Unfortunately I can’t recommend Sarah Jane at all.

My son joined her and stayed with her for a total of 6 weeks. He was a lockdown baby and had never even had a cold. His settling sessions went really well and so did his first week but then he caught a viral infection and became unwell. He was then in and out of hospital and Sarah Jane’s so became unsettled. She didn’t even allow him time to get better and re settle before telling me he had to leave despite us agreeing we would give it a few weeks to allow him time as he was only 8 months old. Even this wasn’t that simple as she wouldn’t tell me conclusively that she couldn’t have him anymore and would instead send me streams of messages hinting at it only to back down every time I asked her outright.

I then arranged alternate childcare and asked if she could have him until the new minder could take over which was about 5/6 weeks. She told me she could give us 1 month’s notice but strictly on the basis that if he coughed or was unsettled he was to be picked up immediately. My son has a medical condition which means he will always cough and she was aware of this and I work. She also use to tell me he was unsettled all the time and ask me to collect him early. This was even when he was supposedly doing well with her and every time I collected him he was either sleeping or happily playing!

I know everyone is biased about their own child but my son has been with 4 other mothers who have had him without me present and all have said he was no trouble at all. He is also completely settled with a new childminder and absolutely thriving. Funnily enough I’ve not once been asked to collect him early.

To make matters worse, when it came to collecting my sons items we arranged a time for collection and instead of being there for me to collect them, she left them outside her house in bin bags for me to collect after texting me 10 minutes before that she was popping out.

Childminders are supposed to be individuals we feel safe leaving our children with and I did not feel safe leaving my son with Sarah Jane to the degree that I didn’t allow her to have him for the notice period as I preferred to risk my job over her caring for him for a minute more.

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