Windows - locked?

[kitty]

Hi, I have my pre-reg visit tomorrow and was just wondering about the windows. I always lock the doors but never the windows unless we go on holiday. Do I need to have them locked?
Thanks
Kitty

[angeldelight]

Hi Kitty

Good luck with your pre- reg visit tomorrow
Let us know how it goes

I would lock the windows it will not hurt to be extra safe will it and one less thing for them to pull you up about

Also don't forget to put the keys to both door and window out of the reach of the children

Good luck

Angel xx

[lou]

hi kitty,
good luck tomorrow
i agree with angel, better to be safe than sorry.
Also make sure you have an evacuation plan, they normally give you a scenario, ie baby1 is asleep in room a, baby 2 asleep in room 2, toddler playing downstairs, how will you get them all out safely in event of a fire?
good luck lou x

[Pauline]

Hi Kitty

I would lock the windows, unless they are too small to be climbed out of.

Also, make sure the window and door keys are kept near the door/window. I have hooks for them to be hung on, out of childrens reach, but easily accesible by me in case we need to get out in an emergency.

[kitty]

Thanks everyone, I'll do that although i don't have hooks up, so guess I'll have to hide them somewhere. On the evacuation planning, I live in a bungalow, with two bedrooms. The children will only have access to one of the bedrooms. Would it be OK if I said we could all go out of the bedroom they are not normally allowed in, this would mean we could climb on the bed to get out of the window and we would be trapped in the back garden, this is all assuming we can't get out the front door. Also, what do you do with the toddler, obviously you don't want to put them out first as they might run off, whilst you're saving the babies, but at the same time you won't want them running around the house??? thanks
Kitty
x

[kitty]

sorry, meant to say we won't get trapped in the back garden!!!

[Pauline]

Yes it would be ok to evacuate via a room that is not registered for use.

As regards who to put out first, that's a tricky one but it's possible a toddler would be so frightened that they wouldn't run off anyway and hopefully neighbours/passers-by would come running when they heard you screaming.

[manjay]

we were told on our ICP course that if you had a baby upstairs sleeping when a fire broke out, you had to vacate the house with the other children and let the fire brigade do the rescuing!!! All very well in theory just not sure I could do this in practice, especially as we live in a rural area. It could take forever for a fire engine to get to us.

Amanda xx

[nannan]

Hi Kitty, good luck with tomorrow, just one other thing to mention is that you will carry a mobile phone on you at all times if you have one, then if a fire did break out, you would be able to use your mobile phone and not rely on the land line.
mandy

[lou]

i have a gate at the end of my drive and i said i would put the toddler outside, safe in the knowledge that they couldnt escape due to the gate and go back for babies, if safe to do so, obviously i wouldnt normally allow a toddler to go outside without me but this is an extreme situation (and hopefully one none of us will ever have to deal with)
anyway all situations are different, dont think there is a right answer.
Let us know how it goes x

[janet]

hi kitty good luck for tomorrow xxxxx

[susi513]

I feel the same Amanda, I couldn't stand outside and leave a baby alone upstairs while the fire rapidly gets worse.

The problem is you can't take all the other mindees up with you and if you leave them in the house or outside by the road without an adult it then its now your actions that have jeopardised their safety.

Having had a small fire in my kitchen I know only too well how rapidly it spreads and how quickly & severely the smoke affects you - this was before childminding so I didn't have a fire blanket handily placed on the wall. Despite fire safety training at the fire station my first action wasn't to call 999 nor even to get my children out - instinct took over and my first action was to soak a tea towel & throw it over - it wasn't enough and in the short time it took to fetch a bigger towel not only had the fire grown huge but the smoke covered the entire downstairs floor ceiling (all open plan you see). DD was engrossed in tv and completely oblivous until I grabbed her & carried her out with ds. So I'm firmly with the anti-tv brigade now!

The point I want to make is that you think it takes only seconds to rush upstairs and grab the baby - and maybe it will, but you've just no idea how much the fire can change & grow in such a short time until you see it in front of you. And the smoke gets everywhere - even though my fire was small I was choking/spluttering in seconds with soot up my nose & everywhere.

The message they tried to get across at the fire safety training was that if you do go back in they'll have 1 more casualty to locate & rescue.

(NB don't all panic there about the fire safety training, you don't have to do that training to be a childminder, I did that for an earlier job).

[kitty]

Thanks everyone for your great advice. I'm so glad I live in a bungalow and wouldn't have to make the decision of getting the baby from upstairs.... My visit was good, she was really lovely, I'd been in such a panic, feeling sick etc, not sleeping (I'm sure lots of you have been there, done that....) and said that she was more than happy to go ahead with the rest of the paperwork ( so guess it's a waiting game now) and guess what, she didn't ask me about fire evacuation!!!! Still at least that's one more thing I've more or less sorted out now, so thanks again
Kitty
x

[smartypants]

Well done Kitty

Sounds like it went really well for you ;D

Kate

[banana]

glad to hear it all went well kitty

x

[deeb66]

Glad to hear everything went ok

Dee

[mel]

well done you ;D

Mel x