No More Babysitters? – Another Poorly Prepared Law

Two female police officers who previously had an arrangement whereby each would babysit for the other when they were working has been stopped by Ofsted under the Childcare Act 2006.

Officers representing Ofsted knocked at the door of one of the women and informed her that they had become aware she might be running an illegal childcare service. She, as any normal person would, thought that this was clearly a misunderstanding and invited the officers in to explain. Even after fully explaining the situation she was told that to continue their arrangement they would both need to become registered childminders and pass all appropriate tests or face prosecution.

To become a registered childminder is not a simple process of simply checking you are a decent person. There are all sorts of rules and regulations to follow and I know personally one lady who gave up because she got fed up with being required to follow what seems like silly rules such as having enough black as well as white dolls and having to follow irritatingly complicated procedures with the ever present fear of an ofsted inspection at any time. I guess if you are running a childminding  nursery looking after dozens of children it all makes sense but for one or two children it seems excessive.

The problem for the two police officers was that the exchange of service for each other has been considered to be a ‘reward’ by the Ofsted officers which is a reasonable thing to decide since there clearly is a reward in that they each help out the other.

The law was clearly never intended to stop people babyminding for close friends under such an arrangement and Vernon Coaker the Minister for Children, Schools and Families is speaking to Ofsted about the interpretation of the word ‘reward’. It is hard to see how they could interpret it any other way than that which they have done and all they are doing is enforcing the law as it stands.

This would seem to be another example of a law rushed through parliament with the best of intentions but without the appropriate time spent on it to ensure it does what it is supposed to do. In this case that was to protect children and parents from dodgy childminders but it was surely never intended to stop the practice of babyminding for friends now and again to earn a few pounds or in an exchange of service by friends.

It is a worrying thought that there may be dozens more laws that have been rushed through parliament in recent years that are full of careless errors such as this and that ordinary decent and honest people may well suffer for the lack of care taken.

Apparently this does not apply to anyone looking after the children in their parents home so employing a schoolgirl or friend to regularly babysit to allow the parents to have a break and earn a few pounds is not affected by this law.