Nursery World broke the story last week of how the two friends who wentback to work part-time in a jobshare when their daughters were both oneyear old had been visited by Ofsted inspectors after a tip-off from amember of the public who believed they were running an illegalchildminding business.
A petition was started on the Number 10 website in support of the women,calling for a change in the law to allow reciprocal childcarearrangements. It had been signed by 9,770 people as Nursery World wentto press on Monday.
The two women, who have now come forward and agreed to be named, aredetective constables Leanne Shepherd from Milton Keynes and Lucy Jarrettfrom Birmingham, who work for Thames Valley Police.
Although money did not change hands, Ofsted said that the supply ofservices or goods and, in some cases, reciprocal arrangements can alsoconstitute reward.
According to current legislation, a person must be registered as achildminder if care is provided for more than two hours a day or takesplace for more than 14 days a year.
Children's minister Dawn Primarolo said, 'This law is designed to giveparents peace of mind when choosing childcare by making sure thefacilities are safe and good standards of care are met. However, ourintention has never been to interfere in informal arrangements betweenfriends and families, and we need to be sure that the legislation doesnot unnecessarily penalise hard-working families.
'That is why the department is working with Ofsted on theirinterpretation of the word "reward". We must ensure a commonsense andmeasured approach which does not penalise informal arrangements butretains a balance between over-regulation and protecting children.'
An Ofsted spokesperson said, 'Ofsted applies the regulations for theregistration of childcare as found in the 2006 Childcare Act. We arecurrently discussing with the DCSF the interpretation of the word"reward" in the legislation to establish if we might be able to make achange.'
Further information
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/reciprocalcc