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Tunja
05-03-2013, 07:34 PM
You can watch it here. Truss appears to have changed her definition yet again!

Player (http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=12739)

sarah707
05-03-2013, 07:48 PM
Thank you Tunja! :D

AgentTink
05-03-2013, 08:11 PM
Thanks for this link, I will have to watch in the morning when I have a free moment. What did she say out of interest?

rosebud
05-03-2013, 08:43 PM
The relevant bits are at 18 minutes and 59 minutes (yes I know I'm sad). She said that she envisages local authorities who already run successful networks converting these into childminder agencies. Great idea! but unfortunately most of those successful networks were dismantled when the network co-ordinators lost their jobs in the last round of council cuts!

rosebud
05-03-2013, 08:45 PM
And there will be a consultation on what the framework for childminder agencies should look like towards the end of the month.

mum24
05-03-2013, 09:33 PM
And there will be a consultation on what the framework for childminder agencies should look like towards the end of the month.

Really!!! Who is she going to consult with when so many organisations have said they do not agree with or want agencies.....Possibly the same kind of consultation she has already been having. Completely biased and deaf to any opinions that dont agree with her.:(

nipper
05-03-2013, 09:35 PM
Oh dear I can see where this is going

loocyloo
06-03-2013, 08:30 AM
thank you.

am going to pass that on to my LA. am hoping that they will continue to look after childminders as they do now.

rickysmiths
06-03-2013, 10:19 AM
Our County got rid of the few Networks they had because they didn't work!!! So where will our Agencies come from. I am i one of the biggest counties in the country and I have not seen any consultation of the cms here?

AgentTink
06-03-2013, 05:12 PM
I have it and pasted the relevant sections here for everyone to read who didn't get a chance to watch it
House of Commons Public Bill Committee : Children and Families Bill (05 March 2013) (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmpublic/childrenandfamilies/130305/am/130305s01.htm)

Q 5 Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con): Minister Truss, what assessment have the Government made of the value of home-based care, particularly for the under-twos, through the childminding system? What assessment have the Government made of the likely impact on the availability and quality of childminders of the reforms to allow the creation of childminder agencies?


Column number: 5
Elizabeth Truss: The Government strongly support home-based care. We think it is particularly valuable for the youngest children. We also recognise its role in helping parents to go out to work, and the flexibility that home-based carers provide. Over the last few decades, one of the issues has been that the number of childminders has reduced significantly, by almost half. On the flexibility available to parents, some of the research work that the Department for Education has conducted indicates that parents working irregular hours, for example, find it harder to access childcare.


The idea behind childminder agencies is to make it easier, in terms of the bureaucratic hurdles, to become a childminder and receive good training, good peer support and good mentoring from other childminders or trainers within the organisation. When we looked at overseas examples—for example, France and the Netherlands—both have childminder agencies and both have higher numbers of childminders per head than we have here in Britain.


Q 6 Andrea Leadsom: So the expectation is that the number of childminders will increase quite significantly?


Elizabeth Truss: Yes, the intention of the policy is to improve the availability, the quality assurance and the peer support for childminders.






Q 29 Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD): Minister Truss, as a consequence of changes in the Bill, how do you envisage the local authority role changing?


Elizabeth Truss: There are two different aspects to which the local authority role may change as a consequence of this Bill. First, on the subject of sufficiency, we are moving some of the costly and bureaucratic exercises for local authorities and assessing sufficiency. However, we are not removing their duty to determine sufficiency, so they will continue to have that as a consequence of the Bill.


In terms of childminder agencies, we are enabling local authorities who already run effective childminder networks to convert those to childminder agencies. The overall tone of our reforms, which are outside this Bill


Column number: 15
and which we announced in “More great childcare” is that we want local authorities to focus particularly on ensuring that disadvantaged and vulnerable children are able to access child care and early intervention services.
At the same time, we are increasing the role of Ofsted in quality assessment—I know that Sir Michael Wilshaw is one of the witnesses to the Committee later on. In particular, Ofsted is recruiting more HMIs in the early years and having a more regional base, so that it can also be involved in quality improvement of child care services, both of nurseries and childminder agencies. We see local authorities very much as part of the delivery of the services, but we particularly want local authorities to focus on the most disadvantaged. For example, on the new two-year-old offer that commences this September and is ramped up the following September, we see a critical role for local authorities in reaching out to those parents to ensure that those two-year-olds are able to access places in high-quality child care.


Q 30 Andy Sawford (Corby) (Lab/Co-op): Minister Truss, given the importance of schedule 4, on childminder agencies, why was there no pre-legislative scrutiny?


Elizabeth Truss: The point about schedule 4 is that it is an enabling provision: it enables Ofsted to inspect childminder agencies, rather than inspecting every individual childminder, although it will still have powers to inspect individual childminders and will be inspecting them on a sampling basis. We are going to have consultation when we launch the framework for childminder agencies, which is a piece of regulation and will be subject to full consultation We are launching that towards the end of this month, so that will be people’s opportunity to say how they would like childminder agencies to work.

AgentTink
06-03-2013, 05:20 PM
Just seen a interesting comment on Facebook page for Child Care journal were a poster writes that she was told be her LA today that they were considering starting a agency which would have a approximate fee of £1500 per year. If this is true then the LA obviously have no clue about childminding as otherwise they would be aware that a figure like this is not going to attract anybody to their agency :panic:

sarah707
06-03-2013, 05:56 PM
Just seen a interesting comment on Facebook page for Child Care journal were a poster writes that she was told be her LA today that they were considering starting a agency which would have a approximate fee of £1500 per year. If this is true then the LA obviously have no clue about childminding as otherwise they would be aware that a figure like this is not going to attract anybody to their agency :panic:

oh my word that is absolutely ridiculous! :(

Will someone please tell the Minister that there aren't the children to go round!! She doesn't seem to be getting the message.

@trussliz - where do you anticipate all these extra children coming from for all the new childminders you intend to register?

@trussliz - very few early years providers are full! The demand for spaces simply isn't there.

:rolleyes:

nipper
06-03-2013, 06:03 PM
£1500, you're having a larf:panic:

MessybutHappy
06-03-2013, 06:19 PM
Speechless. Humph. Grump. Stomp. Going to have to write another letter...

FussyElmo
06-03-2013, 06:31 PM
So thats £28 a week to join an agency:O

Wonder what im going to get for that!!!!

And of course prices should come down lol

Wish I had a spare £28 every week to pay someone else to tell me how to run my business - so sorry thanks but no thanks

rosebud
06-03-2013, 06:47 PM
Somebody needs to tell them to look at the figures childminders earn - Revenue and customs must be able to provide this from our tax returns. I only know 2 childminders out of about the 30 who earn enough to pay tax and most of us are full! Where are we supposed to find £1500 from???? I tried to work out how a childminder agency could be financially viable but without government subsidy (don't know if there will be any or not?) I can't see how it could work.

mum26
06-03-2013, 07:13 PM
There may have been a decrease in childminders over the past few decades but I bet there has been a similar rise in nursery places! I know where I live there is an abundance of nursery provision which, unfortunately, a lot of parents still seem to prefer. There are also numerous childminders for parents to choose from as well. At the moment I am trying to fill some of my spaces and looked on the Ofsted site to see how many childminders are in my area. Could only get a 5 mile radius (would have preferred less) but there are over 200 childminders! If more people are going to be encouraged to register then I can see how the prices will drop as there just wont be any work to go round - although I would rather do something else than lower my fees. I also feel that childminders are still expected to take on work that nurseries don't want eg 'parents working irregular hours, for example, find it harder to access childcare' - yes I know that we can be more flexible - but I don't want to feel second best! Feeling very discouraged at the moment.

sarah707
06-03-2013, 08:10 PM
If you have any comments you want to share about agencies or ratios or qualifications or anything else in the Children and Families Bill - you have an opportunity to make your feelings known!

More information in this thread - http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/campaigns-petitions/115691-have-your-say-children-families-bill.html

:cheerleader:

nipper
06-03-2013, 10:32 PM
What could you buy for your setting for £1500? I could totally refurbish mine from scratch with that.