More and more childminders are taking on assistants to work with them or their settings are proving so popular with parents that they are actually taking on full time partners or co-workers to cope with the demand.

What can the assistant do?

• Help with school runs. The assistant can collect children from school or nursery and drop off.
• Play Games: The assistant can participate in games and watch the children while you cook or prepare the next activity.
• Be watchful: They can observe activities to record children's progress and just be another pair of eyes when out and about with the children.
• Male assistants: Male assistants can also be of great value as they can add a male influence on the setting which is particularly useful if there is no male influence at home. Many parents seek out childcare settings with male childminders or assistants purely for this reason.

Employing as assistant:

• You must inform OFSTED if you employ another worker.
• You must have a Criminal Records Bureau disclosure carried out if the person is over 16. This includes all family, friends and neighbours who might be in your setting during hours when the children are in residence.
• You will also have to be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and it's against the law not to do so.
• You should get references and check out their backgrounds thoroughly.
• You will have to deal with the tax, National Insurance contributions and other rights (such as sick pay, holiday etc) that employees are entitled to.
• You will need to inform your insurance company and ensure you have employer's liability insurance.
• Wages will have to be negotiated. You must pay at least the minimum wage.

Many families don't have the luxury of a parent staying at home to raise their children, many families require two incomes to support themselves, and it's a sad truth that your childminder may see more of your young children than you do.  Given the amount of time spent away from your children, how do you know that they are in good hands?  ...that your nanny, childminder or nursery is really great with them?

Part of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) mandates good lines of communication between carers and parents.  It is important for parents to know what their children have been doing, what they are learning and how they are progressing.  ToucanLearn's Daily Diary offers one way in which carers can share their experiences with parents.  Nanny's don't have to follow EYFS but it is still good practice for you to develop a formal or informal way that lets them tell you what has been happening.

If you have doubts about the quality of your child care, you should raise it with the care provider in the first instance.  If matters remain unresolved, you can take complaints to OFSTED.  They will investigate not only people registered as OFSTED carers, but also people providing care services that aren't enrolled on their registers.  You can find out more about how OFSTED respond to complaints in this document.  Child services are, understandably, a hugely important and sensitive area.  OFSTED will take your issues seriously, and will work with both sides to ensure a high standard of care, and the implementation of best practice.

OFSTED requires that childminders inviting children into their home carry out a risk assessment in order to identify potential danger, this is a daunting part of preparing to be a childminder - the assessment is evaluated during a home visit.

Risk assessment is not about eliminating risk, but making sure that you are aware of the areas of your home and garden that pose a danger so that you can manage it properly.  If you have identified areas that pose a threat to little ones, then you will be aware of those dangers and will manage the situation appropriately.

The Health and Safety Executive recommend five simple steps to undertaking a risk assessment:-

1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
4. Record your findings and implement them
5. Review your assessment and update if necessary

For your OFSTED nspection, you should go into as much detail as possible about the risks in your home.  You will need to document the risks in each room that children can enter to show that you are aware of the dangers, and you must cite the actions that you will take to prevent accidents from happening.  You will be able to find risk assessment templates from childminding associations, but there is no templated way to fill these in because risks vary in every different situation.

As well as covering risks associated within your home, you must also carry out a risk assessment for your garden and for outings that you take your children on.  If you do a school run for older children, taking younger ones with you, then that will also need to feature in your assessment.

Most local authorities offer training for risk assessment which you can often attend for free.  They will teach you about how to construct a risk assessment document, how to identify risk within a setting and steps to take to minimise risk.

Having completed your risk assessment, you must revisit it regularly and keep it up to date.  Make a point of reading through the documents that form your risk assessment at least once a month.  This will reinforce your understanding of the risks, but you will also find it easy to add in new risks you identify along the way, making for an even more thorough and comprehensive document.  If you don't keep your risk documentation up to date then you will have more work revising it when your next inspection comes round.

The Government has announced that childcare arrangements made between friends will no longer be legally required to be Ofsted registered and inspected.  The Children's Minster, Dawn Primarolo said the rule change would be confirmed in April this year which will mean that friends who share the childcare of each other's children won't have to answer to Ofsted, as if they were professional childcare settings such as childminders or nurseries.

Ms Primarolo claimed she was pleased with the result as it ensured "hardworking parents are not penalised for supporting their friends with unpaid childcare."

The confusion arose when two policewomen, Leanne Shepherd and Lucy Jarrett from Buckinghamshire, who worked on a part time basis, looked after each other's children when they were not working.  It was a friendly, non-financial arrangement which meant both women could work without worrying about the the costs of childcare.  They simply shared the childcare.  Ofsted were told about the arrangement and they decreed the women should register as childminders which included all the professional training, checks, inspections and guidelines that professional childminders have to go through.

This daft situation arose when a piece of ill-planned legislation was introduced in 2006 which required anyone looking after children for 'reward', excluding between 6pm and 2am, on more than 14 occasions a year, and who was not related to the children, were deemed to be offering childcare services and were therefore subject to childcare control.  In this case, Ofsted interpreted the fact that by swapping childcare between themselves in order to allow them to return to work, the two police mothers in question were therefore gaining 'reward' and therefore were subject to the legislation.  Whilst the 2006 Childcare Act is generally an important piece of legislation aimed at protecting children whilst in the custody of professional carers, it gave no credence to informal arrangements between friends.

The amendment to the Childcare Act 2006 will change the guidelines offered by Ofsted which will detail when childcare is deemed "formal" and thus within their remit.

The proposed changes were put to parents, child carers and children's organisations in a consultation last December 2009.  The majority of those consulted replied in favour of the amendments.  Public outcry and a petition on the No. 10 website made clear the people's feeling on the matter!