As most of you will be aware, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has launched a consultation into a proposed new fees structure for the Early Years Register (EYR), which will be compulsory for all childminders caring for children under 5, and the Ofsted Childcare Register (OCR), which will be compulsory for those childminders only caring for children aged from 5 to 7.
The consultation proposes increasing both application and annual fees for the OCR to £103 in September 2008 and fees for the EYR to £100 in 2010. This would mean a total of over £200 a year in fees for these registers alone!!!
To gives your views on the consultation, please go to this website dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/conDetails.cfm?consultationId=1512 - the deadline is 20th February 2008 so PLEASE make this priority!
If you are a member of the NCMA, you should have received an email from them with extra things you can do to have your say - again, very well worth doing, it's just putting your name and address on a standard letter and emailing them back! If you are a member and haven't had this email, please contact them and ask them about it, give them an email address and I'm sure they'll send it on!!
To have fees going up from £15 to over £200 per year is madness!!!