5 Safety Items Every Childminder Should Have

If you are a childminder with a childminding business, one of the first things you’ll want to do is ensure the safety of the children in your care by making your home safe. Home safety and childminders go hand in hand, and the importance of having a safe (and secure) home is paramount to your success as a registered childminder.

In this article, I’ll look at 5 items every childminder should have in their home. And if you are currently a registered childminder, take a look at the list and tick off everything you already have (or haven’t in some cases), and take action on the items you don’t have to ensure you and your business provide the safest childcare for the children in your care.

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5 Safety Items Every Childminder Should Have

Below is a list of the 5 safety items every childminder should have in their home, in order to provide the safest environment for looking after small children.

I go through each item in detail below, and make a case into why you should have it, if you haven’t already.

Having and using these items in your childminding setting will:

1. Carbon Monoxide Detector

Without doubt, this is the single most important device you can have in your home, shortly followed by working smoke alarms.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is deadly. It also happens to be odourless, colourless, and tasteless. Meaning you can’t see it, smell it, taste it or feel it.

A basic carbon monoxide detector will not cost the earth, and the one below is available for around £20.

It will activate when it detects elevated levels of carbon monoxide by producing a high pitched alarm, alerting you to the invisible danger lurking.

The carbon monoxide detector above is the one I have in my own home. It’s built by a reputable brand that has been around for many years, and comes at an affordable price point. In fact, it’s so good, it came in 1st place in the article on the Top 3 Carbon Monoxide Detectors in the UK.

If you have children in your care as a registered childminder, do make sure you have at least one working carbon monoxide detector present in the main areas of your home where children are around the most.

In 2020, according to ONS, 116 people died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, so don’t become another statistic and put yourself and any children in your care in danger by not having a Carbon monoxide detector

You can buy this carbon monoxide detector from Amazon.co.uk here: Kidde Carbon Monoxide Detector 10 Year Battery

2. Working Smoke Alarms

Coming a very close 2nd in the article on safety items every childminder should have, is working fire protection and early warning alarm systems, such as smoke detectors and heat detectors.

Having a bare minimum of one working smoke alarm per floor in your home is going to mean the difference between getting out of danger immediately and staying inside and potentially getting trapped in a house fire. Every second counts in a fire, especially with young children in your home, because you have others that need assistance to get out, as well as getting yourself out.

And remember, it’s not the fire and heat that kills people, it’s the toxic smoke.

I’ve already covered the best smoke detectors here, and also covered the best heat detectors here.

Both articles have thousands of visitors a month, and has proved a valuable resource for people looking to improve their home safety.

But for this article, I’ll name the smoke detector listed as number 1 in the top 3 smoke detectors in the UK.

And it’s the FireAngel smoke detector. Again, it’s around the £20 mark, and will emit a high pitched alarm when the sensor senses smoke.

 

You can buy the smoke detector above on Amazon.co.uk: FireAngel Optical Smoke Detector

3. First Aid Kit

A good, well stocked up first aid kit is another essential type of safety items that every childminder should have and own for their childminding business.

Once again, I’ve already covered this topic in detail in the article Best First Aid Kits for UK Homes.

But for a childminder, with children in your care, a good solid first aid kit is an absolutely essential piece of inventory.

The kit below contains everything you could think of when it comes to children and first aid. plasters, bandages, gauzes, scissors, medical tape, gloves. You name it, it’s there, and will cover most eventualities.

Not got a decent first aid kit? Look no further than this one available at a great price.

You can buy this first aid kit on Amazon.co.uk here: 220 Piece First Aid Kit

4. Corner Protection

Babies, toddlers and small children have a habit of falling over. It is of course, how they train themselves to have coordination and balance as they start to grow into children who can comfortably walk from A to B without falling, becoming self sufficient in the process.

This fact in itself poses many dangers for childminders operating a childcare business, because it moves innocuous objects, such as tables and fireplace suites into potentially dangerous items.

In fact, any item in your home with a sharp 90 degree angle has the potential to become a danger to small children, because they haven’t yet learnt the natural instinct of protecting their head and bodies by using hands.

So it makes sense that this should be on the list of safety items every childminder should have:  corner protection (like the one above, available at Amazon.co.uk) on any sharp corners, like TV stands, tables, or units that are head hieght and below of the children in your care.

These are cheap, easy to install yourself, and just gives you peace of mind that a child in your care is going to do themselves a lot less damage than if they had fallen on the exposed corner.

I bought these a few years ago, when my children were small, and I thoroughly recommend them.

You can buy edge and corner protection for furniture on Amazon.co.uk here: Corner Protectors For Kids

5. Socket Protection

In the UK, our plug sockets have an ingenious design that not many people know about. In fact, I would say it’s the best design in the world.

Have you ever looked at a plug that you would put into a plug socket? Well, the top pin is longer than the two below, and this isn’t by accident – it’s for safety.

The top pin is the grounding pin, and it’s longer so it gives access to the two holes on a socket that transfers current. Without that top pin entering a socket, the socket will not transfer current. More explanation on that here.

However, despite the safety features inbuilt into British plug sockets, it’s still not a good idea for a baby or toddler to be prodding a socket with toys or crayons or anything like that.

Thankfully, the solution is very simple.

Socket protection, like the image above and available from Amazon.co.uk, are simply plastic replicas of plugs, that fit into the socket stopping little fingers from playing with the pin holes.

They are cheap, easy to install and highly effective.

You can buy socket protection on Amazon.co.uk here: Socket Protectors

Summary

I hope you have found the article on safety items every childminder should have interesting and useful, and I, of course, children have accidents, whether they are in your care whilst acting as a registered childminder, at nursery, at school or even at home with parents.

And you simply cannot protect them from everything.

But the act of reducing the risk cannot be understated.

Reducing the risk of an accident happening whilst operating a childminding business is good practice, and will give you peace of mind not only when acting in your capacity as a childminder, but also in general when using your home as your home.

As for marketing, and the recruitment of new parents and children into your childminding business, these safety features can help sell. What better way than to sell your services to a prospective customer other than listing various safety measures you have implemented around your home.

After all, the person stood in front of you needs to trust you enough to leave their most cherished possessions in your care for large periods of time, so what better way to prove you care about the safety of children in your care than by listing the safety measures you have implemented?

Other Articles You May Like

Here’s a small selection of articles you may also like from this site:

• – How to Spot Small Children Choking, And What To Do
• – Carbon Monoxide Safety At Home
• – Top 3 Carbon Monoxide Detectors For Homes (UK top 3)
• – Best Smoke Detectors (UK Top 3)
• – Best Heat Detectors For kitchens (UK Top 3)
• – Best First Aid Kit For UK Homes
• – Kitchen Safety For Children

Here’s the complete list of products and links mentioned on this page.

• – Kidde Carbon Monoxide Detector (Amazon.co.uk)
• – FireAngel Smoke Detector (Amazon.co.uk)
• – 220 Piece Premium First Aid Kit (Amazon.co.uk)
• – Corner Protectors For Kids (Amazon.co.uk)
• – Socket Protectors (Amazon.co.uk)

Here’s the sources used for this article:

• – Carbon Monoxide UK Government Page
• – ONS Stats – Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Questions & Comments

If you have a question or a comment on this article on safety items every childminder should have, please use the comments box below.

I’ll try my best to reply to each and every one of your questions, comments and suggestions.

Stay Safe. Stay Secure.

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