Jacqueline Murray

My Summary

My Experience

Registered since November 2000, I have had the pleasure of caring for a wide range of children: Ages from newborn to 13 - some of the children have been with me since young babies and stayed through to their school years or left when moving from the area; older children are more like long-term friends and still pop by sometimes to see what's cooking?

Cultural differences - we've enjoyed sharing and learning about different cultures with our children and families, through cultural differences, language, food and experiences; the home has souvenirs from Germany, Jordan, Ireland, Morocco, Poland, Japan, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, US, South Africa, etc. and we've tasted, and cooked, some exciting (and unusual) foods from different continents. We try to recognise different festivals and share them in a fun way with an emphasis on fun and creativity but with a shared awareness of community.

I have a clear focus on equal opportunity for all children and try always to promote a respectful understanding of all levels of disability. Over the years in childminding I have cared for a number of children with varying degrees of disability, from mild developmental challenges to more extreme demands for constant care and supervision. Ian and I are always happy to discuss individual needs and to improve and learn in areas which we may not be fully accustomed.

Families/siblings - I have enjoyed several experiences of twins and siblings and have never really experienced any problems integrating them into the childminding setting with other children in my care. I feel that the setting provides equally for different age groups and having a mutual respect amongst all the children means that they all integrate well.

Short-term care - from time to time, I have been asked to provide short-term care for children and their families (eg, to cover for other childminders, hospital care, maternity, family emergency, pre-planned family events, etc.).

Overnight and 'term' care - Ian and I are both registered and inspected to provide overnight care. The setting has a dedicated nursery room with a cot bed and two other rooms for different ages of children. Where agreed, we can also provide longer-term care or more than one night, especially in cases of family emergency with children who are already in our care. This may also include 'respite' care.

Our own experience of long and unsociable working hours with our own children has helped us to understand the needs of others who find themselves with similar working situations and irregular hours, etc.

Both Ian and myself have up-to-date paediatric first aid qualifications.

My Qualifications

Both Ian and myself are Ofsted registered and members of PACEY. We are inspected by Ofsted (the most recent inspection being May 2022) where the outcome was awarded a 'Good' in all areas for both of us. Reports are available on request.

All registered childminders need to have attended and successfully completed introductory childminding courses and regular refresher courses in paediatric first aid and other areas of childcare (eg, safeguarding). This is the bare minimum but we try to take the opportunity to get involved with additional workshops and training where we feel it will benefit the setting.

We have both completed the NVQ2 and NVQ3 in Childcare Learning & Development.

Both myself and Ian were Quality Assured Childminders with PACEY (this was previously terms as 'Accredited Childminders'). This quality assurance scheme meant that we underwent additional inspections from our Quality Improvement Partner but due to the lack of funding this has now changed and we now come under the larger envelope of Eligible Childminders (these are childminders who are eligible to claim the funding for children in childcare over the age of 30 months).

We also both offer 'Free For 2' places under the 'Free For 2' Scheme with Kent County Council.

My Availability

The setting tries to offer the maximum availability and flexibility, having had experience of working with a wide range of families and professions (single parents, police, medical, education, business travel, etc.). We don't offer a 'menu' of options, we offer a fully tailored service which we hope to gear to the requirements of children and their families. We appreciate that these may change from time to time depending on family commitments.

We try to always provide a family setting, so it hasn't been difficult to react to emergencies since children in our regular care see this as familiar surroundings. We have even had children with us over the Christmas holiday (including Christmas Day) and in continuous care for a number of days while parents have been away on business. Overnight care registration has helped us to be able to provide this (please see 'my experience' - above).

We currently don't cover any school runs on a regular basis, but this doesn't mean that we won't be able to help in the case of emergency or one-off requirements.

My Fees

• Babysitting from £12.50 per hour
• Childminding from £5.55 per hour

Fee calculation is based around some flexible criteria:
- single child or siblings
- provision by the setting of healthy meals/snacks
- contracted hours/days
- reduced hourly rates for overnight care/'term' care

As a general guide the base hourly ‘daytime’ rate is £5.50. Some families on contracted childcare are happier to average out contracted hours over the year and pay a fixed monthly amount.

Overnight care is usually calculated differently and by discussion and negotiation, based on any specific needs you may have.

Payment is made on the last contracted working day of the month (in arrears) and childcare vouchers are accepted as part or full payment. A payment deposit of 2 weeks will usually be required prior to the commencement of childcare.

The setting provides day-to-day care items (eg, baby wipes, nappy bags, gloves, tissues, etc.). Normally, families will provide nappies, change of clothes and bottles of milk, etc. This is all by arrangement and discussion and geared to work flexibly to suit all parties' needs.