worry too much about him caring for them.
My second back up ( in case I couldn’t contact my husband) was another child minder who lived 5 minutes away: We often went out together with the children so my minded children knew her and her’s knew me
I kept a notebook with the children’s parents contact numbers in, which both emergency contacts knew where I kept it and so did the children ( it was in my kitchen dresser next to my first aid box).
The plan in place was that if either adult needed to take over looking after the children they would phone the children’s parents and let them know the situation.
Thankfully I never needed to use my emergency back up plan and neither did my child minder friend.
My Ofsted inspector was impressed when I told her about my emergency back up plan: So if you are a child minder and haven’t thought about what would happen in an emergency, I suggest you do!
As always questions and comments are welcome.
Until next time.
Karen
x
Linked with
Hi I had a similar arrangement with my next door neighbour, who was also a childminder. She has now retired but would still be the first person to seek help from. All the children know her and so do the parents.
That sounds great,Vanessa, thanks for taking the time to leave your comment
One of the many things that would maybe never cross the mind of the rest of us. Pretty important for us all to have a back up plan for our kids in these times #anythinggoes
Absolutely, Jeremy, thanks for sharing your thoughts
I think all of the local childminders seem to have a pal that they do the school runs with so I imagine they would support each other in an emergency too. Thanks for linking up with the #DreamTeam linky
Absolutely, Laura,
What a great idea Karen! It must have been so reassuring for the parents of the children in your care, knowing that you had a backup plan in place. Such good practice. Thank you for joining us for the #dreamteam x
I have tp admit, Annette, that it wasn’t actually my idea to have a backup plan. it was a requirement from the network that I was a part of