Comment on open letter on childminder agencies
17th February 2014
The Alliance has published the full, unedited joint open letter on childminder agencies concerns signed by early years representative organisations and childminders, following the publication of
Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch said:
“While we understand the need to edit published materials in the interest of space, it’s disappointing that in this instance, the message of the original letter seems to have been lost.
“The focus of the edited letter seems to be almost exclusively on childminder training, and could be read by some as implying that childminders are currently under-qualified. On the contrary, we recognise that the substantial experience and expertise that childminders possess is crucial to the continued delivery of high-quality childcare and so we feel that it’s vital that they continue to be supported in their professional development — but we are far from convinced that childminder agencies are the best way to achieve this.
“It’s also important to highlight that the letter signatories also raised concerns about the government’s continued focus on cutting costs and creating childcare places over and above supporting providers to improve the quality of early years care, comments which were not included in the published version of the letter.”
The full text of the original, unedited letter is as follows:
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To The Editor, As a sector we are sceptical of government’s approach to driving quality improvements in the early years. This is following announcements this week on proposals to introduce baseline testing for four year olds and extended nursery provision through increased collaboration between childminders and school based nursery settings. Liz Truss has written to childminders across the country detailing her support for the profession. Ms Truss states that childminder agencies will make working in the profession easier, and cites improved working relationships between childminders and school-based nursery settings. But as a sector we are still concerned that childminder agencies will not help childminders to improve their expertise or deliver benefits for families. Government focus should remain on supporting improvement in the quality of training, which will have a positive long-term influence on children’s learning, well-being, care and overall development. It’s encouraging that °ϲʹ will have a role in assessing the performance of childminder agencies but we still need to see detailed plans of how individual childminders will be assessed and supported to drive their expertise. We continue to have reservations that government is taking the right steps to ensure that all childcare professionals are equally supported to deliver a high quality of care. The new system has to be about quality as much as provision and cost, and the childcare sector remains unconvinced that agencies, baseline testing and channelling more childcare services through school nursery settings are the right way forward. Childminders in particular are disappointed at government’s lack of engagement with them as sector professionals, and are committed to working in partnership with the Department of Education and all third sector organisations, given the opportunity. |
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Notes for editors
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
- Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
- For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website: