60 organizations are interested in setting up agencies...who are they?

[Simona]

Good question Sarah...who are they? why can they not be named? why the secrecy? how do we find out?

Does 'interested' mean they are actually setting up agencies? or is that an inflated cover by Truss?

As we have heard today...I hope I got that right from the C&F Bill debate as Truss took my concentration away with her poor performance, waffling, lack of humility, arrogance and clear message she is pressing on regardless??... the agencies consultation will be 'after' the trials which run from Sept to December 2013

I 'assume' to be trialled the agencies in the Bill have to become law?
Why trial something that will be consulted on afterward? does it make sense?
why are these organizations investing their own money in something that may then be rejected?
Surely the consultation should be first?
So many questions

How can we find out who they are, do we write to those on the list Truss published including LAs (in the other thread)?

We need to turn into Sherlock Holmes...ask anyone we can
I asked my LA and this is the reply I received today:

''We are still watching the national picture to see what is happening with regard to agencies and the network.
We met internally last week and have now requested information about agencies and are going to be studying the results of the pilots.
We are not rushing to make decisions as we are aware of the enormity of the changes going on, still hopeful that some proposals may be overturned...'' (end)

This is worrying to me...not rushing could mean they will in future?

[smartbear]

If most LAs have responded (cos really they have to find out what is going on, how it will affect them, & whether they'll be able to salvage any jobs or funding out of this) would that plus Truss's list equal 60? (Genuine question, unsure how many LAs there are!)

[Simona]

152 LAs in England...

[sarah707]

Well we know that most of those on the task and finish group are firmly against agencies - except for @homechildcare who want to be one and trio who were told they couldn't do it yet - so who are they??

She said something about schools didn't she? Do they have the budgets / knowledge / enough interest in childminders? I think not.

Surely we are entitled to know who these people are when they are deciding our futures

[Simona]

Definitely heard Academies and one MP suggested Children Centres should become agencies...so if you attend them ask them please

[Sweetpea]

I thought the information had been released as organisations that had submitted an expression of interest?

Perhaps I imagined if?

[The Juggler]

Definitely heard Academies and one MP suggested Children Centres should become agencies...so if you attend them ask them please

i asked the other day at our meeting if we could look at ways of supporting independent minders who didn't want to join an agency. They told me that they would continue to offer CM services at the centre BUT that this target has been dropped from the new ofsted requirements on which children's centres are judged, i.e. they will no longer need to support CM's and/or lead on improving quality of care with local CM's.
So, if your cc wasn't great at provision for CM's before don't expect much now.

THey told me it HAS been suggested that they become agencies. Now, at I first questioned how a government funded centre could become a profit making agency then I worked it out - a double whammy for Truss and the Government.

She has ready made agencies ready to go in children's centres - BUT by making them profit making the Government/LA no longer have to fund them - now I see the logic

Privatisation of EVERY public service here we come. Schools becoming academies, LA support done by agencies, Children's centres to become those agencies - now what can they get rid of next ??????

[Simona]

Sweetpea...Truss has released the names of those on the Task and Finish group but apart from @Home Childcare we cannot find anyone on that group interested and the number of the group is not anywhere near 60 ?

All this nonsense to reduce the cost of childcare?...Truss is nowhere close to doing that and she knows it!
Lets wait until these 60 release how much their services would cost to a cm and then the penny may drop...but by that time she may have been promoted to supervise those poor 2 year olds strapped to their chairs on tennis balls!

[The Juggler]

Sweetpea...Truss has released the names of those on the Task and Finish group but apart from @Home Childcare we cannot find anyone on that group interested and the number of the group is not anywhere near 60 ?

All this nonsense to reduce the cost of childcare?...Truss is nowhere close to doing that and she knows it!
Lets wait until these 60 release how much their services would cost to a cm and then the penny may drop...but by that time she may have been promoted to supervise those poor 2 year olds strapped to their chairs on tennis balls!

no, I don't think that was EVER the aim. Aims were

get rid of as many publicly funded services as possible
increase ratios so you can pack more children into every setting.
get more parents back to work (by whatever means) to reduce unemployment figures and benefits burden with crazy ideas like making them all childminders (now, hang on that might reduce the costs if there are THAT many childminders in operation )
put 2 year olds in school to get those parents back to work

ALL of which just make all childcare much poorer quality - so that was NEVER her aim


i heard today a discussion about 18 year olds in foster care being turfed out of foster homes (losing funding) from age of 18. The YEAR in which they are doing their a'levels or really just needing to be cared for longer because they are usually quite emotionally damaged. So, they are putting all this research and changes into early years to "close the gap" in performance for disadvantaged children, then regardless of how well they do at school, they give them such a traumatic time during their a-level year they have to move out to a bedsit, alone half way through their a-level course

wow, how to support them to get to uni - NOT.

Does anyone in this Government do joined up thinking ???

[Simona]

At today's conference Sharon Hodgson announced that she will be tabling a question in the House of Commons to find out who the 60 are...can Truss hide the names anymore??

[Smiley]

Hopefully Sharon will succeed

[sarah707]

Hopefully Sharon will succeed

Me too! I Tweeted and contacted her to ask her to chase this one!

We need to know who they are - what they intend doing AND how they will support independent childminders