Childminder consultation launched
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on childminder recruitment and retention.
The consultation, which is open until Friday 15 May, includes proposals to:
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Strength expectations or requiring local authorities to pay childminders or providers operating from domestic premises on a monthly basis.
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Reduce the minimum frequency of quality assurance visits for childminder agencies (CMA) from once per year of registration to once per every two years of registration and making the practice support that CMAs provide optional rather than a legal requirement.
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Expanding the range of health care professionals, working within a GP surgery, who can complete health declarations for prospective childminders to include nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapists and paramedics
As part of the consultation the DfE is also gathering a range of evidence relating to property-related barriers to opening or maintaining a childminder business, accessing support and understanding issues facing childminders accessing the expanded entitlement offers and those who are offering wraparound care.
Commenting Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: 鈥淚t is extremely disappointing that today鈥檚 consultation does not include plans to allow childminding professionals to claim early entitlement funding for related children. This is something which has been long called for by the sector and which would have brought childminders in line with the rest of the sector, and so it is difficult to understand why the government has chosen not to even consult on a potential change to this policy.
鈥淥n top of this, proposals to water down requirements for childminding agencies are extremely concerning and misguided. Given the inherent conflict of interest within the agency model, there is a real risk that such a proposal will drive down quality and unfairly undermine the professionalism of this key section of the early years workforce.
鈥淭hat said, we welcome plans to encourage monthly payments from local authorities. Such a change would help ease cash flow concerns and provide much-needed financial certainty, though we would urge the government to ensure that such a policy is applied to all early years providers, rather than limiting it to childminders.
鈥淯ltimately, however, if the government truly wants to show it values this vital part of the sector and encourage high-quality childminder professionals to both join and remain in the sector, it must commit to properly funding them 鈥 along with the rest of the sector 鈥 and implement long-term support which acknowledges and values the crucial role they play in children鈥檚 care, education and development.鈥
The consultation can be completed