What to ask/look for in a Family Day Carer?

[chrysalis]

Hi all
I am heading back to work soon for a couple of days a week and am looking at all options childcare wise.
A vacancy has come up with a local Family Day Carer who I will be meeting with later in the week.
On one hand I don't want to cross examine the poor woman within an inch of her life but I do want to make sure I satisfy myself about the type of care Zac will be receiving from her.
One of my main issues is who else will be in the home with her when she is caring for the children? Is this a reasonable question to ask? How can you check this/enforce this?
What questions did you ask your prospective Family Day Carers?
What did you look for?
Did you visit a number of times to see your carer in action?
Thanks in advance!
Cheerio
Belinda.

[mollycat]

Carers and anyone over the age of 16 who reside at the carers house, have to have Working with Children check (NSW) in other states there is a similar system.

Quite honestly - you can ask who else could be in the house whilst the children are in care, buy considering this house belongs to a family you can't enforce who comes or doesn't come to visit. I have been a carer for about 12 years, and have very few visitors during day care hours, even my parents won't visit, as they feel I can't spend enough time with them (which is true). I occaisionally have visits from other carers and their children which I feel is important to help children adjust to larger numbers

Visitors who you would expect would be - persons from their scheme office, which should happen once every three to four weeks, other agencies involved in family day care, such as Quality Assurance, etc.

Family Day Care is now such a regulated system, it's no longer thought of as an alternative to granny's or babysitting, but a recognised day care provider. There are regulations that all carers must abide by, and schemes and/or individual carers have policies in place that they must abide by.

I would be asking what ages will be with your little one,
what excursions do you take them on and if going on excursions are they travelling by car, and how are they restrained.
what you need to provide for your child,
payment options,
ask to see a child's (in care) portfolio - this will give you an idea of what activities the carer and children get up to. My children's portfolios include artwork, photos (doing artwork or playing) explainations of development and how that child is going, recipes that the children love to make, songs to sing, growth charts (one at the beginning and end of each year).

Some parents do visit a few times with their child as part of a settling period. Others just leave child on first day (phone to check in). I've also had others who don't bring their child until the day they start, so the child has no idea of what they will be doing.

[MamaPan]

Hi there
I posted a similar question a while back when I was interviewing FD carers... I will see if I can find the post.
Anyway IMO ask as many q's as you can - they understand, you are leaving your baby there!! I think it is more about how you ask the questions.
I would def ask about who is in the home, ask who lives there and who regularly visits. I think some FDC agencies ask carers to keep a log book.
I also asked questions like:
do you like to take kids on excursions? what sorts of things do you do? (ie do they drive/walk and to check that they are things Noah would like)
which other kids they have when your baby will be there - ages etc
how long these kids have been coming
how routined they are - ie do they have planned activities or go with the flow
ask to see where the babies sleep
how do they put babies to sleep
how do they feed babies
where do they chg nappies
does anyone in the house smoke
in what instances do they call to ask input e.g. before giving panadol
why they do FDC
then see how their views and attitudes and philosophies line up with yours.

i only visited my carer once buti took her refs home with me for DH to read and then dropped them back one evening - this also meant i met her hubby too which is good as he spends time at home with N is there.
I met 4 carers before I found the one i was looking for... i think it is good ot ask lots of questions and see how you gel with them and how aligned you are in your ways of doing things.

good luck - i hope it works out for you - I find FDC a great option!

[danniellabella]

I'm glad I found this thread coz I'm about to go down the FDC path.

[AnyDream]

I've found that most good carers will volunteer this information about themselves and really don't mind how many questions you ask!

[danniellabella]

I've just made a list of questions, most of them are the ones that pregpan mentioned. I hope that when I interview it doesn't sound like an interrigation.