Due to severe lack of available babysitters, I am rarely able to to out in the evenings and at times this gets me down. So today I have been investigating babysitting services after several were brought to my attention.
However, I have come up against a problem. My concern is that, in the services I have looked at, half of the professional babysitters are not CRB checked. The reason for this, apparently, is that the remaining half have worked in families' homes as nannies and so do not require to be CRB checked. Yet this comes on the day when The Times reported that:
"flaws in Ofsted's new childcare register mean that nannies with no qualifications, no experience and no knowledge of first aid are being issues with certificates approving them for work."
Registration is not compulsory but those registered will be CRB checked when they first apply, which has to offer some assurance to families looking for childcare, but there will be nannies not on the register and so not checked, and others who possibly should not be on it given their lack of experience.
So it's like negotiating a minefield trying to arrange any sort of childcare that does not involve family members and close friends.
I know I have left IJ in the care of family members who have had no first-aid training, and friends who are in exactly the same position, but I trust them to use their common sense, and I've known them long enough to know they do not have a criminal record nor would they have any intentions of ever harming a child.
However, if I were to invite a professional babysitter into my home, a stranger that I have never met before, in fact, I would want more reassurance than to know they have references from the babysitting service that matches them to suitable homes. I would want to know they have been CRB checked, have basic first aid training and the necessary experience to be caring for a child alone. And I think I'd want to see the evidence, which is probably simply not practical.
Maybe I am just not trusting enough, or maybe I am expecting too much, but when it comes to the safety and protection of your child, we can't afford to get it wrong.