Joshua died after being shaken

Mr and Mrs Osborne did not know that Bayfield, 54, had previously been accused of harming a baby in her care

Mrs Osborne said: "Joshua had been going to the childminder we used for our daughter for five weeks and we were perfectly happy.

"Then out of the blue one day, she rang my work to say that he had been taken very ill.

"He was rushed to hospital and when we got there, the doctors said they believed he had been shaken and the only person who could have shaken him was the childminder."

Protection plan

She added: "It was devastating to us. During the trial it emerged she didn't have the blameless history we presumed and had already been prosecuted for assaulting a child.

"This was information we had not been party to and would have affected our decision over placing Joshua."

The main points of the protection plan are:

• All complaints against childminders should be thoroughly investigated and if they are judged unsafe they should be removed from the Ofsted list

• If the childminder remains on the register details of actions taken against them must be made available to parents

• Childminders and nannies should never hit or shake a child, even with parental permission - current legislation allows childminders to use physical punishment if the parents have given written permission