My husband and I used Claire’s childminding services to look after our 3 year old. With him starting school next September, we were especially pleased to have found Claire who has teaching qualifications and experience with young children. Claire is passionate about her work and offers a good range of activities for the children which includes trips to the farm, soft play, picnics in the local park etc.

Although passionate about her work, we found using Claire’s services challenging which caused anxiety and uncertainty. We terminated our contract with Claire with immediate effect after one month due to the never ending policies that we were forced to sign and general passive aggression which came in the form of newsletters, text messages and emails some of which included rules such as - Children must have their personal toys removed before ringing the bell, not to bump cars on the curb outside her house (public road), no child with any form of injury will be allowed inside the house before filling out an online form (which must be done in advance of turning up), no parents allowed to step foot in the house; the list goes on.

Our biggest problem came when we were forced to sign a policy (one week after our settling in cancellation agreement came to an end) where Claire insisted on collection of our child within 30 minutes of displaying any form of COVID symptom. Claire has advised that any child with a cough (even if a negative
PCR test has been obtained) will not be welcome at the setting; failure to pick them up outside of this timeframe will result in a written warning! For us, this was the last straw. Having attending multiple child settings previously, this was the most absurd and unrealistic demand we've had.

Whilst I understand that Claire aims is to provide a safe setting for the children and herself, her strict rules surrounding (pretty much) everything is tiring, exhausting and a big cause of uncertainty for working parents -especially going into the winter months. Claire will maintain that she is only following government guidelines whilst constantly ignoring common sense and reason behind the advice.

I believe Claire is a good person who wishes to run an efficient childminding business. Unfortunately, despite these qualities Claire struggles to shake off the strict school teacher mentality which is directed at both the children and parents alike.

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