New childminding agencies - what do you think?

I am a fairly new CM, just coming in to my second year, I have a very successful buisness, I am always full and never need to advertise, word of mouth is enough for me.

I would NEVER elect to join an agency, because I don't think they would benefit me in anyway. In my eyes all it would do is mess with my current success. I also don't think it would decrease our paperwork load because most of our paperwork is EYFS documents that are an Ofsted requirement.
I also wanted to become self-employed so that I had that autonomy over my finances, it's a step backwards, to me, to join an agency.

HOWEVER, there are a lot of struggling CM out there, who find this job almost unmanageable, and leave the profession to do something else, I think if there were agencies, they could support these otherwise fantastic CM, to run a good buisness.

My final worry is that some LAs are turning into agencies. My LA is incredible, and do so much to support parents and CM, if they turned into an agency and I didn't want to join- what would I miss out on? Training? Networking? And at what cost? Would my annual Ofsted fee increase? I fear there is such financial incentive for the govt, that they will eventually force us all to join an agency!

i think its all going to go tits up....i am yet to meet or read about a childminder who is wanting this "service"....

lets hope it never gets off the ground

Childminder agencies are just another means of outsourcing council services, in the same way that the NHS is being gradually privatised by the back door.

I'm quite convinced that more services will follow suit. Some are already outsourced.

While Plinky's experience would be illegal at present for childminding, I wonder how long that will continue. Liz Truss was trying to deregulate childminding a few years ago and met with a unanimously negative response - and we all know how much notice she takes of that kind of thing

adsy I doubt what they are doing is legal at all. I wanted the childcarer to come to my home which I know means they don't have to be qualified - but I requested someone who was qualified and ofsted registered.

I've just looked at their website and there's now lots of referencing to childminders and childminder training - so they are clearly expanding into that area on preparation. They also promote their ofsted registration heavily on the website homepage. I can only presume their standards will be just as low when they start as a childminding agency.

plinkyplonky that's horrifying.
Please don't tell me that agencies are going to be allowed to use non childminders as long as they're crb checked.
I'm going to look that up. If they're not allowed, please report them.
If they are allowed, then we need to make this very public.

I am VERY against childminding agencies based on my recent experience of a local company who are quite clearly gearing themselves up to be a childminding agency and I was horrified by their business model and unprofessional conduct.

They promote themselves as being the future of flexible childcare and advertise that they been used in government papers etc as being a model example. I contacted them as I need very flexible childcare for very young DC. I requested qualified and ofsted registered childcare. The company suggested that they send the owner of the firm for the first session so I could use her ofsted number and then the childcare would be taken over by Joe Bloggs employee - which when I looked into their job adverts they target local students (any uni student, not childcare students) and retired people all at minimum wage. When I explained I wanted a qualified professional with EYFS knowledge I was given a lecture on the benefits of using a retired grandparent instead.

I was horrified that they are abusing the Ofsted registration system in such a blatant way. They are supposedly a reputable firm and yet they are, just as others have already said above - simply a way to reduce standards and increase costs. The company I contacted quoted me an hourly rate about 30% higher than a well qualified nanny costs in this area all for the privilege of using unqualified staff they have whizzed through a DBS check.

Ach, it's just another way for middlemen to make money out of parents, like Childcare Voucher Schemes and nanny agencies and Ofsted and so on.

These agencies will reduce the quality of the service and increase costs for parents. No thank you.

I see the au pair market widening...

Specsavers

All the, admittedly limited, information about agencies that has appeared so far indicates that they will be nothing like franchises: there is no business model for the agencies: they are a free market and can decide for themselves how to operate.

Personally, as a parent I would welcome this option as long as high quality standards were maintained. If these agencies were operated similarly to a Franchise then it could work quite well. For example, Specsavers operates as a franchise business which means there are staff that are all qualified to the same standard with consistency in price & services (there are differences across England, Wales & Scotland due to different NHS policies in these areas). All the stock is sourced from a set of suppliers, which means that economies of scale would kick in.

For childminders, this could mean better terms for food, energy bills, toys, stationery, vehicle manufacturers etc. There would be a 'head office' that would formulate policies, deal with vacancies including the marketing, supplier management, invoice paying, payroll, dispute resolution, holiday management, training & development, manage changes in legislation, deal with Ofsted, set standardised pay rates for location & qualifications, manage emergencies for parents & childminders, fill the void gaps in childminders week with flexible one-off placements.

If it was done really well then a 'brand' would be created, similar to that of Montessori. This would then mean that parents would gravitate to this 'brand' for their childcare needs (just as Specsavers is now the UK's largest & most successful opticians' chain).

Yuccan, when I start back as a childminder in a couple of months, I am planning to only pick up and drop off at a couple of schools. I will be talking to the headteachers, and advertising through the schools. Have you talked to the school you are thinking about?

I think agencies are a dreadful idea, for all the reasons mentioned above and more.

If I provide a good service, then I want parents to know that. If I am rubbish, then parents should know that too. Childminders provide home from home care - it is not the same as choosing a nursery - and I think parents should be able to choose what sort of care theythink is best for their children (e.g. i am an attachment parenting sling-wearing hippy type who picks children up every time they want me to, and some parents want that level of attention for their children, but others would think I was spoiling them).

Also, I am a trained and qualified playworker who is intending to work with older children on an after school and holiday club basis. I don't want a nursery-based agency trying to tell me what I should be doing, when their expertise is in an entirely different area.

Quality will go down and prices will go up!
Elizabeth Truss has no idea what she is doing and will not give any answers to questions about costs etc and this is coming into place in less than 6 months!!! An absolute mess !!!

Forgot to say as well that the page owner Penny, is also invited to attend meetings with those organisations (forgot to mention UKCMA as well!) with Ms Truss and other members of parliament, house of Lords

Its a great page with direct links to be able to pass on concerns, ideas etc
Its not just for childminders but parents and other providers

There is a very good facebook group - not sure if I am allowed to post direct links
called One Voice Together for Quality

• the site owner has been working closely with large organisations such as PACEY and PLA, ICM-SE and also the Save Childhood Movement

Despite huge opposition to agencies they have ...sadly...now become law
CMs an parents opposed to them have been totally ignored by the childcare minister
All we can do now is ensure cms do not join them and parents remain weary of them

www.education.gov.uk/a00221161/children-families-bill

Yucca...if you need your children to be taken and collected from a specific school there is no guarantee an agency would help you to find the right CM for your needs.

You could email the FIS in your area and ask them to put out a special email with your requirements...that would be very effective. In our LA we get these kind of requests very often...hope that helps?

For everyone else...please write what you like to your MPs and also to the opposition...ask direct questions as to how does Truss see the cost of childcare falling for parents...where is the evidence?
Maybe this is another case where Truss needs to be 'recalled' to fill the gaps ...there are plenty on this matter too!

I'm not sure about the rules for posting links on here but if you go to Penny Webb's blog (Penny's Place) or the campaign website she started - google 'One Voice' (or 'together for quality') you will find lots of info including letter templates & examples of letters people have already written.

Childrenatheart, is there a draft email/letter we can send to our MPs?

Just as a tip re Childcare.co.uk Many CMs are paid members (Gold) and if you join as a free member you can now message any gold member so worth re-visiting their site if you have discounted it in the past due to cost (I agree their fees are not good value for parents).

Hi All, I am confused as to how this new agency system is going to do anything other than increase costs for parents?

The agencies will not be government funded they are private firms, a fee will then need to be paid by either the parents or the childminders. If the childminder pays the fees the overhead will clearly need to be passed on, back to the parents.

I now also understand from my childminder that they will also have to pay a fee to opt out of being part of an agency, a fee which will also have to be covered somehow and inevitably passed back to the parents.

Parents are paying for the lack of government funding of local councils to better support their local childminders.

Rant over....

Yuccan. I think you might find it's a case of people not updating their details with FIS, etc, so they can't give you accurate information. If CMs stay self employed with their agencies, then there will still be the same problem. If they are employed by the agencies, that may not be a problem. You still won't have access to all CM details though, as some won't be with that agency, with a different agency, or none at all.

CMs are resisting agencies, because they will drive cost of Childcare up and quality down. No benefit to anyone.

Sorry children but if any kind of remotely functional service such as you describe actually existed in my area (and it's a thriving urban area with lots of families, not the middle of nowhere) then it would have been possible to find with the amount of googling I've been doing. The various websites I have tried are either sparcely populated with only a tiny number of childcare providers registered (like 20ish for a city with a population of nearly half a million), or are populated solely with unqualified unregistered people not proper childminders, or require ridiculous fees to register - I would happily pay a fee or premium to some kind of agency that could guarantee finding me an appropriate childcare for that fee, but I'm not paying £20 per month per website just to register (which many of these sites make so that they can offer you a relatively useless browsing service for free but you have to pay if you want to actually make contact with someone) with no guarantee that any of the people I would attempt to contact would actually have a vacancy. I did register for a couple of months - forty quid to send a bunch of emails to local childminders who either didn't reply or replied to say they had no vacancies - and that was over 6 months ago but I would have to pay again to see if any vacancies have arisen. It's not sensible.

I'm sure the existing system works just fine for the lucky people who have managed to match up their childcare provision and childcare needs appropriately, but there are plenty of people for whom it isn't working. Given that childminders can choose not to register with an agency and stay independent why on earth would anyone object to a system being set up to make things easier for the rest of us?

Slev & Yuccan - there are many existing ways of finding a minder in addition to the Family Info Service, mostly FREE. Many local childminding groups offer a vacancy service. In our area you email the coordinator (a volunteer) who passes your requirements (anonymously) to our members. Those with appropriate vacancies reply and their details given to the parent. There is also Findaminder, childcare.co.uk, ichild and many other sites offering similar services

For those of you who don't like the idea of agencies, for whatever reason, and especially parents - Please would you write to your MP and to Elizabeth Truss/DfE to make your views known

Like Sev said there could be a huge benefit to parents in helping to actually match up parents and childminders. I'm a parent seeking a childminder who can do pickup and dropoff at one particular school. I have been getting absolutely nowhere finding someone appropriate - the council can gave me a list of several dozen local childminders and after a dozen telephone calls each of which saying they had no vacancies I gave up. If I want to see if a vacancy has arisen I have no choice but to make all those individual phone calls again as there is no centralized way to ask to be notified if a vacancy comes up, it's a massive amount of hassle. Advertising for childcare just gets me loads of unqualified inexperienced unregistered people wanting cash-in-hand jobs which is not what I am after. I think agencies will be very helpful.