Route into Childminding -through an agency like Tiny or through the council/ofsted ?

[MamaToARockstar]

Hi mama's

Do any of you have experience in childminding and if so do you have any advice for me to get started. I'm thinking to do it together with my husband so we can both work from home . I'm assuming as two adults/carers we would be allowed double the number of children for one adult ?

Also main question really - which would you recommend - using an agency like tiny or going through your local councils childminding route ?

Many thanks in advance

Looking forward to hearing from you

Tara

I registered years ago so have no experience on current paths into childminding but your LA should have details online of their procedures. No idea regarding agencies, do you know any local childminders that you can ask? The number of children ‘could’ be double but it’s also dependent on the space available rather than just the number of people registered to care for children.

Whereabouts in the country are you as the rules vary a bit in different parts of the UK. In Wales you have to go through the the

Gah, sorry didn't mean to post! You have to go through the council and ciw. I'm assuming you're in England though as you mention Ofsted...

There are planning regulations in Wales too that mean you couldn't have more than a certain number without getting planning permission.

Pacey are a good place to get info - the association for childcare and early years

I would never go with an Agency there is plenty of support and paperwork out there free or included in your insurance.
The average rate in my area is £6 Tiny say I could easily make £56k a year....that's rubbish and if I charged the £9.60 they say I'd have no work. I work hard for my money and don't want to pay an agency a percentage when I could just pay Ofsted £35 a year. Plus my insurance. The LA has vacancy lists as does childcare.co.uk and Pacey
Ofsted is pretty painless yes we get stressed before hand but the grading is ours and cant be taken away like an agency grading could.
One agency this year has been graded inadequate leaving childminders not sure if they could continue taking funded places. One has shut.

when I trained I did it through my LA, I also back up what Jennier says, I would never go through an agency, I work for myself and would not want to pay them a percentage of my earnings. Also there was a case recently where the agency failed an Ofsted inspection so none of the childminders registered with them could work.

I'd agree with the above, as someone who has been around the childminders, the agency ones are out of step on pricing in our area. They seem to have flashy web pages and everything looks smart, so the money is going on something that adds value, but we didn't want to pay over 300+ pounds a month extra

My concern about Tineys is their training seems to be nursery-based. Plenty of stuff about "a home nursery", whatever they think that is, and emphasis on their trainers being from nurseries.

A childminder is not a nursery. They do far, far more than a nursery practitioner because there is no staff to take on the admin, the food, the finances, dealing with the authorities, the safeguarding etc. etc. so the training leaves huge gaps for what they actually need. Very concerning!

I'm also flabbergasted at the nerve of these agencies pretending that their childminders are anything out of the ordinary! "Home nursery" indeed! What do they think we do all day?! All I can see is that someone, somewhere has plenty of money to promote them on a flashy website.

I have used a Tiney childminder in the past and she was excellent. The fact she had the accreditation and the app etc made me feel more confident going for her too.

Why would you feel more confident because she had a Tiney app?

There are apps that many childminders use, by the way - Kinderly, Tapestry, Famly for example - and we're all registered with either Ofsted or an agency. It doesn't really make any difference, just a tool to help us do our job.

Not sure what you mean by accreditation, but I'm assuming it's something like the Network childminders that were set up by the NCMA under Labour. I was accredited for nursery education through that, as were a lot of us. It's nothing new at all.

What about the app and accreditation made you feel more confident?

Having looked at the Tiney website when doing it's comparisons to other types of childcare it conveniently overlooks non Tiney childminders and also implies it's childminders all come from teaching or education backgrounds it boasts about creative and active play based learning and following the EYFS but doesn't point out that all registered settings do this. If you've no experience of childminders you would think it's something special.

So they lie, then? They’re on SM trying to recruit anyone to become registered with them, not just nursery staff and teachers!
Just another entrepreneur trying to make his money from our hard work!