There are so many on the government website would love to know how others have got on...have a recommendation

Hi there

There don't seem to be very many childminders in Herne Hill. The Childminder support worker at my local children's centre recommended only looking at childminders with an Ofsted rating of 'good' and above (if you look on They mainly seem to have ratings of 'satisfactory'...same with local nurseries). If you look on http://childcarefinder.direct.gov.uk/childcar ... inder
(probably where you've been looking already), click on a name and then click on the 'other details' tab it will tell you what the date of the last Ofsted report is and what rating they achieved.

We haven't been able to find a childminder but then we have left it pretty late (I'm going back to work in May) and are now looking at nursery options.

Sorry - just realised that this is more of a whinge than anything else!

Good luck with your search.

I'm also looking for a childminder in the area for 2 or 3 days a week starting asap. Does anyone have any recommendations? Any help much appreciated!

Hi Borka

You're right - there doesn't seem to be many of us childminders around the Herne Hill or immediate areas. Many are giving up because of the amount of paperwork, EYFS, observations, risk assessments, daily diaries etc. we have to keep. By the way some childminders choose not to have their info on the direct.gov.uk site for one reason or another - I'm not because I was always getting lots of phone calls and felt terrible turning people away.

That's not very good advice from a worker at a Children's Centre - they know how hard we work and vice versa - some childminders have got 'satisfactory' merely down to not having some of the right paperwork Ofsted want to see, but there's lots of us with 'good' and also 'outstanding'. You have to feel comfortable and get a vibe from the childminder yourself sometimes to see if they're ok for you - and also what they're offering.