Parents kept in dark over records

Even today parents would not be told rogue childminders like Linda Bayfield had been tried and acquitted for inflicting grievous bodily harm on another baby.

Ofsted, the government body that recently took over responsibility for childminders, says that if one was acquitted of the crime and successfully appealed against suspension, it would not be obliged to tell parents of previous suspicions against them. Its admission today comes despite costly changes in tightening the rules.

Joshua Osborne's parents were allowed to use Bayfield after magistrates ruled that because she had no conviction, she had to be reinstated as a registered childminder following her trial for GBH in 1986. Croydon council, which had suspended her, could then do no more than subject her to checks once again and put her back on their register of childminders.

In the past, people seeking to become childminders needed two detailed personal references, details of any name or any other name they had been known by, and police and social services checks. The house was checked for safety, other people living there had any criminal records scrutinised, and day care officers visited to assess the competence of the applicant.

The problem was the 150 local councils in England and Wales enforced the rules differently, so in September this year the Department for Education and Skills drew up a new code to be policed by Ofsted. Now the old checks are more rigorously enforced but a pre-registration course has to be undergoneand childminders must learn first aid for young children. The shaking of children is specifically banned.

The process for banning childminders from the register has been streamlined. From next year they can no longer appeal to magistrates but will have to go to a tribunal.

But an Ofsted spokesman said: "If they were acquitted and their registration still stood, then no, parents wouldn't be told."

In 1998 the parents of five-month-old Joseph Mackin, killed by childminder Helen Stacey, called for tougher laws. Stacey, jailed for shaking Joseph to death, was an ex-prostitute but did not tell Norfolk county council. Anthony and Corinne Mackin said: "It would appear it is easier to become a childminder than to open a bank account."