Last month, the Department for Education released its Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers. The survey touched on issues such as rising costs, but I was struck by the misconceptions about childminder agencies (CMAs).
Between 2000 and 2022, national childminder numbers dropped from 78,000 to 23,400. That's staggering. The only area of the market that is gaining numbers is CMAs. And yet misunderstandings about CMAs continue to be widespread.
The survey highlighted a number of areas where the perceived wisdom doesn’t match up with reality. A large majority (67 per cent) of childminders surveyed, for example, said they had considered joining an agency but decided against it due to higher fees. This is despite CMA-registered practitioners typically earning more overall. Tiney childminders, for example, earn 17 per cent more on average than their Ofsted-registered peers.
Likewise, a further 8 per cent of childminders said they wouldn’t consider joining an agency because there were none available in their area, despite most CMAs being able to onboard childminders wherever they live in England.
CMAs certainly aren’t for everyone, but having choice is. As an industry, we must work harder to provide better information and guidance on what the different options for childminders involve.
The Government has made some small steps towards addressing workforce shortages. Many of these policies, like the creation of a childminder-specific EYFS framework, are theoretically logical. Likewise, the decision to reintroduce start-up grants for new childminders is also welcomed. Although unlikely to drive up numbers in a meaningful way, barriers that can be removed for new recruits should be encouraged.
But it's not enough just to stem the exodus; we need to reverse it. This is why CMAs should be seen as indispensable. More than 50 per cent of the childminders tiney recruited last year had never considered a career in childminding before. That shows how much potential is out there. However, under the current policy setup, CMAs are placed in direct competition with Ofsted in terms of registering childminders and CMAs must cover the costs of DfE-mandated regulatory and quality assurance work. These regulatory disadvantages, combined with misconceptions around CMAs and timid policy changes, are holding back the whole industry.
If we want to recruit and retain the numbers, we need to educate the next generation – it's time to level the playing field.