Nursery World - Childminder groups question agency model

A local childminding association is building its membership nationally while the Government continues to push for childminders to use agencies.

Childminding UK, which supports independent childminders and not agencies, is the national incarnation of Northamptonshire Childminding Association (NCA).

The association has 170 members – around 23 per cent of the county’s childminders – and its resources have been increasingly selling across the country.

Executive director Elaine Pitteway, who was a member of the DfE Childminder Agencies Task and Finish Group in 2013, advised against the agency-based restructure because the cost of ensuring quality ‘doesn’t add up’.

Opposition from elsewhere has been based on perceived loss of independence and how quality will be monitored when home settings would not be inspected.

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