I’m waiting for my arrest because I also had a regular free child care swap with a friend during our toddlers’ nursery school days.
Apparently, this kind of adult consensual arrangement is in breach of the Childcare Act because it lasted more than two hours and constitutes “a rewardâ€. Two stunned detective constables have been told they need to register as childminders and that they have been breaking the law as they should have had a criminal record check. Surely police officers have already had one!
Who would have thought that a reciprocated arrangement which enabled two bright women to carry on working around their families’ needs in a homely environment and didn’t cost them a penny during an economic downturn was illegal! It makes a mockery of common sense and the promotion of family and community values.
I doubt this is an isolated case. Like thousands, nay millions of other mums who have found themselves in this situation, I plead guilty too.
The pic shows one of the police officers, Detective Constable Leanne Shepherd with her child Edie who said: "I couldn’t have hoped for better. The children were so happy, work was really happy because we were able to give as much as we could but doing the same job."
Any working mum will tell you that such such sentiments are priceless and a terrific achievement and gives her much needed peace of mind.
This is a problem if you look after someone else’s child in your own home, but not in their own.
Simple solution: Mother A looks after mother B’s children in B’s own home, along with her own children. And vice-versa.
Seems to be in order as someone looking after your children in your own home doesn’t need to comply with this stupid law!
Brian, good idea, except mums at home tend to want to catch up with a pile of jobs while looking after the kids at the same time. I suppose going to B’s home would give mum A a chance to put her feet up!
Who is going to do the “criminal record check” ..the police!!! How ridiculous is this…! They should be looking out for the others, who cannot look after their own children properly…!! Politcal correctness gone mad…!
I will wait to be arrested too then Ellee..did it all the time..
Those jails will be full of people like you before long if that went ahead, Ellee.
The law is terrible these days. My Dad took some of my school friends home when there parents weren’t available. That wouldn’t be allowed now.
It makes the mind boggle. Safe journey home with a friends Dad or hanging around for the authorities to sort the situation out…
Gets to the point that the legal establishment is percieved to be so ridiculous that no-one takes much notice of it anymore.
Ofsted only operates in England, so this interpretation of the law on child care for “reward” applies to England rather than elsewhere in the UK.
We should all move to Scotland or maybe Wales..!! Why is it only England and not the whole of the UK..?
The point is that most abuse happens in the home by people trusted by a child rather than from strangers in the park or on the street. However, I’m not sure this list of registered carers will make any difference – how are the authorities to know whether Mrs Jones and Ms Smith look after each others children and are registered? And even if they are the danger is more likely to come from Ms Smith’s new boyfriend or Mr Jones, who will not be registered. Are we all to be registered? Or perhaps all children will be taken away from mothers at birth and put into state care, where abuse never happens. Does it??
Thanks to anne, I didn’t know this was an england only thing.
http://eve-past-eden.blogspot.com/2009/09/friends-love.html
I was choked when I read this, Ellee. Eve is a long time link of mine and the girlfriend of Beast of Clerkenwell. She lives far away and is a newly qualified doctor working in a hospital.
I think you’d like her very much and she’s worth visiting regularly. I hope your readers think so too.
A real gem.
Kevin, yes, it’s too ludicrous for words. And thanks for the link, I always appreciate knowing of a new blog recommendation. Eve sounds really interesting.
I agree with this content.
This is a sad, sad thing and it’s happening in America too. Just read about a Mother in the state of Michigan who was given orders by the state to stop babysitting her neighbor’s kids – she was watching them for a few hours until the schoolbus showed up.
The world’s gone crazy.
Another astounding turn in the bureaucratic nation that the UK seems to have become in the last few years. Don’t they even realize how absurd this is themselves? Shakes her head.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090929/ap_on_re_us/us_baby_sitter_backlash_mich