I have just received this from our local council

[desiderata]

Manchester City Council bills



Manchester offers childcare providers a unique opportunity


Manchester is offering unprecedented market opportunities for experienced childcare providers in the near future.

Manchester City Council is committed to ensuring that its diverse population of young people get the best possible start in life, regardless of background, and are well supported throughout their early years. We are therefore looking to accept bids from high-quality day care providers, whether large or small - private sector, third sector or community-based, to deliver high quality day care in Manchester.

Analysis of the market shows that there is a wealth of potential opportunity here, and if you would like to know more we are holding events across the country.

In total, we hope to award contracts for 29 centres across the city, which will be available from late spring 2013 and early 2014. The events will outline details on each site (these are also available to organisations which comply with our tendering framework) and we welcome interest for single and multiple sites.

With the first new centres opening their doors from September 2013, we look forward to working with providers to develop the future of childcare across the city.

Events will be held on the following dates. Please book online at www.manchester.gov.uk/childcareproviderevents:

LONDON Monday 11 February 2013 (3:30 - 6:00pm)

MANCHESTER Friday 15 February 2013 (2:00 - 4:30pm)

LONDON Tuesday 26 February 2013 (3:30 - 6:00pm)

BIRMINGHAM Thursday 28 February 2013 (9:00 - 11:30am)

MANCHESTER Friday 1 March 2013 (1:00 - 3:30pm)


If you have any queries please contact our dedicated Early Years team on 0161 234 3319 or n.akhtar@manchester.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

Mike Livingstone
Director of Children's Services
Manchester City Council

[nipper]

Here we go, here we go, here we go...it's started hasn't it?

I like the way they say "large" before "small", by the way.

[AgentTink]

What a very cryptic message. "We have 29 centres"...of what?

Today in Liverpool it was announced that 5 local authority run nurseries will be closed in Agust and they are hoping to sell them to nursery chains to continue the childcare in the area. This will save them over £800,000 a year apparently.

Something is definitely happening, I'm just not sure we have been told the full truth yet.....

[loocyloo]

worrying :panic:

[Kiddleywinks]

I read a letter today from a well known nursery chain, that was given to it's staff on the 28th, it is also dated the 28th and the line that stands out to me is this:

Elizabeth Truss, parlimentary under secretary of state from the DofE delivered a speech on Tuesday 29th January regarding the quality of childcare blah blah blah

Now I know things are released early but that's bloomin ridiculous. The information must have been available to certain parties WELL before any official announcements were made.
The whole :censored: lot stinks to high heaven to me

[sarah707]

I don't really understand what they are suggesting... do you? There are very few areas of Manchester where current providers are full... are there? :huh:

Do they want to saturate the market? Put other providers out of business? Spend the money Govt are giving them to set up new childminders on nurseries instead??

Very odd :panic:

[hectors house]

Or is it advertising for agencies to oversee us!

[Mouse]

How odd? It would be interesting to know what it all means. ANyone want to phone to find out ;)

[lisbet]

Or is it advertising for agencies to oversee us!

That's what I wondered when I read it...

[lilac_dragon]

I don't really understand what they are suggesting... do you? There are very few areas of Manchester where current providers are full... are there? :huh:

Do they want to saturate the market? Put other providers out of business? Spend the money Govt are giving them to set up new childminders on nurseries instead??

Very odd :panic:

When Childminders were inspected by the Childcare Manager of Social Services rather than OFSTED, I was told by my Childcare Manager that the Government had a long term plan that would mean that all Childminders would become Nurseries or work for an Agency rather than be self-employed.
That was in 1995 and she said it would happen "within the next 20 years". I laughed it off at the time, as she was trying to persuade me to accept local funding to start up a Nursery, and I didn't want to do it.
I ran into her last week, and she asked me how I felt about the Truss report, commenting " I did warn you, all those years ago".
Never occurred to me before, but she obviously knew something in 1995 that we didn't.
Really worried now.

[willow2806]

I feel big changes coming too! I went to my NCMA network meeting on Thursday night to discover it was going to be the last one. Our local authority in Lancashire is taking over from April and they will grade all childminders on a scale of 1-3 -

1) Newly registered childminders
2) satisfactory graded childminders
3) good or outstanding

I've been given a draft of a 'portfolio' we have to work through and these will be in sub areas of safeguarding, partnership with parents and so on. It lists the info and evidence you need to have, like safeguarding level 1- renewed every 3 years.

I'm thinking is the start of 'the agency'!!!

[lisbet]

@ lilac_dragon and willow2806: :ohdear::ohdear:

[lisbet]

When Childminders were inspected by the Childcare Manager of Social Services rather than OFSTED, I was told by my Childcare Manager that the Government had a long term plan that would mean that all Childminders would become Nurseries or work for an Agency rather than be self-employed.
That was in 1995 and she said it would happen "within the next 20 years". I laughed it off at the time, as she was trying to persuade me to accept local funding to start up a Nursery, and I didn't want to do it.
I ran into her last week, and she asked me how I felt about the Truss report, commenting " I did warn you, all those years ago".
Never occurred to me before, but she obviously knew something in 1995 that we didn't.
Really worried now.

So back when the Conservatives were last in government...Are they just picking up where they left off, then?

[AgentTink]

I feel big changes coming too! I went to my NCMA network meeting on Thursday night to discover it was going to be the last one. Our local authority in Lancashire is taking over from April and they will grade all childminders on a scale of 1-3 -

1) Newly registered childminders
2) satisfactory graded childminders
3) good or outstanding

I've been given a draft of a 'portfolio' we have to work through and these will be in sub areas of safeguarding, partnership with parents and so on. It lists the info and evidence you need to have, like safeguarding level 1- renewed every 3 years.

I'm thinking is the start of 'the agency'!!!

This is weird, I am in Sefton council and in September they sent a newsletter detailing the exact same information, saying that they wanted to better support childminders and help more access funding and this was the system they would use. We now have a meeting booked for February to have the details rolled out to us.

[loocyloo]

This is all starting to sound very fishy to me :0(

[jo.jo76]

Something similar in my local authority too! I was even a guinea pig for a trial grading inspection!

[jackie 7]

My council removed the funding for most of our childminder groups. Unless you drive the only one I could attend is too far. The networker rings are very far and few. We will be funding these agencies. The ratios are a ref herring. It is the agencies we have to fight. It will provide unfair competition over nurseries.

[Littleglees]

Our local children centre has lost it's tendering thus meaning our Tuesday childminding group won't be held if someone else wants the room as the room will obviously be paid for :-(

Sarah's Jellytots x

[Tazmin68]

One of my groups was closed down a year ago as the children's centre wanted it for job centre plus groups.

[AgentTink]

Here is the answer to this cryptic email. Why they couldn't have just said this in the initial email is beyond me.

Private providers get to run council's settings | Nursery World (http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/rss/1172147/Private-providers-run-councils-settings/)