Fife Childminder Pleads Guilty After 27 Children Found Alone and Unsupervised at Dunfermline Home

A self-employed childminder with three decades of experience has admitted to neglecting and abandoning the children in her care, after it emerged that she had left 27 youngsters unsupervised at her Dunfermline home — a figure that far exceeds the number she was licensed to look after.

Amanda Mathewson, 55, entered a guilty plea at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to wilfully neglecting, abandoning and exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health. The offences took place at a number of addresses in Dunfermline and elsewhere in Fife, according to prosecutors.

The court heard that Mathewson, who had operated as a childminder for 30 years, was registered to care for a maximum of eight children at any one time. On the day in question, however, she had 27 children in her home — 19 more than her registration permitted.

Details of the children present painted a striking picture of the scale of the breach. Prosecutors said that at the time of her arrest, Mathewson was looking after 15 children aged under 12, 10 children who had not yet started primary school, and two infants under the age of one.

The case came to light after two parents grew suspicious when they were told their children were not present while Mathewson carried out a school run. Concerned by what they had been told, the parents went secretly to the school and confirmed that their children were not with the childminder, even though the youngsters were supposed to be in her care.

They then went to Mathewson's home, where the court heard they heard a child screaming and discovered five unattended children in the garden. One of those children told the parents that no adults were inside the property and that Mathewson had instructed them to wait in the garden.

When the parents approached the door to check whether any adults were present, they heard another child screaming hysterically inside. The door was unlocked, and upon entering, they found a child crying beneath the kitchen table.

A further nine children, all under the age of five, were discovered in an upstairs bedroom. Two of them had been strapped into prams. The court was told that although the children were distressed by the situation, they were not physically injured.

Police were called to the property, and Mathewson told officers that the children had been left alone for at least 30 minutes. Ring doorbell footage examined as part of the investigation showed that this was in fact the second occasion that day on which the children had been left inside the house without supervision.

Procurator fiscal Vicki Bell outlined the details of the case to the court. Mathewson admitted that she had offered childcare places to more children than she could reasonably provide care for at the time.

The incident stands in sharp contrast to the findings of a Care Inspectorate report published in August 2023, which noted that Mathewson was registered to provide care for a maximum of eight children at any one time. Her registration included strict conditions: no more than six children could be under the age of 12, no more than three could have started primary school, and no more than one could be under 12 months old.

That same report, based on an unannounced inspection carried out roughly a year before her arrest, had rated areas including care, learning and the setting as "very good" — the second-highest level on the quality scale. Inspectors described children as being cared for in a comfortable, welcoming and homely environment, and said they were looked after with warmth, kindness and a nurturing approach.

The case raises serious questions about the oversight of childminding services and how a provider with an apparently strong inspection record could nonetheless be found to have taken on far more children than her registration allowed. The disclosure that 27 children were present in a single home has prompted concern about the adequacy of checks between formal inspections.

Sheriff John MacRitchie deferred sentencing until 6 November to allow background reports to be prepared. Mathewson's bail was continued, meaning she will remain at liberty under existing conditions until she returns to court.

The guilty plea brings an end to the initial stage of the proceedings, but the sentencing hearing in November will determine the consequences for a childminder whose career spanned three decades before the allegations of cruelty that led to her arrest.