I saw a question on Facebook this week were a registered child minder was asking how caring for ‘a looked after child’ worked.

When I was working as a child minder I went on a training day that qualified me to work with Social services and other agencies.

There was a designated social worker ( whom I got to know quite well over the years) who would match children needing looking after with suitable child minders.

Most of the work that I was given was to provide parents with respite.

My first child was a delightful little girl who had some complex medical issues that were thoroughly explained to me and I was given a letter of consent by her mother for any medical treatment that maybe needed while she was with me ( thankfully this was never used).

I also had three children from the same family who I was told came with some behaviour issues, although they never misbehaved for me. behaviour management here

A friend of mine was called up for jury service and was informed that they would cover the cost of a registered child minder for her, She requested that I took care of her son and she was kind enough to offer pay me because she was concerned that it may take several months for my fee to come through ( in fact it took about 3 weeks, which was fine.

I once had a call asking me to collect a boy from the local primary school because nobody had come for him at the end of the school day and the head teacher had phoned social services for assistance.

On one occasion I recieved a call from the police station asking me to take care of an infant who had been with his mother when she had been arrested for a petty crime ( she couldn’t be interviwed with a minor in her care).

The baby was brought to me by his mum and a W.P.C.

I ended up having the baby until quite late into the evening and as I wasn’t registered for over night care he eventually went to a foster carer until be was able to be reunited with his mother.

Ifound working with other agencies very rewarding.

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I also was asked to care for a baby who belonged to a girl who was in care: As this was on a bank holiday it was agreed that I should be paid double time ( which is what I charged for working a bank holiday more here

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The contracts that I used for my business were in triplicate meaning a copy for me to keep, one for the parents and the third for any 3rd party (obviously I didn’t write a contract if the arrangement was just a ‘one-off’ but some of the respite was for several weeks or months at a time).

I received payment when I sent a weekly invoice to the agency I was working with; I did discover, however, that Social services wouldn’t pay if a child didn’t attend though due to sickness or being on holiday.

The social worker asked me and the other qualified minders if we were prepared to have children over Christmas if the need arose. I always said that I would, but this never actually happened.

I would like to make it clear that none of the children in the photos used in this post were known to Social services¬

As always questions and comments are welcome.

Until next time.

Karen

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