children

[joanneoldham]

how old does a child have to be to babysit another child

[georgit79]

There is no official minimum age limit set. However, it tends to be around 14.

[georgit79]

This may help too:

http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/0_1/ex06_gen01.asp

[ursula62]

NSPCC guidelines suggest children should be over 13 before they are allowed to babysit, but your local authority may have a higher limit.

One point to note is that very probably parents could be charged with neglect if they leave a child in the care of another child. 

[simsfreq]

My mum told me that the law is that by 14 a child is legally allowed to be left alone and by 16 they are legally allowed to be left alone caring for a younger child (obviously not for weeks) But I'm not sure that is correct. I think it's up to the younger child's parents to say if they trust a teenager, and the teen's parents to say if their child is responsible enough.

[Birchy]

A babysitter less than 16, the parents are responsible for - what could amount to - wilful neglect. Over 16 and the babysitter becomes more responsible, for anything going wrong, but the parent can STILL be deemed legally neglectful. Grey area with the law.

[Buenchico]

I've split my answer into 2 parts to get round the 2000 character limit. Here's the first bit:

There are two separate issues here. One is the age at which a young person is considered responsible enough to take care of a child (more about this below) and the other is employment legislation.

If we assume that the babysitter is employed to look after a young child then both national and local legislation is involved. Given that the most common occurrence when a parent uses the services of a babysitter is to allow the parent some free time in the evening then it is important to note that no school age child may be employed (even at weekends or school holidays) after 7.00p.m. On school days there is also a limit of 2 hours employment per day. Additionally no child under 13 years of age may be involved in any form of employment (with very few exceptions related to horticulture and agriculture) at any time. For more details check on your local education authority's web site. (The basic structure is shown on the Suffolk CC site at http://www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/education/ews/parent_pt_jobs .html).
If the letter of the law is observed then no school age child should be involved in any form of employment (including babysitting) without previously obtaining a permit from the local education authority.

Even if a young person is not formally 'employed' to look after a younger child (e.g. if big sister is asked to look after little brother without payment) it's possible that the legislation referred to above may still be invoked. (As an analogy, it's illegal for someone who trades on a Sunday market to have his 15 year old son help him for more than 2 hours whether the son is paid or not. i.e. money doesn't have to change hands for employment law to take effect).

Chris

[Buenchico]

(Here's the 2nd bit of my answer):

Having got all that out of the way, there is still the question of the age at which a young person is regarded responsible enough to look after young children. There is no official, legal answer here but, obviously, the time that the parent will be away is an important consideration. To ask a sensible 12 year old to keep an eye on his/her baby brother while Mum goes across the road to the shops for a few minutes is probably not unreasonable but most agencies would suggest a higher minimum age for babysitting over a longer period. I won't make any definite suggestions but I would simply observe (as a former teacher) that I've known some really sensible and responsible 14-year-olds and some 'total-idiot', irresponsible 16-year-olds (who I probably still wouldn't have trusted with young kids 5 years later). It's also worth noting that a young mum recently pleaded guilty to neglect after leaving her children in the care of her babysitter and the babysitter's boyfriend while mum went on holiday. (If I recall correctly, babysitter=16, boyfriend=17). This is despite the fact that the couple left in charge of the children were old enough to have sex, get married and produce their own children!

This isn't a definitive answer - there isn't one- but I hope that it helps.

Chris