Childminding nightmare

[Belle2015]

HiI'm new here but iv read a few of the posts and everyone seems well informed .
Iam having child minder issues .
I study full time and my childminderfees are paid every term intomy bank account via student finance ,i have to find my own child minder in addition to having a youngchild i have caring responsibilities.
Lastyear i was moved to temporary accommodation with the adult i care for(relative) and my child and i had to find a new childminder, i found one off the internet,andit was mid term so it was near impossible to get a child minder inLondon, i had 2 previous childminderswhich where excellent and went beyond anything i could ask for sadly we moved out of borough etc.. so i had few option but tohurriedly find a new childminder.


icontacted this childminderInitially, upon meeting her she was friendly to me, showing me herFirst Aid Certificate and represented herself orally as followinggood practice guidelines, though I was not given any kind of writtencontract, an OFSTED certificate etc...., nor any code of conduct,policy or health care forms, nor any other paper document, nor toldverbally. Whichwas okay at the time bc 1. I needed a child minder in a harry and 2.she seemed very competent and 3. all child minders iv worked withbefore helped me a lot.


AsI am having particular needs and our circumstances were difficult, Idiscussed the service Ineeded and she was abelto provide.


Itold herthat the service would bee funded by the Student Finance, so I wouldhave been able to pay you only once the application was going to beapproved and the money issued, as my application was late: due topersonalcircumstances .


wewent through all the paperwork provided by the Student Financetogether, reading, filling and signing where necessary. At the time,shewashappy and personally involved: I read the forms back to her,to make sure everything was clear. After that, sheverbally informed me about hersickness policy and absences.




sherequested to meet my child and she did on one occasion , i was in adesperate rush to get back in school as id mixed the first term bythe time i found her and on the day she did see my child i informedher that i had sent the paperwork off for the finance.


Withmy personal situation complicating over time, I didn't have thechance to begin receiving herservices as basically I was having no financial coverage. Ikept her informedwere well aware of these circumstances andshe did not proved a day of childcare.
Istarted receiving calls from her,demanding immediate payment of money, even if we didn't startreceiving your service andstorys from her saying she had no electricity in her house and was inthe cold which was a cause for concern to me .Then shestated that herfather died, and sheneeded to go to Jamaica for his funeral so sheneeded an advanced payment because at that point I still had not beenprovided with any childcare.
Iwas a bit concerned butit was plausible and I was dealing with other stresses so therewas an agreement of a £100.00 cash payment made in advanced of anyservices rendered on 10^th November2014.
Therewas then another payment via Bank transfer on 19^th Jan2015 of £400.00 which I agreed to pay her,if you confirmed to start taking care and look after my child fromJanuary, with all the terms that had previously been agreed.andI was happy to pay the rest once child minding was in full effect.
Onthe day of the payment I called you to obtain herbanking details thistime bc some of my friends became suspicious and advised me to followthis practice,then I paid online and called heragain, in order to check the arrival of the money onto herbank account; shesaid shewould call me back the next day to confirm, but you never did, Inever had any communication from heragain.
Imade a total payment in sum of £500.00 in agreed payments and Ireceived no child care, nothingfrom her accept a heached.
Myfamily and I had assumed shewasin Jamaica for herfather's funeral, therefore I waited for approximately three moreweeks, before calling you back again to the mobile phone number I wasgiven. In the meantime I moved home in early January.
InFebruary my child was hospitalizedand after a few days, upon my return home, I tried to call herwithout success.
Shortlyafter that day, I was contacted by Student Finance with the letterstatingmy funding to study had been stopped for the time being .When I called them back to talk about the issue, I was informed thatshehad written to them saying that shehad never received any sum of money from me or knew me or my child.
Whenquestioned I simply re-iterated the events, I was asked to providethem with your contact details, which I did not have asher mobile number she gace me no longer worked in addition nocontract .Even the adviser was also concerned at that point.
Shetookno steps, at any time, that would be considered reasonable (togive notice) in informing me that shewould not take care of my child and refund all payments; instead shemade agreements for the provision of mychildscare from January 2015 going on, therefore I made no stableprovisions for mychildscare.
Asa result this uncertain situation complicated my life a lot, becauseI couldnot hleave home to go back to my University. On top of that, finding childminders isn't easy, during mid term.
Icalled you to the mobile phone number shegave me: in January 2015, February 2015 and finally March 2015 noneof my calls were ever picked up or returned.
On14^th MarchI decided to come to herhouse so that we could speak in person; I knocked on the door; Irealised that someone was inside the house, but the person didn'twant to open the door, so I have only managed to have a conversationthrough it, without being able to see who was talking to me.
Alady on the other side of the door declared to be your sister (it was her )andinformed me that shehad had a heart attack and indefinitely left for Jamaica where shedied leaving two young children you had full caring responsibilitiesfor.
Theperson told me that herheart attack had been caused by me failing to pay . I have repliedthat I had made the payment and there was an urgent issue to discussbut the only answer I received was: "I don't care" and abarrage of verbal abuses followed.
Itried to put aletter intohermailbox the Investigation Letter I received from Student Finance, butthe lady, who ever she was, on the other side kept the shutter firmlyclosed, so the paper couldn't go through; therefore, I left and wentback home.
Lateron, that same night, the childminder/ladythat was at herhouse, called me on the phone and started talking to me, with athreatening attitude, and harassing my family. Sothis ''lady'' had our contact details but was not the child minder.
The''lady then harass my family with verbally abusive and threateningphone calls, which I consider a bizarre behaviour.3 timesback to back calls,I deliberately did not answer after making it clear that with thatbarge of insults, I would no longer be communicating with her. Andfollow procedures.
Isent a letter in April of complaint with no replay , so I contactofsted only now and made a complaint and sent the same letter withregistered mail with the advice of CAB.
Inmy opinion sheacted extremely dishonestly, with impunity; Ifeel shehad no intent to provide care for my child, but simply gain financialbenefit which shedid, to my detriment. It affected my ability to carry on my studiesandmy uni e-mailed me saying I owe tuition as I was enrolled and studentfiancee did not pay.
Nowi am having to withdraw fromUni bci am just overwhelmed.

Anyadvice

[PAWS]

Re: Childminding nightmare

Hi Belle
Quite often the problem is lack of information but understandably you have given tons and as a result this seems a lot more complicated than it actually is.
I do not think you need me to tell you that you have been conned. Now I am not sure what your options are and perhaps someone will be able to help but to be honest it may not be easy to sort this one out.

[Belle2015]

Re: Childminding nightmare

Hi Belle
Quite often the problem is lack of information but understandably you have given tons and as a result this seems a lot more complicated than it actually is.
I do not think you need me to tell you that you have been conned. Now I am not sure what your options are and perhaps someone will be able to help but to be honest it may not be easy to sort this one out.

i was on another sight and i was info this ''Though I do think it's a mistake to try to get by without a proper contract. As the saying goes, "verbal contracts are rarely worth the paper they're written on."

As Winifred points out, LAs do not register CMs and have not done so for many years.

It would be incredibly easy for a scammer to pass themselves off as a registered CM, especially if she's not planning on actually having the child, but just demanding money then disappearing to Jamaica.

Any moderately-intelligent person with bad intentions could get on a website or an LA list with little more than an email address and an EY number. The latter could be harvested from the Ofsted website in seconds. (In fact plenty of people already do just that in order to commit tax credits frauds.) Even an Ofsted registration form could be forged: no trouble with a pc and bog-standard editing software.

Childcare websites and LA lists should and do carry the warning that the parent must take steps to verify the authenticity of any childcare provider they wish to use. Shocking, but in nearly 4 years of CMing, I have hardly ever had an enquirer who asked to so much as see my Ofsted reg certificate, let alone my CRB, first aid, insurance. These are all the reasons people give for using a registered provider, but very few appear to take active steps to check their credentials. That's a frightening number of people who would've happily left their children with me simply because I said I was a CM, but without ever checking for proof.

This should be a warning to parents. Make sure you see these things. Get references or a telephone contact for existing client parents. Better still, arrange to meet parents face-to-face at the setting, and make sure they're not just the CM's chums.

If this woman really is a CM then she was doing nothing to help herself set up a viable childcare arrangement with the client. Moreover, she was doing a lot of things that would ruin her reputation and ultimately destroy her own business and livelihood.

There is nothing here that suggests to me that she is a genuine registered CM. Everything points towards a rather unsophisticated, but nonetheless effective, scam. ''

I'm aware iv been scammed iv gone to ofsted re her behaviour and lack of good practice , and complained to LA who are investigating but what can i do now ?