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Government shamed into action on babysitting

On Saturday I tweeted (@bbw1984) a link to a story in the Daily Mail which had rasied my hackles, reporting that two women had been banned from looking after each other's children because they were not registered childminders.

Playing_With_Blocks

The mothers, both police officers, had returned to work after maternity leave on a part-time basis so that one could look after the toddlers in the morning, while the other looked after them in the afternoon.

Unbelievably, somebody decided to shop the two women to Ofsted, who promptly ended the arrangement on account of them being under-qualified, under new legislation, to look after the other's child. 

This morning the story seems to have gathered momentum, with the Guardian reporting further details and Shadow Children's Minister Tim Loughton issuing a comment as well as writing a letter to Ed Balls. 

Now it is being reported by the BBC that the Children's Minister Vernon Coaker is talking to Ofsted about this particular case.

While that final sentence will come as some comfort to the two women involved, there are no doubt many others across the UK who are one nosy neighbour's intervention away from a visit from the Ofsted inspectors.

To my mind this case begs two questions: 1. How many other little-known laws exist that would prevent ordinary people from going about their daily lives? and 2. How bad has our society become if someone feels compelled to report what seems a sensible (and obviously private) arrangement to the authorities?

By Dylan Sharpe 

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home
  • http://www.the-tap.blogspot.com Tapestry

    It is an offence to the government’s employees that any parent looks after their own children unsupervised.
    There is more to this than simple bigbrotherdom however.
    The EU is based on a secret programme of employing and working with paedophiles, who are placed into powerful positions where they are able to remove peoples’ children for procurement for sex.
    In Germany there is a public government-funded move from within the BGzA to make paedophilia legal. They have produced leaflets explaining to parents how they should start fondling their own children’s genitalia.
    In Britain no one can believe such things to be true but in many other European countries the paedophiles have already worked themselves into unstoppable positions.

  • http://www.the-tap.blogspot.com Tapestry

    Link to here to read the story
    http://www.tpuc.org/node/151