Rea Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 https://www.pre-school.org.uk/sectornews/15/cost-of-training-and-development-for-agency-registered-childminders-to-be-passed-to-parents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Can someone explain to me about the childminding agencies issue please? As I understand it, childminders at present are inspected by Ofsted, and receive training via their Local Authority, from whatever source. In our LA I believe they also access ongoing support from LA development workers. Membership of a childminding quality network is optional, but many childminders choose to join them both for CPD opportunities and general support. Is that broadly correct? I have a few questions:- Will childminders be required to join one of the new childminding agencies in order to carry on with their work? Who will run the agencies: what qualifications or organisational structure will the people running agencies need? Reading the article it appears that childminding agencies will take over inspection responsibilities for childminders - how will they develop the skills they need to do this effectively? How will the relationship between childminders and agencies work? What impact will agencies have on an individual childminder's ability to run their business and adopt their own policies and procedures based on their needs and those of the families they support? Has anyone actually met a childminder who thinks childminding agencies are a good idea? I know all this information is available but I'm a little short of the necessary headspace to do the research myself. So if you lovely knowledgeable and experienced childminders can shed a little light on the subject for me, I would be very very grateful! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoneyPancakes Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Is this surprising? How much did we think child minder support workers and coordinators cost local authorities? It's all about moving cost and responsibility away from LAs and into the private sector. The cost will be passed on to the child minder, and then to the parents. When this government says they want to cut the cost of childcare, they mean cut the cost to government - national and local. Mrs ranty pancakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berryred Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Can someone explain to me about the childminding agencies issue please? As I understand it, childminders at present are inspected by Ofsted, and receive training via their Local Authority, from whatever source. In our LA I believe they also access ongoing support from LA development workers. Membership of a childminding quality network is optional, but many childminders choose to join them both for CPD opportunities and general support. Is that broadly correct? I have a few questions:- Will childminders be required to join one of the new childminding agencies in order to carry on with their work? Who will run the agencies: what qualifications or organisational structure will the people running agencies need? Reading the article it appears that childminding agencies will take over inspection responsibilities for childminders - how will they develop the skills they need to do this effectively? How will the relationship between childminders and agencies work? What impact will agencies have on an individual childminder's ability to run their business and adopt their own policies and procedures based on their needs and those of the families they support? Has anyone actually met a childminder who thinks childminding agencies are a good idea? I know all this information is available but I'm a little short of the necessary headspace to do the research myself. So if you lovely knowledgeable and experienced childminders can shed a little light on the subject for me, I would be very very grateful! If only we knew! There is so little information out there, lots of hear say and scare mongering! I wish to remain an independent childminder, I am a quality assured network childminder who offers 2,3&4 yr old funding (and is providing it) If my LA goes down the route of becoming an agency I really don't know what will happen, training is good, but very limited due to funding. What I am hearing is we pay the agency a fee, then we get paid a "wage" so we effectively are de-registering as self employed, then you need to think about holiday pay, sick pay, time in-lui )which would be nice haha as most my training I fit into evening and weekends) Talk about charging £££ to Ofsted to remain independent I have not yet met a childminder who wants to join! sigh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rea Posted July 3, 2013 Author Share Posted July 3, 2013 I saw a question somewhere this morning about pay, if you're to be paid via the agency, as well as the points you make about holiday pay ECT, would you be in a pension fund too? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I went to a meeting delivered by our LA regarding the More Great Childcare changes. You do not have to register with an agency. If you don't you have to pay around £708 for Ofsted to inspect you. The LA will be under no obligation to help with CPD. Im sure this would end up with cms paying out a lot of money for training or not taking part in the amount of training they currently do. It has been hinted that the membership fees to join an agency would be less than £500. The agency would be registered with Ofsted and not the child minder individually. I believe that Ofsted would inspect a sample of the child minders on the agencies books and would make the grading from them. So all of the agencies minders would have the same grade. Im sure that all child minders are not going to be equal. You could end up with a minder working at a 'satisfactory' level with an outstanding grade or vice versa which Im sure you will agree is wrong for many reasons. To be honest the LA didn't know very much. Its quite worrying. I haven't yet made a decision as to whether an agency would be better or not. Obviously if the decision was to 'stay as we are' or 'join an agency' that is a no brainer but with the alternative to joining an agency not looking too attractive either it doesn't look that straight forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rea Posted July 3, 2013 Author Share Posted July 3, 2013 http://pennysplacechildminding.com/2013/07/03/childminding-agencies-there-is-hope-from-the-house-of-lords/ Penny Webb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berryred Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/article/1189007/parents-charged-use-childminder-agencies saving parents money they said haha I really need to stop looking at these things!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jane707 Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 I haven't met a childminder who wants agencies - we prefer to stay as we are but we want Ofsted to inspect us fairly which they are not doing at the moment. Agencies will create a 2 or even 3 tier system, the support they offer will depend on their quality and vary through the country and they will cost someone either parents or the childminder or both a lot of money. LAs are being disbanded to make way for agencies but that is leaving over 60,000 childminders without any local support. It's unfair because then Ofsted will come along and say - you need to join an agency the quality of your provision is slipping. We don't know how much it will cost for Ofsted to inspect us yet JoanneLouise that is just a figure that is being bandied around and Ofsted haven't confirmed it. It is nothing but a rumour that someone spread. Sorry to get on my soap box but this is something I believe in very strongly. I want to stay independent and i need a level playing field to do it on. It is unfair for Ofsted to bash childminders with the actions we are currently getting, to take away our support and then to push agencies on us when we don't want them and they will not benefit either us or parents. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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