De-Regulation Proposal Petition - Don't Ignore

[pippin26]

Seeing as Ms Truss - the woman who first mooted the idea of us minders being de-regulated has now made it to a position of 'power' - ie Early Years Minister, its even more important than ever to get this petition signed and shared.

Please sign it colleagues. It WILL affect you. It WON'T mean no EYFS or paperwork, it MAY mean you have to join an agency and pay a percentage of your earnings to the agency. You MAY be graded based on someone elses inspection. You MAY be told how many children you can care for, you may not even get the choice of who you take on. It could even be dictated how much you can charge.

do you REALLY want that?

OK, there are a lot of maybes - Ms Truss has spoken of the (failing) Danish models.

Childminders in the UK have worked long and hard and jumped through many many hoops in the past few years to start becoming recognised as the professionals we are.

Ms Truss wants to take away our choices and the parents choices, our professionalism and our earnings. We are self/employed - how on earth can they justify telling us how much we can charge....

Big names in the childcare world are anti these proposals.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sign
Please get your friends, family, neighbours, clients (current and ex), colleagues in all sectors (because I am sure we will not be the only part of the sector affected)
Slap it all over facebook and twitter
let local colleagues know - email them, ask your local FIS or EY team to forward perhaps
join the FB group - Say No to Childminder Deregulation for updates and more information (at least then you can make an informed objective decision!!!)

www.change.org/en-GB/​petitions/​uk-government-reject-proposals-​to-deregulate-childminders

There is another thread on this...
Truss is not Minister but an Under Secretary and her agency model is Dutch not Danish...if only she looked at Denmark she would realise how much that govt invests in childcare !!

You are right it won't mean no EYFS or less documentation but it will also mean that a few c/ms within the agency will be inspected at random
It will take away our choice and also the parents'...it is them who need to join in this fight as well...if they want their children looked after by high quality c/ms !!!

Can I point out that one of the reasons some childminders are not signing up is simply that they don't have internet access?
I download and book training courses for 3 offline childminders in my area. Is there any way these childminders can get their voices heard?

oopps you are right Italiana - my brain is totally frazzled tonight - duh!

but anyhoooooooo PLEASE sign the petition :)

Tanith I think there are plans to get a paper version underway ... bear with me and I will find out the information....

you can sign the petition using your smart phone
www.sn2doc

Petitons really need to reflect what is going on...at present Truss has not made her proposals known...once she does we can then fight this and word it appropriately

No Truss has not made her intentions clear at all, however like I say she has raised the idea about using the (failing) Dutch model - agency working, capping fees, and so on. This government are fully hellbent on making cuts (rightly or wrongly) however Early Years is so important, self employed people - us minders are at risk of being dicated to....

I believe the current petition is worded pretty much appropriately and I think by adopting a 'wait and see' approach will be leaving it too late. Gove has already said about 'phase 1 of deregulation' lending credence to that something is already underway.
I think the time is NOW to fight it.

I also think that once the spotlight has been turned on us, other sectors will be 'targeted too'.

Could I suggest putting a link in a more prominent part of the website? One of the other 'deregulation' issues is increasing ratios to the Dutch level. I live in NL and would not use a nursery here as I think the adult:child ratios are inadequate.

I originally put the lnik to the petition here months and months ago ..only for Mumsnet to remove as not appropriate

Truss does want more children in our care and that has already been introduced in the EYFS where, under exceptional circumstances c/ms can have more than 3 children after assessing all needs ..that can only be an exception not the norm (see page 21 EYFS)

We must fight this as not appropriate...also if you look after more than 3 under 5s we will have less spaces for the after school children and for holiday care which will make the shortage for this type of care worse...something I did discuss with the DfE yesterday as it was Theme 1 of the Childcare Commission

Of course there are times when I feel more than 3 may be ok for a short time, it was dispensation before, but some may abuse this and then we will have accidents and be blamed...would an agency also push more children on us?

So caution here !! It will be seen as making more money and lowering fees which this is what it is all about !! No one I know would lower their fees if looking after more children...it will be hard work and why should we as we are not expensive anyway

Today I read some parents may be hit by cuts as much as £4000 in childcare benefits...that is why childcare is expensive to them as they get no help from this govt

Message from the Petition organiser today:

Penny Webb

After our achievement of yesterday of reaching our 10,000 signature mark - we now need to set our sights on the next target of 15,000 - it really is very important - news reaching me is that the governments ARE going to deregulate the WHOLE early years sector - and that increasing ratio's for childminders and playgroups / nurseries is now very likely. We still do not have any information from the government and so still need keep up the pressure to make them reconsider. They only way we can do this is keep plugging the petition. Please pass on to as many as possible - don't assume they have all signed - yesterday I insisted my DH re promoted at his place of work - a couple had already signed - but 6 more signed yesterday - and hopefully they will now pass on to others . Every signature really does help.

www.change.org/en-GB/​petitions/​uk-government-reject-proposals-​to-deregulate-childminders

The question of deregulation was discussed on Monday when I met the DfE

The statement above does not confirm what the DfE says...we are delivering the EYFS with less regulation and that is for the entire workforce

until E Truss publishes her proposals we do not know what will happen
It would be unfair if news reached one person and not the entire workforce and the DfE is still looking at the Childcare Commission which will inform what their next action is going to be
By all means lets continue our fight but not scare people...deregulation will take a bit of time as the law needs to be changed !

I can only go by what I am being told elsewhere and its a source I trust, whom I know has close links to various sources.

I can see if the person involved will pop over here and post directly.

Personally I do not see it as 'scaring' anyone, I am genuinely concerned regarding the job I enjoy as a self employed person.

I didn't think we were allowed to link to petitions here?

are we not? didn't know about that BIWI....

apologies if I am in breech of rules.....

still a very important subject though don't you think?

My original link was removed by Mumsnet...no worry people can find it anywhere

Pippin I hear you , yes a very important subject...I also know the person...we are all extremely concerned and need support and reassurance from those who represent us but nothing is coming from them, that is why I went to the DfE on Monday ...for me...my job...my children and because I don't want to listen to speculation heard in various forums, we are all worried

Please read above..we are less regulated via EYFS (DfE words not mine) and hopefully the CCommission will suggest further ways to reduce burdens
What we need to fight is the agency model if that is what Truss will announce but it will take a few more days

If you are a member of any association ask them for clarification..I tried this morning but got nowhere but will not stop there...you can always ring the DfE and ask them directly