Childminders may often be seen as the cinderellas of the childcare sector, but they are determined to ensure they are not sidelined in the Government's push for a more professional workforce.
Campaigns spearheaded by the National Childminding Association (NCMA) are scoring some successes on the national stage, as the Government's recent response to the consultation on the Early Years Foundation Stage highlights (see box). And Ruth Pimentel, the national director of the Foundation Stage, says, 'Childminders will have a very important role in the EYFS as they are significant providers in supporting all children, but particularly the birth-to-three age group.'
Childminders are central to the Government's agenda for delivering the childcare strategy, according to Charlie Rice, director of children's workforce development for the NCMA.
'We need to ensure there is professional respect and recognition for the work that childminders do,' he says. 'I push for that on the Children's Workforce Development Council. They are central. They are not just the glue, as I have heard childminders described.'
Sometimes childminders certainly feel they are just that - the glue in the development of children's centres and extended schools.
'I think they are sometimes frightened to get involved, as there is still a level of hierarchy that is felt by childminders and by some practitioners in centre-based care,' says Wendy Heller, childcare development manager at Southwark Council, which is recruiting a team of childminding support and network staff to enhance integrated working.
'It is important to challenge that and educate other practitioners about what childminders do, their qualifications and their experience.
'Our childminding network co-ordinators attend practitioner meetings for each locality along with health visitors, midwives, speech and play therapists, toy librarians and other professionals. The network co-ordinators fly the flag for childminders.'
'Our aim is to break down barriers. But we have a long way to go. Our network co-ordinators will run a vacancy matching service liaising with the children's centres.
Ms Heller emphasises that what she is trying to embed is the awareness that day nurseries and children's centres are not always the first choice. 'We are giving parents a choice,' she says. 'How successful we are will depend upon various circumstances, because obviously the centres have sustainability issues too.'
Training levels
Childminders have a special perspective on childcare, Mr Rice believes.
'Childminders and nannies are the only workers in the early years field working with such a diverse developmental and age range,' he says. 'In a group setting the children are in age groups, but as a childminder planning activities, you have to be aware of the developmental stages of a range of children. When you are cooking, you have the baby on your hip while the three-year-old is rolling out the dough.'
The importance to very young children of the homely sort of care provided by childminders was underlined recently by the psychologist Steve Biddulph and others in a letter to the Daily Telegraph which said, 'Consistent, continuous care by a trusted figure is the key to providing a secure and nurturing environment for very young children.'
The new Diploma in Homebased Childcare is beginning to move childminders on to a more professional level, says Mr Rice. 'But we have a huge job to get everybody trained and qualified to level 3, bearing in mind that there are over 70,000 childminders in England alone and there is a high attrition rate in the profession.
'The DfES workforce survey for 2005 shows that 43 per cent of childminders hold a level three qualification, but I am not sure how accurate the statistics are. I think that number of childminders have completed the first unit of a level 3 qualification, but that does not mean they have completed all of it.'
'If childminders upgrade their qualifications they tend to go off to other jobs,' says Tricia David, Emeritus Professor of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University. 'Some go on to be childminding network co-ordinators and trainers, but ultimately, can they stay as childminders without some sort of career structure? There is a seminal career structure, but most seem to feel they need to move into other early childhood work to have that structure.'
The NCMA successfully urged the Government to include childminders working towards level 3 qualifications within the Transformation Fund.
'Local authorities will do an audit of sufficiency and look at how they are going to develop the professionalism of the workforce,' says Mr Rice.
The NCMA is now developing a training pathway to take childminders from Level 3 to the new Early Years Professional Status, and childminders are taking part in a pilot for validation of the EYPS.
The interpretation of the requirement for practitioners to have leadership experience is a stumbling block identified in the pilot run by North ampton University, says Dr Rhian Warrack, a childminder from north Warwickshire who is on the programme.
'The difficult thing for childminders is the leadership element,' she says.
'I am just being inducted to be a support childminder, which would be useful, as in that role you look after ten childminders who have just registered or are in their first year of practice.
'I run the local toddler group, but they are not sure whether that will be counted. I certainly think it is a good enough example of leadership. The thing about being a childminder is that you have such contact with the parents that the partnership with parents is really strong. At the moment, any leadership you give in that role is not counted.'
'We were involved in a pilot study under the Care to Learn programme which looked at childminders sharing parenting skills with teenage mothers,' says Mr Rice. 'They did it in a non-frightening, very natural way. They would explain what they had been doing with the child all day, and the parents picked up so much from them.'
Pay variance
If status is linked to pay, then childminders will continue to fare badly.
'This is a demand-led sector rather than one led by supply side, so it is very difficult to raise fees in a competitive market,' says Mr Rice. 'We know some childminders are commanding higher fees as soon as they have been quality-assured. We find that where local nursery fees go up, then childminders are able to raise their fees. There is a local market rate.
The national average is 3.50 per hour per child. In some places like Tunbridge Wells fees are more like 5 an hour.'
But Alexandra Stafferton of Kensal Green, London, who became a childminder two years ago after five years teaching Foundation Stage children, says she is no worse off financially and happier professionally.
'Childminding is fantastic. I work four days a week, I have no parents'
evenings and no internal school politics. I don't have travel to work costs, and my income is about the same.
'If you want somebody who understands all aspects of childcare, then a childminder is the answer,' says Dr Warrack. 'I have a degree in biochemistry, a master's degree and a PhD and worked in cancer research.
'The work I did in cancer research is nothing compared to what I am giving that child at the beginning of her life. It is time that childminding was taken more seriously.'
Childminders and ratios
* The national standards allow childminders to care for a maximum of six children under eight, of whom three may be under five years old. They do not restrict the numbers of children aged eight and over who may be cared for, provided the care of the others is not adversely affected. Children aged four who attend school full-time can be counted as five-year-olds for ratios. Exceptions can be made, such as allowing siblings to be cared for, with Ofsted's approval.
The draft EYFS framework proposed that a childminder be allowed to care for a maximum of six children in total; no more than three of these should be 'young children' and no more than one should be under the age of 12 months.
Following a campaign by the NCMA, the status quo is to be maintained.
The Government says, in the recent response to the consultation on the framework, 'It was not our intention to reduce the numbers of children that a childminder can care for, and there is no evidence to suggest this would be appropriate.'
More than half the 1,453 people who responded to the question, 'How helpful are the adult:child ratio requirements in helping to achieve good outcomes for children, without overly restricting providers?' said they were unhelpful.