New childminding agencies - what do you think?

It's simply adding a middle man. Many councils have policies available to download and tweak already for free. Registration isn't that complex, its going to cost more and only cover poor quality minding. The agencies won't care about quality or the children, only profits.

These agencies are a totally ridiculous idea thought up by some body in an office far away from the real world.
Firstly , good childminders need no advice on how to run their business. Secondly , it will put the cost of child are up without the extra money going to the minder. It drives me insane when everyone complained about the cost of child care (people who care for children don't need a decent wage or good standard of living) so this extra cost will not give any added value to child, parent or minder.

Good childminders are already doing a great job, they are nice kind lovely people who are devoted to their mindeees. These agencies are not going to add anything at all part from give the poor childminders more paperwork to compleat at the end of a long day (usually without a break)
I'm not a childminder bit can't see any sense in these agencies at all

This is a very ill thought out situation.

Firstly there is the cost to both parent and childminder, since there is no government purse for this. CMs would have to pass the cost on to parents so parents will pay twice, costing them much more than the current system.

Then there is the level of care. Since all childminders will be graded with the agency grade, parents will have absolutely no idea what level of care they are actually getting. Take an imaginary small town that has 6 childminders, currently these are 2 outstanding, 2 good and 2 require improvement. All would have the same grade under agencies - Parents would have no idea which is which.

Covering sickness and holiday - sounds ideal until you realise that your most precious bundle will be left with somebody you or they have never met before - this could be miles away, or even a different covering minder very day for up to two weeks...

Flexibility will probably be a thing of the past, as will parental choice as agencies will want to do what is best for them as a business not what works for the client and minder.

If agencies are enforced (and i think the government may find a way to do this, such as only agency CMs being able to accept tax credits or vouchers) I am fine, I can walk away from childcare, my own children are grown up, I have a degree, qualifications, and experience in other fields so I am not tied. However, your child will never get another childhood, don't let the government wreck it up for them!

There are no benefits from agencies to parents or to childminders, apart from a welcome reduction in unquantifiable scrutiny and arbitrary judgements from unqualified inspectors - for those who fear such things.

It is an exercise in cutting costs for government as it is so expensive to inspect individual childminders. They don't care who else has to pay as long as they can reduce the cost to themselves.

Only E Truss could come up with such an untested idea and fail to engage with Cms directly
The huge majority of CMs are against agencies and we hope to hear from parents who should be very weary of this proposal...agencies will not lower costs, there is no evidence at all.

Inspecting an agency will not ensure quality and parents should be very careful of this too

There is support to be had for those CMs who wish to remain independent, at a cost, but then Cms would rather pay an accredited provider for this and not an untested agency which could be run on a business model

I hope to see many more parents voice their opposition to agencies.
Although agencies are not compulsory and Truss has stated this very clearly no CM believes this promise will be kept in future

The one benefit I can see as a parent, is that it might make it easier to find a childminder. As a PP said, I was very limited when choosing because I had to find someone who could do the school run to DS's school. Might just be our local council, but it was virtually impossible to work out who fitted that criteria from the FIS website, so I had to fire off lots of e-mails, most of which never got replied to. Whereas I'd assume an agency would be reduce the number of people I'd have to contact to find one that works.

That said, that was one brief period of pain - I'd have been happy to pay a one-off fee for it, but on an ongoing basis I'm not sure what benefit I'd be getting from an agency?

In my opinion agencies will be another Tory exercise in privatisation.

Looking at this from the point of view of a parent who has used a child minder, and someone who is a child minder, I see no benefit to parent or child minder. The agency will rake in money from both sides, child minder's inspection gradings will be dubious, there will be less autonomy and flexibility in terms of quality of provision, policies, etc.

An independent child minder with a good local reputation and a well run setting has no need for an agency. The only people feeling the need for agencies are those wanting to cut costs and make money.

I will remain independent regardless - my main concern is that those who choose not to join an agency will be penalised in some way, most likely much higher fees from Ofsted.

I find all the propaganda at the moment regarding child care very worrying both as a parent and a child care professional. When the news of extended school hours was rejected by most, the next hit was headlines regarding the cost of childcare. It is time to really consider what you want from the child care sector for your children. The government's intent is not necessarily what is best for our children or for us as parents.

Childrens Centres were supposed to do all this - at least, that's what we were told when they started up. The difference was that childminders remained very much independent.

So all Liz Truss has done is waste an awful lot of money reinventing the wheel. Had she bothered to listen to the childminders and Early Years experts who tried to tell her, she might have used that money more wisely in reducing costs rather than adding to them.

I can't see how the agency will save much paperwork though. They can't log the children's hours, they can't do observations or planning for the children, they can't write their daily diaries. The invoicing and policies are a very small part of the admin involved.

That link is not going to work... It has strange codes in it which Mumsnet does not seem to like.

Link will this work

www.selwyntoddlers.co.nz/sites/selwyntoddlers/files/Home based Enrolment 2013, parent(2).pdf

based Enrolment 2013, parent(2).pdf Link

Found a based Enrolment 2013, parent(2).pdf Parent Info Pack from one of the New Zealand service providers (Agency?)

Spotted that they say ALL providers are closed on statutory holidays. That seems rather controlling, what if a home based provider wanted to be open? What if parents work for an organisation/company which does operate on a statutory holiday? Must be very hard those who work in medical, armed forces, police, fire & rescue, retail, hospitality, all sorts of occupations.

Jelly, constraints on what you can post on social media is something else people need to consider. If working for an agency, you have to abide by their rules, some of which you may not agree with.

Childminders in the UK are currently running their own business and I see these agencies coming in will mean that will change. There will be a boss, with admin staff, whose policies childminders may not fully agree with. Control is moved from being with the childminder to a company... will that result in some providers stopping?

I will be charging about $6 per hr the government only pays just over $4 per hrs for the 'free' hrs. I will have to justify the extra by saying something like I provide sun hats and suncream. I think the agency also get money for sorting out the 'free' house and the other subsidies. Just looked and it $11 per fortnight for payroll for the parents its the same service they use for the nannies as well. Can't really work out how they make money. They must get money from somewhere as the people that visit drive company cars. All seams a bit strange. Can't link you to any on here as there are rules about what you can say on social media in my contract. If you google home based care New Zealand you can look at how some of them run. One of them is run as part of a charity that works with children that is also in the uk. The must make money but I have no idea how.

A concern I had when i used agencies for nannies is that they need to place nannies. That is how they are paid.

They often want to do so quickly as it is less hassle for them, and cheaper on their overheads eg admin time.

So they ascertain your specific needs and they coach the prospective nannies in interview answers to meet them. I'm sure not all do, but mine did so. The nannies told me so.

I think this proposal could help more individuals who may be worried about the paperwork side to take up childminding. Our CM is fabulous and I suspect wouldn't need this support, but the amount of paperwork she has to do is mind-boggling and I can see how it would put a lot of people off. It's also very difficult for her when she or her assistant is unwell. In areas where there is a lack of decent childcare, encouraging people to set up as CMs at a fairly low risk must be a good thing I think. However, I do have reservations about how it might be implemented and how it will affect other CMs who are already up and running successfully. Potential additional charges are also a concern.

What will this agency do that isn't already out there. I got a list of registered cms from my local council, for free, fired off emails and phone calls, for free, visited those with spaces, for free, and picked the CM that we liked best. All for free.

I love my CM to bits, she loves ds and ds love her and her family.

Waste of time and money is what this is

Jelly - how does the $11 compare to cost of childcare? Is it an hour worth, 2 hours worth, 3 hours? Sounds quite a low admin fee, though does it vary depending on number of children being cared for?

I live in New Zealand and I am in the process of becoming a home based carer (child-minder) Here you go to an agency and they come out and visit your home and do all the paperwork needed to become registered.

From what I can work out some agency's collect the money from the parents so you don't have to. They charge about $11 a week for this. The agency then pay the home based carer. I will have to fill in an on line time sheet for every child. The agency also sort out the 20 hrs free for 3 year old and any other subsidy the parents are entitled to. The agency also have to visit each child in your once a mouth this means each child has to be in care at least 9hrs and seams to mean that childminders don't do wrap around care for pre-schools. They also help with guidance on the paperwork side which I think is very similar to the UK. I can see one plus of how it works here is there is support for those new to it. There is also someone who you should be able to talk about concerns about a child with how should also know the child. If this works in practise I don't know yet.

I'm a prospective childminder & the only pro I can see is from first time parents not having a word of mouth recommendation or being wary if someone not being accredited as part of a group and as pp have said big drawback is parents effectively paying double for services rather than 'interviewing' potential cms and standards slipping under the perceived safety net of an agency

I needed a cm to do wraparound care for my recpetion child and look after my young toddler five days a week. I was immediately limited to the three or four who did the school run to my dc's school. Then one never did younger children ...two only did four days a week and none had any vacancies anyway. So an agency wd have been pointless.

I use a lovely childminder, she is rated Outstanding by Ofsted which is one of the reasons I went to see her - her lovely kind manner and relaxed attitude with children (in a good way, she is so chilled she's horizontal and gives me great advice on toddler tantrums and many other aspects of childcare!)

Childminders are inherently a slightly scarier choice for many as you're trusting an individual, rather than buying into a scheme like a nursery. I need to be able to put my full trust in her, and also she is totally flexible and works with me - if she needs time off I try to accommodate that, if I need extra care or don't need a day she will try to accommodate me too. But essentially I trust her with my largely non verbal toddler, to care for him in her own home. It takes a huge amount of trust, more so IMO than using a nursery.

I feel like all the good things about a childminder are slightly undermined by the suggestion that they need to be part of an organisation. There would be pressure to standardise lots of things to make agency standards clear to the customers, like cost, food, hours and so on that most childminders like to negotiate and discuss.

But mostly I would really really struggle to trust an individual who wasn't inspected by Ofsted, only by the agency who is reliant on the childminders' success to survive itself! It's like schools' self-assessment, when Ofsted rely on this and don't ask the right questions, schools which should be unsatisfactory are graded outstanding and vice versa.

I agree that it is a way for private companies to make money at the expense of services which have been developed often over many years by local authorities and voluntary groups.

I sometimes think this government want to abolish local authorities altogether and have everything run by private companies

I think the same as most of the above posters. Why on earth are they going to introduce an agency middleman where there is no need for one? I have spent 4 years building up my own successful business, reputation and Ofsted grading - I have no intention of letting an agency take the credit for that. I have not come across one single childminder who thinks this is a good idea and I would be interested to know if anyone has. Liz Truss needs to start listening.

To me as a potential customer, it sounds a bit like a chance for a Tory donor to make some more money out of me by providing sweet FA and raking it in from both sides. I wouldn't trust a childminding agency any more than any other recruitment agency.

Surely the whole point of going to a childminder is that it's personal?

I don't think it's a very good idea for either childminders or parents. I'd want to choose my own childminder and not go through an agency. The best way to choose a childminder is by personal recommendation.

I also actually think a third party when choosing childcare isn't desirable.

With my families I was approached by people I knew,recommended or stalked in one case having been observed from afar for a while.

I worked in an average sized town with a strong community I guess.There are lots of childminders and I'd personally be happy to use all of them as I know them all.

Over the years we've attended the same pre-schools and schools with our own children.I've seen them in action at toddler groups,music groups etc.All of said childminders work closely with the pre-schools and schools who also know them well.We had regular meetings,shared resources,trips,ideas etc and supported each other.We also used to recommend each other and would know who would be ideal for a particular family,who had spaces etc.

It seems to work very well and I think the above is far more beneficial to families(and children) then a faceless agency taking money.