What a load of ...... !

[WrigsAndJiggs]

Childminders, how on earth do you cope with this (childcare link website)?

Looking for childcare, I have just typed in my postcode and done a search. Apparently there are no CMs within one mile of me (yet I know there certainly are), and within 2 miles of me there are 185 CMs.

So I started going through them one by one, only to find that the map must be off centred or something because they are all 4/5 miles away.

Arrrghhhhh!

oh don't get me started

It's the biggest pile of poo ever and us CMs are v v cross

To use some very un childminderish language it's a pile of shite .

My phone number is wrong, apparently I'm not ofsted reg'd (so shouldn't be on their anyway) and I live 10 miles away from my post code WTF?

So IMHO I think it needs a little work.

Stick a post on the childcare wanted thread on here, someone will point you in the right direction.

Surely you get loads of people phoning up as prospective mindees who are nowhere near you?

Yip had a couple who got the right number through my website addy, who were a bit when they realised I lived in the next town.

I think they should give all childcarers a passwork thing so that they can input their own details, at least it would be right then.

sorry password

contact your local family information service at your local council for a list of childminders. I've given up trying to get my details correct on the direct.gov website its a complete load of rubbish and I'm losing work because of it, i'm seriously considering packing it all in as I need to be able to advertise for new mindees in april when 2 of mine leave.

Have just done it on my friends postcode and it is showing her as being a mile away yet there are apparently almost 50 childcare services 0 miles away (highly doubt that!!!) and it's not showing her own contact details but the nearest FIS instead, when I know for a fact she has supplied them with her own contact details. Also the vacancy details are wrong - massively!!

Ha and her registration date was in 1899!!!!

I apparently do not live within 2 miles of my own house and I registered sometime over 100 years ago as well!

I agree that they do get a lot of things wrong but a lot of childminders chose not to have their details on the website for various reasons so that's why some do not appear.

I haven't been on my local council list for over two years as I was getting so many phone calls every day. I felt guilty having to turn people away so had my details removed.

I know most childminders would like to be in this situation but in my area there's a high demand for childminders/nannies/nurseries but not enough to go round!

try www.childcare.co.uk it's much much better

Sorry to say this but childminders themselves decided that the postcode data should be withheld. 719 responded to the consultation.

Ofsted: Outcome of the consulatition on publishing the Early Years and Childcare Registers (linked version is from Google Cache, as it converts the .doc to HTML)

Question 1. Should we publish the name and address of the registered person? 
All groups except childminders think that this information is essential.
Childminders? concerns related to the publication of personal information and a fear that having such information publicly available may place children at greater risk. 
~~~ End Quote ~~~

This has now had the knock on effect of the new database system being pretty useless at finding childminders, as it is not able to use the full postcode data of where the childminder lives (as doing so would identify where someone lived).

In their 08-09 annual report NCMA lists as one of it's achievements the following:
"NCMA continues to lobby and update the political parties in England and Wales on policies and changes in childcare. In partnership with the other childcare organisations, NCMA was represented at the three main political party conferences in September. NCMA, led by the support of members, was influential in persuading Ofsted to retain the status quo in not publishing individual childminder?s address details on its website."

So if you are an NCMA member, write to NCMA requesting that they change their view with regard to publishing childminder's address details. 

How this is now having an affect on how the PKHD operates:

From the PKHD Information Guide
~~~ Quote ~~~
Element Simple Name: Consent to show
Address
Sets whether the provider consents to have physical address details published. 
Note: for providers / services to be found in localised searches, at a minimum the postcode must be included in the ECD file. If ConsentVisibleAddress is set to False then the providers address details are not shown in the search results or in the detailed record and the location of the provider is not displayed on any mapping information when the search & discovery interface is used. 
NOTE: If a provider has elected to withhold their address information then it is up to the LA to ensure that no address information that can uniquely and specifically locate that service should be uploaded to the aggregator at all. 
However, the likely expectation will be that the provider should still be findable in a search which specifies childcare in their general area ? e.g. in their city or town.
To enable this, SettingDetails.Postcodeoutcode needs to be populated. (The outcode is the first part of the postcode ? e.g. S32, S3, SE14)
~~~ End Quote ~~~
The source of this datafield is: Ofsted (Provider:Provider ConsentWithheld)
FIS can not modify the field.
So one possible way to have this changed is to write to Ofsted to specifically request that your own record is marked such that this field is set to FALSE. Then Ofsted's system should send the full postcode through to the PKHD database.

NOTE: If Ofsted do change this database field to False, it will reveal your full postcode to anyone who uses the Ofsted website, Direct.gov and other websites with access to the database. For Home Childcarers (such as Nannies) this will reveal the address at which you work, rather than your home address.

The PKHD Information Guide is well worth a read, as it has a table of all the fields which can be edited by FIS - so knowing what can be edited will help to tell FIS what you want displayed.

Just checked the system today and in my area GU18, childminders are being listed with their full postcodes. This is an improvement on previous, as before it wasn't listing anyone. Though as it now has full postcode data, it could be a fault! I quite like that fault

We didn't want our full addresses displayed because we live on the premises and it was a security issue for many of us. Postcodes have never been a problem before, though. It works on the OFSTED website, after all.

The new database doesn't seem to work in the same way as Ofsted's search system. So it's either a case of having the full postcode used and displayed, or having just the Outbound code used. When the outbound code is used, it will not be very accurate, as I think there are around 3600 outbound codes covering the whole of the UK.

Ideally they should have used the same system that Ofsted use (which I think stores the full postcode and uses that for distance calculation but does not actually display the postcode). Maybe the new system will eventually do that, given that they have a field which is marking the record as being for display, or not. For now though it does not seem to do so... thus why parents searching for a childminder will not get accurate distance results.

I also think it depends a lot on your own local CIS/FIS uploading information correctly and also you making sure that your information with them is updated regularly. I updated mine recently & now am at the top of my listing for my postcode & also those who follow down are correctly positioned for our postcodes. IYSWIM. Previously the information was as you all have described but after talking to our CIS they have tweaked it & I think got used to 'Tribal' which is the system used to upload to the Direct Gov website.

It's so fustrating. I have looked at the childcare.co.uk site, but object to paying to fully register (and therefore be able to send messages) when there's no guarentee that I'll find someone able to do the hours I need.

wrigsandjigs, I know. It used to be free. I was so but I couldn't sort anything anywhere else, so paid the 12.99 for 3 months (4?) and then cancelled the subscription via email once I found someone.
I wrote a long ranting email about how the charge just for seeing contact information was really cheeky and would prevent a lot of cms and parents from joining. I got a looooong email back saying how many members they have cms and nannies and parents and nurseries...etc. and that they are a service who has costs and needs to charge a fee.
You COULD just peruse the parents looking for childcare and if there's someone you like, ask someone you know who has paid to join to look up that username and they can then easily get their contact details? I'm still paid for a few months. Want me to do a search for you? Granted, not as easy as putting your info on and having parents find you... but you could get lucky if a parent is on there looking in your area for your hours!

handy tip, when you look at a childminder on childcare.co.uk the childminder will know you looked, if she has a suitable space (if you filled out the parent profile putting in your childcare requirements) she will probably contact you.
goggle childminder ??..(your area)- try various local towns/villages around your location, lots have web sites
go to Ofsted/reports, enter your postcode and read reports, look for Outstanding or Good and then phone the CIS with their unique number to ask for the childminders phone number.
phone CIS/FIS for full list
find out if there are childminders at the toddler group you attend.

I have vacancies Outstanding Ofsted between bognor/littlehampton and arundel