Hazel Sy

More Than Just a Childminder

We feel incredibly lucky to have found Hazel. Our little boy has been with her since he was just a couple of months old, and we honestly couldn’t have asked for anyone better.

The care, compassion and love Hazel gives the children is something to behold. He absolutely loves going and genuinely sees Hazel’s as a second home. As a parent, the communication from Hazel is also fantastic, which gives us such peace of mind knowing he is happy, safe and well cared for.

The biggest compliment I could give is that Hazel treats the little ones as if they were her own. We would recommend her to anyone looking for a caring, trustworthy and loving childminder. We really couldn’t be happier.

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by Robert on 15/09/2026

Nearly four years of exceptional care from Hazel

My son has been with Hazel since he was just 9 months old and will be four in January. Choosing Hazel as his childminder is, without question, one of the best decisions I have made as a parent.

After years of my child actually being in Hazel’s care, I can say with complete confidence that her character, professionalism and commitment to the children should never be in question. She genuinely puts the children first. The care my son receives goes far beyond simply providing childcare — his emotional and physical safety, happiness and wellbeing are at the heart of everything she does.

One of the greatest things Hazel has given my son is emotional security. At three years old, he has learned to recognise and express his feelings and, with her support, is developing the ability to emotionally regulate even when he is experiencing difficult emotions or going through challenging moments. Most importantly, he feels safe enough in Hazel’s presence to have those feelings. He knows he can be upset, overwhelmed, frustrated or vulnerable and still be met with patience, reassurance and understanding. As his parent, seeing that level of trust and emotional safety between them means more to me than I can adequately put into words.

My son also has a severe dairy allergy, which requires an additional level of care and vigilance from anyone responsible for him. Hazel goes above and beyond to provide for him safely, making sure he is included while taking his allergy seriously at all times. Leaving a child with a severe allergy in someone else’s care requires enormous trust, and I have that trust in Hazel completely. She doesn’t just protect his physical safety; she makes sure he never feels different or excluded because of it.

That combination of physical safety and emotional security is exactly what I want from the person caring for my child. He is known, loved, supported and encouraged as an individual, and he has absolutely flourished in her care.

Our relationship with Hazel will not simply end when my son starts primary school. Because of the genuine care she has shown him throughout such a formative part of his life, we have actively chosen to maintain that relationship beyond his time in her setting. She has become an important and trusted person in his life and in ours.

We use government-funded childcare with Hazel and have never had an issue. She does accept funding and will continue to do so. In our experience, she makes the process as straightforward as possible for parents and goes out of her way to help wherever she can.

Something I also consider an enormous benefit of a small childminding setting is the care Hazel takes over the environment she creates. The children form a small, close-knit group within her home, and she understands how important the dynamics of that group are to each child’s sense of security and wellbeing.

I am incredibly grateful that Hazel considers the needs of the individual child alongside those of the children already in her care. A small home-based setting is very different from a large nursery, and maintaining a happy, secure and compatible group is part of what makes her setting so special. I value knowing that decisions about the setting are made with the wellbeing of the children at their centre.

Hazel doesn’t view children as spaces to be filled. She considers the individual child, the existing group and the safe, nurturing environment she has created for them. As the parent of a child who spends his days there, that gives me enormous confidence.

My opinion comes from years of first-hand experience — from handing my baby over to Hazel at just 9 months old to now having a three-year-old who is happy, secure and thriving in her care. I have seen how she handles his severe allergy, protects his physical safety, nurtures his emotional wellbeing and supports his development. I have watched my little boy develop the confidence to understand and express his emotions while knowing that Hazel remains a safe person for him even during his most difficult moments.

I would encourage any parent considering Hazel to listen to the genuine experiences of parents whose children have actually been in her care, particularly those who have known her and her setting over a period of years. Look at the children who are thriving there and consider the professional evidence alongside those experiences. Her continued Outstanding Ofsted judgement reflects a quality of care and early-years provision that has been independently assessed.

For those of us who actually hand our children over to Hazel and trust her with their physical safety, emotional wellbeing and development day after day, her character is not something we have to speculate about. We experience it.

After almost four years of trusting Hazel with the person most precious to me, I could not recommend her more highly. She is an exceptional childminder, an incredibly caring person and someone I feel genuinely fortunate to have had such an important role in my son’s early years.

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by Emily on 14/09/2026

Awful experience - let down 1 week prior to start

I am writing this as the father of a child, who had an extremely disappointing experience with Hazel.

We agreed approx 9 months ago for our son to use Hazel's childcare services on the explicit basis of using government funding. Everything started off well, however, as the time to start approached we witnessed a total lack of professionalism, misleading practices and outright breaches of our contract.

We repeatedly tried to arrange settling in sessions, but found her very evasive and unable to ever confirm dates with us. 1 week prior to starting she announced she would not be willing to apply for government funding and said she would only take us with private funding (despite our entire agreement not being on this basis, funding codes being provided months ago etc.). She also said she couldn't guarantee any start dates or even the future dates we could attend given some family issues she was experiencing.

The unwillingness to utilise government funding contradicts with DfE and local council guidelines, violates our contract signed 9 months ago, and conflicts with what is even written on her profile as of today. Her inability to schedule the settling in sessions and transition to the start of our care also shows a deep disregard for our child's well-being and fact that it would leave us without any care options just as my wife is finishing maternity leave.

More strangely, as all of this occurred, she still continued on with her existing client base and held the sessions with them. For example, on the date she cancelled one of our settling sessions because of her family circumstances, she still had the other children attend as usual.

Hazel unfortunately had an unwell family member and was upset about her teenage daughter not getting into her sixth form school of choice. Whilst we have sympathy for these unexpected issues and were willing to be flexible, these to do not justify her response or the difficult position she left us in. Every conversation we had with her following her news centred around herself, how she felt, how she needed flexibility, how she couldn't manage the stress of applying for government funding etc. During our various messages and telephone calls following all of this, Hazel never once apologised, acknowledged the stress/anxiety she created for my wife/child, or even had any sympathy for leaving us stranded without childcare at such short notice (especially as it's difficult to arrange alternatives!).

In genuine reflection, I must wonder that if such events could upset her so much and think only of herself, whether she therefore remained fit to act as a childminder for very young, vulnerable and impressionable babies/children.

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by Darius on 13/09/2026