Independent Childminders Social Enterprise

[Simona]

Good question!!
All will be revealed on Thursday when cms can start registering with them and they will disclose the rules for payment
They are not even saying what their marketing strategy to parents is (FAQs) or the cost to cms
They will charge a m'ship fee and for insurance like NCMA

[SammySplodger]

Can I please back-peddle slightly?!

My previous posts on this thread are ONLY based on the information presented by *******. On the SURFACE it looks positive, but that opinion is based on just the (limited) info that has been released so far. It could still turn out to be a 'pig in a dress', if you catch my drift.

I have not decided either way yet and I might still remain Independent in the truest sense, IF I can sustain my business locally. My current Mindees are quite young and (all being well) should be with me for at least a couple of years. It's what happens when they go off to Nursery or School that bothers me.

Watching with interest and trepidation....

[FussyElmo]

Can I please back-peddle slightly?!

My previous posts on this thread are ONLY based on the information presented by *******. On the SURFACE it looks positive, but that opinion is based on just the (limited) info that has been released so far. It could still turn out to be a 'pig in a dress', if you catch my drift.

I have not decided either way yet and I might still remain Independent in the truest sense, IF I can sustain my business locally. My current Mindees are quite young and (all being well) should be with me for at least a couple of years. It's what happens when they go off to Nursery or School that bothers me.

Watching with interest and trepidation....

Totally agree Sammy

In a years time I expect to be in exactly the same position as I am now - however as current mindees get older and move on that is the worrying time

[Simona]

I contacted both my LA and Childminding association today...both admit they are aware of events
LA are confused but agree that as long as we indpendent cms have no barriers and can access their support and training all is well and good?

I too worry about the future, in my area most cms have vacancies and ******* say they will :
'help support govt to achieve its policy objectives' (agencies? higher ratios?)

'seek to address the needs of govt to increase availability of childcare...facilitate parents and their relatives back into the labour market as new cms' (we have enough cms anymore and our business will die)

'deliver good quality affordable childcare'
'promote investment in childcare not focus on cost' (this contradicts the above?)

'deliver childcare to satisfy parents and overcome their fear of deregulation' (so they are an agency and we are being deregulated meaning they will be inspected instead of us?)

'rather than deregulation we would rather call it ''Effective regulation'' (confused here!!)

So many questions!! Will they have all the answers by Thursday if cms start filling in application forms?

[loocyloo]

Good question!!
All will be revealed on Thursday when cms can start registering with them and they will disclose the rules for payment
They are not even saying what their marketing strategy to parents is (FAQs) or the cost to cms
They will charge a m'ship fee and for insurance like NCMA

i found their membership page ... annual membership to include insurance £84.00

annual membership NOT including insurance £60.00

but these are for EXSISTING registered childminders ... nothing about new childminders, or those just registering who wish to be independant.

Membership Page | Independent Childminders Social Enterprise CICIndependent Childminders Social Enterprise CIC

[SammySplodger]

I'm not taking anything at face value, there are still too many unanswered questions (see Simona's post below).

Just wish it was easier to get information and straight answers. :-(

[Mouse]

i found their membership page ... annual membership to include insurance £84.00

annual membership NOT including insurance £60.00

but these are for EXSISTING registered childminders ... nothing about new childminders, or those just registering who wish to be independant.

Membership Page | Independent Childminders Social Enterprise CICIndependent Childminders Social Enterprise CIC

Well, that confuses me even more now!

Does this bit mean the enterprise is open to others, not just childminders?

Stakeholder FULL Trade Association membership

This is the annual ******* membership fee, for other stakeholder in the industry that may wish to benefit from our lobbying of Government, childminding support services and business development programs, by belonging to the ******* trade association. This membership fee does not include insurance and may include among others Local Authorities, local childminder groups, Childminding Charities, other trade, membership or professional associations and suppliers to the sector.

[PixiePetal]

Just read through the whole of this thread and my brain is fried

I have 2 mindees going to school in September and therefore leaving. I have their younger siblings too and not sure yet of their plans but logistically it might not work for them to stay either so I could be out of mindees after the summer and no idea what will happen

Gonna switch off for the rest of the afternoon as I feel a migraine coming on

[SammySplodger]

PixiePetal - me too - have given myself a huge headache. Not good. Desperate for some good news and transparency, but just seem to keep unearthing confusion and duplicity :-(

[phoenix2010]

have read their entire website and I have to say i must be really thick because I still havnt managed to work out exactly what I might be getting for my membership fee should I decide they are offering me something I need

perhaps im missing the point , can anyone enlighten me ? pretty please

[SammySplodger]

Phoenix you are not alone! I have read it several times and I thought I understood it, but now I don't any more! I am going round and round in circles!

On the other hand, I also saw the new PACEY website today... which is quite refreshing (bearing in mind I'm not best pleased about the diversification)...

My NCMA / PACEY membership & insurance don't run out until next January. So I've got quite a long time to sit on the fence and watch how things develop / deteriorate during that time.

[phoenix2010]

Ive never joined NCMA / Pacey in 6 years , never felt they offered anything I needed

as long as i can access first aid and safeguarding courses Im not sure I need anything else

if they are going to help me find business then thats great but I cant see any agency , sorry trade association doing a better job that childcare.co.uk does

I wish i knew what the heck is going on

[SammySplodger]

Courses are a major part of the issue, it's not clear at the moment HOW we will access those courses in the future. I'm not just assuming that the LA will still provide them. My LA are being very cagey at the moment and I'm deeply concerned about their future.

I've recently done most of my courses and have various others booked between now and May. That should cover me for my grading inspection in June/July (if I get one: not assuming that either!) and keep me going for 3 years.

But I am (still) very worried about the future and starting to question if I have made a huge mistake re-registering. :-(

[Simona]

Come on girls...do you remember when the EYFS12 came out??? we were all intepreting and giving our opinion because it was not clear and it got all muddled?? some s are still confused to this day!

This is the same...we have the info and slowly slowly we will get what we want as SammySplodger said no one has to rush and register
Many of us will have existing m'ship we may want to use up to the end date or just insurance from MM and surviving on that...so no headaches or panic
At least we are informed and sharing it as much as we can here and on the agencies Focus Group

Remember this is a business and they say:
'we will undertake the following revenue generating activitiesrovide playgroups, provide training and CPD for our members, provide business support and advisory services to our members, administer the free place and c/vouchers for our members, removing LAs stranglehold on access to funding to 2,3 and 4 year olds' all this will have to be at a cost?
Some cms will be happy to get all this others will want to know exactly what the costs are and I wonder what the LAs will do?

One thing worries me when they say they do not believe in shouting about 'deregulation' and they are concerned some are using the word to run their own agenda??? do you remember the e-petition against deregulation last year?
To me the agenda is fairly clear: individual cms independence or independence under a trade association...both carry a cost but at laest we can make an educated choice...not yet though, we still have a little time!

Just refresh your memory on what the govt wants:

What are childminder agencies? An introduction - Popular questions

[SammySplodger]

I think it might be a good idea to book on whatever training your LA is (still) offering while you can.

And, if I hadn't got insurance sorted out already, I'd be doing it with MM or NCMA/PACEY for the next year, until the dust settles.

I cannot make any major decisions until I can see clearly what we are dealing with, who is behind it, what they are getting out of it, how it functions in practice etc. Hopefully this and other fora will 'ferret out' the answers over the forthcoming weeks and months.

Now that I have had a bit more time to re-read various websites and consider, I am now suspecting ******* could possibly just be a more palatable version of an agency and (somewhere along the line) Truss is behind it. A way of making the Independent CMs more 'compliant' perhaps?

Or is that an outrageous suggestion?!
I could be very wrong here... but nothing surprises me at the moment. If I have learned one thing since last September it is this:
You cannot take anything at face value.

What I'd really like to know is;
what date Ofsted will 'bring down the axe' on inspections. Is that clear yet? Is it September? I'm due June/July. Does anyone know this yet?

[Bicky]

Well I will admit to being totally confused about which way to turn. We aren't even registered yet so really don't know which hurdles we still have to jump over. Are the Government behind any of this?
They have a habit of muddying the waters so no one knows whats going on and then getting their own way while Jo public are spinning round in circles.

[SammySplodger]

I have just 'turned over' to Facebook to see an update the the UKCMA are launching membership on 25 March! Just to confuse matters even further! Aaaaaarrrggghh!
:-)

[justgoodfriends]

The PLA must be close to launching their childminder membership package too?!

[FussyElmo]

I have 13 days to decide about my ncma membership and its not easy knowing which way to go. Do i stick with ncma or try an untested group mmmm

[bunyip]

I am the only one who finds it disturbing that "we" are being "represented" in high-level Dept for Education discussions on the future of our industry (or "profession" if you prefer) by an organisation (*******) that currently has a membership of zero; that no-one is at all clear about what they stand for; and that none of us had even heard of this time last week?

Do they realise they are offering the Tory regime the perfect opportunity to do precisely what it wants? If ******* agree with Truss, she can gleefully announce that a trade association for childcarers backs the plans. If they disagree with her, she'll simply write them off as unrepresentative (and let's face it, they ain't representing anyone but themselves right now.)

At this stage, they can either be a nodding donkey or a lame duck - no more, no less.