Hello - I'm a Mum of two and also a Childminder. I have already posted on the relevant bit of this forum, but figured many of you would care about this issue...
The current government are attempting to forge through childcare reforms as part of the Children & Families Bill. Elizabeth Truss MP (see Mumsnet live web chat 7 Feb) is wanting all new Childminders to join agencies (rather than remaining independent and individually inspected by Ofsted). This raises many serious issues, I believe the following will happen:
- children wont be properly Safeguarded
- many Childminders will stop / leave - so in a year or so there will be FEWER Childminders (NOT more!)
- parents won't be able to 'choose' their Childminder
- the 'middle man' agencies will take commission from parents & childminders.
Please SIGN our petition, share and tweet!
www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/liz-truss-stop-plans-for-childminder-agencies
For more information see:
www.togetherforquality.com