Child professional reference?!

[specificus1]

Hi all,

I thought I was clear on this, but just re-reading the check list the Bracknell NCS sent me, they require 1 child's referee that have engaged PROFESSIONALLY with a child. But we don't have such referee that would have known the child for 3 years, he is only 3! So I have used same referees as mine, who are both friends of the family, both professional (an accountant and a director of an LTD), and both British.

The only professional person for my child's reference I can think of is his childminder but childminders are not on the list of professions, and she had only known him for 1 year.

Opinions please? Should I still go ahead with the application? Or use the childminder as reference?

CONFUSED DOT COM

[go2khurram]

Not necessarily referee need to engaged PROFESSIONALLY with the applicant.

You can ask childminder, GP or any professional... I have learner on members experience that home office not strict on referee particularly for minor applicants.

[shahid2000]

For such young children they are not very strict. For my son we used a family friend who is also a childminder and it went smoothly. He was a little less than 3 so there is no chance anyone could have known him for 3 years Don't stress too much about it, your references should be fine.

[specificus1]

Thanks for your feedback guys - reporting back after today's visit to Bracknell Council.

I decided to go in as is, and the registrar said that although having two of my friends as my son's referees (British, professional) would be fine, I would need to explain why there isn't a referee who'd known my child professionally in the 'other information' section. It is better if there was a professional referee, and they don't have to know my son for 3 years, any number of years is enough, and even though the childminder isn't on the list of professionals they would be fine too. So she asked me to fill in an additional page with his photograph and just one reference from my son's childminder, and bring it back. Which I did.