Awful experience in the short 4 months we have used this service for my 2 year old.
On meeting with this childminder it was clear she only cared about the money, she blackmailed me into taking a space because I was desperate by saying I could only have it if I paid over the summer holidays when it had been advertised as term time. She said if I wasn’t able to pay she would offer it to another parent. I am a primary school teacher and we had been without childcare for 4 months.

When my daughter started numerous red flags appeared. No communication. We would go days without any updates about my daughter. She told me the printer was broken, I suggested a text. She also refused to take her to toddler groups or socialise with other children, even when provided with a list of free ones in the area. She does not plan any learning activities for the children or plan for their needs. I could not tell you in the 4 months what my child had learnt or was working on or any targets. The pictures depicted her playing with baby toys far too young for her age and stage. My daughter was there from 7.30-5.30 and only had 2 nappy changes also in that time. When we asked could she have a nap at her normal time instead of sleeping until 4pm we were met with an attitude. Infact any concern was met with an attitude. My daughter was with another toddler and two babies which I feel is a lot for one person.

My daughter has a visual impairment and an allergy and I have never seen any paperwork supporting. When I asked for this I was given a piece of paper to sign saying I saw it in April when i hadn’t. I asked for an e copy and she said she count accomodate that - because of the way I could track the documents date of creation as she hadn’t done it. Meaning my daughters needs had been neglected. When I said do you not see how serious this is my daughter has a visual impairment she rolled her eyes. I had never seen any paperwork or planning or progress for my daughter in 4 months. She held the pieces of paper infront of me and refused to hand them over until I’d signed the paper.

She complained every pick up about my daughter (she’s 2). Wrote unpleasant messages about her and notes on her communication sheet (when we got one). On more than one occasion she left at 8.05 am (my daughter starts at 8) to pick up other children , leaving me without childcare for 45 minutes-1hr. Not to mention those poor children who were driven around for the first hour of their days. I work an hour away from my house and when my daughter was unwell I was ridiculed for not coming “ASAP” when I was there as soon as I could be on more than one occasion.

The worst was when we reduced our days from 2 to 4. This was originally agreed to and then made up a lie saying she was stopping childminding as she was going back to uni. When confronted she admitted it was because of the drop in money. She then tried to say it was because of our lateness (we had a drop off period between 7.30-8 which we paid an extra £10 a day for) which she had never flagged with us as an issue. Echoing our concerns about communication and trying to cover up for mistakes. This to me shows a major lack of care for my child or their relationship as she only wanted her if we were paying more money. In must also add on her last day she didn’t even get a goodbye or good luck or anything. She didn’t even care that she was visibly upset.

She also wanted payments made into a personal bank account and made us feel AWFUL for using tax free childcare, like second class citizens but is advertising it here as if it is okay.

We also noticed a racial element of discrimination against my daughter which I will not go into here for her dignity.

She does not care about your children, she does not have the patience for them or care about their development or wellbeing. She only cares about the money. I have reported her to numerous agencies and hopefully she is reviewed as a child care provider with the scma. I must also add that due to a data breach the care inspectorate phoned her instead of me to discuss my complaint and when asked was she my name she said yes. They were concerned perhaps this had been for malicious reasons to obtain information.

Definitely not the home from home service/extension of a family a childminder should be. The way myself and my daughters dad have also been spoken to infront of my daughter and the way she’s been spoken about infront of her to us is nothing next to unprofessional.

There are amazing other childminders in the area!! Please avoid!! I wish I had gone with my gut instinct on the first meeting.

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• Cleanliness
• Communication