What's it about?

As a childminder you must provide a professional approach to your business: meet legal requirements, provide quality care and comply with the National Care Standards. Operating as a small business brings with it legal responsibilities too.

"The Business Side of Childminding has reinforced to me the importance of being professional in all I do as a childminder - not only does it allow my business to run smoothly, but it also gives parents confidence in the service I provide and the standards give me something to measure myself against in order to provide high quality care."

This course aims to give childminders the support needed to:

• adopt a professional approach to providing a childminding service
• meet the legal responsibilities associated with running a small business
• comply with the National Care Standards.

During this course you will learn how to:

1. Plan and evaluate the aims and objectives of your childminding service in line with legal requirements.
2. Describe how you market your childminding services.
3. Demonstrate how your work with families to assess their childcare needs.
4. Explain how you would establish formal contracts with parents / carers.
5. Describe how you would collect and record necessary information from the parents / carers regarding their child.
6. Demonstrate how you would inform parents of the need to share information with otheres where appropriate.
7. Detail your financial management system.
8. Describe how you would gather feedback from service users and use this information to develop and improve your practice.
9. Evidence your understanding on the importance of effective communication with parents / carers and other professionals.
10. Describe three barriers to effective communications.

Course outcomes

When you have completed this course, you will have core knowledge and understanding of:

1. Legislation and regulatory requirements affecting administration of the small-scale childcare setting.
2. Marketing techniques for processing and communicating information.