New childminding agencies - what do you think?

[KatieMumsnet]

The government have announced changes to the way childminders can work. The Children and Families Bill (2013) will allow the creation of a new system called childminder agencies. Some might be community based agencies, others may be nationally run private-sector organisations.

The government hope agencies will become "‘one-stop-shop’ organisations which will help childminders with training, business support, advice and finding suitable parents...attracting new high-quality providers and create[ing] more choice for parents."

You can find more information here, but essentially:

Agencies will offer advice and help with finding a childminder and will handle administrative arrangements, but this may include parents paying fees to the agencies.

Agencies will ensure a childminder is suitably qualified and receiving support, development and training and can help to handle day to day issues and emergencies, including ensuring that cover is provided if a childminder is unwell or on holiday.

Childminders don’t have to join agencies and can choose to stay independent. If they stay independent, Ofsted will still inspect them individually, but if they join an agency, Ofsted will asses the agency ensuring the agency is happy with the quality of provision and has carried out thorough checks on its childminders, including regular home visits.

Ofsted are now seeking parents' views on how they should conduct inspections of agencies. If you'd like to take part you can read more here and take the online survey [[
www.surveymonkey.com/s/ofsted-cma2014 here]]

It would also be really helpful to hear your views; do you like the sound of childminder agencies, would they help you find childcare, are you reassured by the idea of Ofsted inspecting the agencies? Do let us know your thoughts on the thread below.

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.

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?

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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....

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).

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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 !!!

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.

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).

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.

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

I see the au pair market widening...