It can be extremely daunting for a parent to visit a potential child minder, for their child for the first time. It may be helpful to have a few questions to ask the child minder written down beforehand.

Usually a parent makes first contact with a child minder over the phone when checking on availability. My advice to parents is to visit several child minders, as although they all follow strict rules and regulations set by ofsted, they are individuals and it is important to find one that you feel confident with.

7 Questions To Ask A Potential Child Minder

How many other children and what are their ages will be present when my child is here?

Do you have extra children during the school holidays and if so how will that impact my child?

Do you take the children out and will that cost extra on top of my regular child minding fees?

How do you manage children’s behaviour? (child minders should have a behaviour management policy to show parents along with other policies)

Where will my child sleep if he needs a nap?

Do you include lunch/snacks/ drinks or do I need to send them?

If a parent is claiming the government funding for nursery education this would also need to be discussed.

A well organised child minder will be able to answer all of your questions she ( I refer to child minders as she because the majority of them are female, there are however several good male child minders) should have her registration certificate on display. I kept a port folio containing all my qualification certificates and policies which I would give to parents to look through while I was making a cuppa. I would also offer to let them take it home to read in more detail if they wished.

Before parents left I would tell them that if they thought of any questions when they got home to ring me later.

Go with your gut instinct when choosing a child minder, a child minder should do a written contract with parents that both parties should agree and sign. My earlier post on looking for childcare offers more advice on this subject.

As always questions/comments are welcome and share this on social media if you think others would benefit from reading this.

Until next time.

Karen

x