change to cm ratios

[squinker45]

I heard on the news that the government is thinking of increasing cm ratios in order to make childcare more affordable to parents... I think this is a bit of a cheek as a cm - more work for the same money, and ultimately the children will get less attention. Anyone think of an upside?

Upside? The government can't tell me how many children to take on or how much to charge!

No-one will make you take on more children though squinker, so you would only take on as many as you feel able to care for appropriately.

That is true, no-one can tell me who to take on or how much to charge - it's a bit of a cheek though that the government is assuming that cms who are self employed, would be willing to do more for less money.
Especially if we are not being inspected anymore. Maybe they are hoping the inspection thing will make business hard so we will cave and start charging less?

How would it be less money though?

More children = more money.

I think the point is that this goes hand in hand with de regulation. We won't actually be able to choose who we have. It will e decided for us by an agency who would then take a % of our earnings and also we would be inspected a a network and graded with others in network. Take a look at the deregulation of childminders.

And we will still be inspected. It has been suggested that we go into small 'groups' and a random selection of that group are inspected and an overall group grade given rather than a guaranteed individual inspection (which is frankly ridiculous IMO) but inspections wouldn't be done away with. But this is one suggestion, and is being campaigned against by a lot of CMs.

From September Ofsted won't be dealing with variations any more. If you have your own under 1 you can take on another under 1 provided you can provide appropriate care and risk assess for this, and there will be slight changes to how many EYFS children you can have if they are siblings with continuity of care BUT you can still only have 6 under 8 at once.

If you are on childmindingforum then Sarah Neville has put a document on there outlining the changes for September 2012.

What is worrying although we don't want to lower our charges or take on more children (which is going away from the whole concept of giving every child individual care and attention) if we are deregulated and it becomes easy to become a childminder, a mum who already has 2/3 kids of her own, could still take on 3 more at a low rate, especially if she isn't a main income earner, so we could be seriously undercut. And lets face it, although I would like to think that parents will look at quality, as the recession deepens cost will be even more important. So if someone down the road is charging £2.50 an hour, of course they aren't going to pay me at £3.75.

They expect us (as we will be allowed 6 under 8 anyage) to lower our hourly rate so were a cheaper option for parents returning to work

I think some of you need to read up on the revised EYFS because your understanding on how variations will work is not correct.

Nicknacks: it's not the ratios the oP is talking about. It's the possible change if de regulation occurs. Well that's how I read it!

The new EYFS and regs only state that variations won't be issued anymore from September and it will be down to I divi dual childminders to prove they can care for 2 under 1s or up to 6 under 5s BUT they have to have permission from all parents, prove the can cope and also not exceed the 6 maximum.

What Bonkerz says - more clearly than I did!

Yes but you still have to follow current guidelines- ie variations to be considered for siblings and continuity of care. You can't just randomly sign up new business so you have 6 under 5's. And I was referring to those who are saying its under the revised new EYFS, not the de-reg.

No I heard that it was being considered to increase ratios as in, be allowed more children to make cming a cheaper option, like they do in some other European countries. Not just variations within the current guidelines. However, this was only a bit on the news so not something that would happen definitely

Squinker...... This would only happen if childminders became de registered and went through agencies.

Ofsted has confirmed to NCMA that from September they will not issue variations and any checks for numbers etc will be done via inspection but you only need to evidence ability to cope. For example You could have twins in September aged under 1 and new business and Aslong as you get permission from other parents/do not go over 6 max an can prove physically u can cope ie double/triple buggy /sleep areas/highchairs you will b e fine.

There's no way I wll be taking on more children for less money, my parents don't want it either. The day an agency takes a per-cent of my money, is the day I pack in. So will a lot of child minders. I understand it's only talk, I know someone is looking into child care costs and what it costs Ofsted to do inspections etc. I would be willing to pay Ofsted more each year and keep it as it is than do the agency thing. Its not really working well in Belgium where this system is already in use. Why don't these goverment officials talk to chidlminders, we will work it out for them and save them money in the process which is the only thing they really care about.

It's not six children under five, it's still six children under eight, of which only three may be in the early years age group (ie until the 31 August folllowing their 5th birthday, by which point they may be nearly six).