Want to register as a Childminder? Better do it before September

[MrAnchovy]

I know a few MNers have recently registered as Childminders and found that they had to bypass the red tape of their Local Authority to avoid unnecessary delays in registering. Unfortunately it seems that from September you will no longer be able to do this - and the National Childminders Association is NCMA encouraging this and other increases in the burden of regulation and compliance for childminders as below:

• The NCMA wants all childminders to be required to achieve a NVQ Level 3 qualification within five years of registration.

• The NCMA wants all prospective childminders to be required to attend training and pass a test in delivery of the EYFS before being allowed to be childminders.

• The NCMA wants all prospective childminders to be required to undertake mandatory safeguarding training (as well as first-aid training) before being allowed to be childminders.

• The NCMA believes that all registered childminders should be required to attend annual refresher courses on safeguarding.

• The NCMA supports the principle that all childminders are legally required to deliver the EYFS, even if they only provide wrap around care.

• NCMA supports the requirement for providers to give parents a written summary of their child's development in the prime areas when their child is 24-36 months.

• The NCMA wants childminders to be responsible for ensuring (so far as is reasonably practicable) that corporal punishment is not used on a child by any person who cares for them.

Speaking as a parent, I don't want my childminder to be required to do any of this - I want my childminder to be a 'second family' for my children, not an under-resourced imitation of a pre-school.

I support the NCMA proposals, obviously you don't. Watching children is a responsible job and I would expect the CM to have attended safeguarding training, and I definitely want the CM to ensure no corporal punishment is used! I am not sure why you haver emphasised any person in relation to not using corporal punishment? Why would you object to not using CP?

Speaking as a parent I support all of those recommendations, but I do not think of CM as a second family. But nor do I think CM is an imitation of pre-school.

As a childminder I voted at an NCMA conference 9 years ago for the resolution that members have a full relevant L3 within 5 years of registering
We already have to do Safeguarding training & it's normally covered in the initial training course (was ICP when I did it) - only change is CMs will have to complete it before registering instead of within 6months which I believe is a good thing. We also have a current duty to ensure our safeguarding knowledge is kept up to date so an annual refresher would cover that
We already have to deliver the EYFS for wrap around but the new EYFS has reduced the burden of this making clear that we will not have to do full obs & learning journals for before/after school care & school holidays
I have no problem with the 2-3 year check. I already provide annual progress reports for parents & in our area the HV's currently rely on parents answering a ticklist for the check, and hope that pre-schools will flag any issues. They don't see the children unless there is a 'concern'. At least this way the check is being performed by someone who really knows the child & if they need any support
Not sure about your issue re the corporal punishment comment. We have a duty of care and to me that is all part of my job

I am a childminder. I am happy to be required to do these things as I am a professional childcarer with equal status to other forms of childcare & would like this to be formally recognised. I am not an imitation pre-school. Equal does not mean the same. I can comply with the EYFS without copying a preschool and I do. I have 2 outstandings that show that Ofsted agree & numerous comments from parents to show that they are happy too. I provide a homely, caring, child & family centred environment for the children in my care , the 'second family' you refer to. The two are not mutually exclusive.

I know some fantastic Childminders without a level 3.

How are we supposed to ensure that parents or grandparents don't use corporal punishment?

Does NCMA represent the Majority or the Minority of childminders these days? In the past their membership levels were quite high but these days I wonder if they even represent 50% of registered childminders, yet alone those who don't need to register.

Anyone know current membership figures?

any person may mean more than just the childminder themselves - so may mean the childminder telling parents how to raise their own children. Is that why it was highlighted?

I've been registered 18 months. These proposals will make it much easier for me to confirm that this is only a short term job for me rather than a long term career.

As someone on here said a few months ago, they want a CM to be able to 'be bosomly and know their way around a fish finger sandwich'.

If they want more CMs to leave the profession then NCMA are going the right way about it. I wonder if the current extension of membership to non childminders is because so many CMs have left NCMA that they're not bringing in enough £ from those they've got left?

Thanks for clarification,I thought the CP reference was in the CM home,so extended family of CM must not use CP? On the face of it I don't think the proposals are overly onerous, but I am not a CM. Again, as a parent I would be inclined to see it as introducing rigorous standards and check and balance.

NiceShoes you may not be aware that many Local Authorites restrict access to the required training, making it impossible for even a qualified Nursery Nurse (for instance) to register as a childminder in less than 12 months under this new regime. I agree that the current situation, where a childminder can 'register now and train later' is less than ideal, but the right solution to that is IMHO to have a nationally approved training scheme that could be accessed independently from the LA, not to revert to the old system where childminders were run by some local authoraties as private fiefdoms.

The NCMAs recommendation on corporal punishment is very strange so I am going to repeat it here verbatim:

"Providers must not give corporal punishment to a child. Corporal punishment must not be used on a child who is being cared for at the setting by any other staff member or a person who is in regular contact with the children at the setting, or any other person who lives or works on the premises. . They should also ensure (so far as is reasonably practicable) that corporal punishment is not used on a child by any person who cares for the children."

Given that the first two sentences cover the childminder and anyone working or living with them, surely the last sentence refers to people who are nothing to do with the childminder - parents, pre-school teachers etc.? Now I think that this may just be a case of bad editing - the original consultation document only included a sentence similar to the last one so it was clear (to me at least) that it only referred to people under the childminders influence, so perhaps that is not what the NCMA meant - but who knows?

Anyone know current membership figures?

NCMA quote 38,000 childminders. Ofsted have about 58,000 CMs on the Compulsory Register - I don't know if NCMAs figure includes some not on the register (8+ only etc.).

Bl

That was going to say bloody Nora....

That is just utter madness. What they suggest just is not feasible as things stand.

I am a CM (just starting up) I went on a course recently run by my L.A about social and emotional development.
We were told not to use the naughty step technique, I thought fair enough I will find another way as I rarely use it with my own. However, we were told that we should advise parents not to as well.
I was a bit at the fact I am supposed to tell parents how to discipline their child. Quite frankly it isn't my business how they discipline, providing they are not abusing them.
Is it illegal to smack your own children? I have no idea! Obviously there is no way I would smack or use other form of corporal punishment on a mindee/ my own. But just wonder what the law says on the subject.

The NCMA seem to be making it v difficult.

Cuffing It isn't illegal to smack your own children. Whilst I understand that perhaps no-one likes to see or know that a child is being smacked (I certainly don't think there are many who enjoy doing it - it's also something we chose not to do with our own DD) I don't see how NCMA propose that CMs stop parents and other carers doing something that is entirely within the bounds of the law!

Flisspaps I didn't think it was. When the women running the course said we should advise parents on discipline techniques I said I don't think so for £3.50 per hour and that in actual fact you could smack your children if you wanted so it wouldn't be any of my business to start saying how they should discipline their DC's. She said it wasn't legal and was a safeguarding issue. She made me doubt what I knew! I don't think it is the best way to discipline children but it is a method some patents use within the realms of the law.
It really annoys me how much they want you as a CM to interfere in people's lives.

Thanks be to jaysus the bunch of self-important gobshites at the NCMA have nothing to do with childminders where I live.

I would immediately remove my children from the care of anyone who felt it was their place to tell me how to discipline them.

Like the OP, I choose to hire a childminder because I want my children to be looked after somewhere that is like a second home, where there is a small number of children of varying ages, and where the interactions are more lime family than formal childcare.

I don't want them "educated" or monitored, I don't want written reports, just adults that care for them and somewhere they can have a nice time while I'm at work.

I just want someone kind, experienced and who likes children.

OMG at the the last part - what if a parent smacks their child and I'm not aware about it??!! How the is it fair that I'm responsible for that?!!! Sod that, I've been doing this nearly 7 years now and I can see both sides of the rest of MrA's list but I am at a loss for words regarding the last bit!!!

I wanted to be a childminder because I like children, I am naturally good with them.
I thought it would be and ideal way of being able to take my own to and from school and be there for them, whilst offering home from home care for other children.
So far I am just fed up of the paperwork and the unrealistic expectations put on one person when schools, pre schools and nurseries have lots of people to do the same work. (although they have more children)
I think home care should be of high quality but there is so much involved. I have no mindees yet but I am seriously doubting wether I want to even continue!

High quality home care should not involve much paperwork - contract, invoices, notice of holidays, that's pretty much it.

There is a weird fetishisation of paperwork in this country at present, and an utterly mistaken conflation of paperwork and "professionalism".

Mr anchovy, have you written to DfE? They, not NCMA set the requirements, regulations etc.

I haven't written to anybody - I posted what the NCMA wrote to the DfE in response to consultation on the revised EYFS. No the NCMA don't set the rules, but they are positively encouraging the introduction and increase of regulation.

I have been a childminder for more years than I want to own up to. My first minded child is now in University and still visits me and writes me letters as do many of the children I have cared for. They all say they thought of my house as their second home. During this time I have managed to keep my paper work to a minimum (even though my title makes one think this is not the case, I chose that name because I am good at keeping my paperwork at a manageable level)

All I use is one journal (NCMA oops) for each of my under EYFS children; one daily diary sheet per day (made by me and used by many) which shows the time the children arrived/left/what their parents said to me on arrival if relevant e.g. child was restless in night, teething etc/what they ate during the day/the activities they were involved in/how this tied in with their learning and development/next steps/confirms I did a risk assessment check 1st thing of the premises/whether I did a fire drill or alarm check that day/any visitors I had at the setting/if we had been anywhere on a visit. All this fits on a A4 sheet and is filled in as we go through the day (only takes minutes) I also add photos to this file as this keeps an ongoing setting record even when the children have left.

I have a policy & procedures file

And then my accounts stuff

And that is it. I have been 3 times classed as 'outstanding' by ofsted and have never had a vacancy.

As for training, I don't think I would feel comfortable leaving my children with someone who had not had any training in safeguarding, first aid or basic childcare. I did a Level 3 NVQ in childcare learning and Development and a Level 3 in the EYFS (yes the old one), and I found I learned things that helped me make my setting not only a great place to hang out but also somewhere that gave the children a fantastic start in life (what I would want for my own children). I'm afraid a comfy busom and jam butties would not be enough for me.

In case anyone is wondering, I am up with toothache, broke a tooth couple of days ago and its really hurting. Going to the dentist today to get it sorted. Going back to bed to try to get some sleep again.

I do like fish finger butties by the way, so do my mindees, its one of their favourites and I am quite bussomly. Now I really do need to go to bed. I have no earlies today, first arriving at 10 as its school hols, yeh !!!!

oops remembered as I was climbing stairs; not sure its because its late or early, I forgot, I do have two other files; Setting Records - contracts, child record forms, permission slips (photos, sun cream etc), dog booster records etc... and one Personal File which includes my CV, course certificates, etc.

I have a similar level of bumf (my L.A are very good at training CMs). Not done a daily record sheet yet. I was going to have a book but after working in a nursery I like the sheet idea.
I haven't any mindees yet! Hopefully I have people for September.
I was really up for the whole thing when I started the process in March last year, but I have been messed about a fair bit. I lost out on a couple of families starting with me because Ofsted delayed my application by not sending a request to the inspection team when they should.
Just a little bit jaded! Plus DS2 starts his 15hours funded place next week so I will have some free time! Wondering wether I want to fill that time with other people's children!

I hope your tooth is better!

I want to be recognised as a professional and I view myself as such - I am caring for someone's child which is a huge responsibility & I believe it is the least that they deserve. I also believe in regulation. I know it doesn't help everyone & will always have flaws but it does provide some protection & raise standards. I am fully aware that there are excellent unqualified childcarers out there but also that there is a lot of evidence to show if children need to be in childcare the long term outcomes for such children overall improve where they are cared for by a well informed, qualified workforce. I know from personal experience that the more training I have done the better I have understood 'why' and as a result my practice has definitely improved. I agree that there is a misapprehension that lots of paperwork = professionalism & I know this is not the case. I have very little day to day paperwork & although I do have a comprehensive range of policies these are for the benefit of my business & I would have them whether regulated or not. I also think many childminders have created a lot of unnecessary paperwork as a result of scaremongering, poor local authority training on the EYFS & inconsistent Ofsted inspectors.
Incidentally I do have a big bosom but am not keen on jam butties - now if you are offering bacon...