Soon to be registered CM with an agency!

[EmmaCP]

Hello there. Apologies if this is in the wrong place. My name is Emma and as the title suggests I am awaiting my registration visit to become a Childminder.

I thought I would join the forum to make friends and hopefully gain some valuable advice from those already in the know. However I've not read everything indepth but from what I've seen I'm becoming increasingly nervous. You see I will be the first childminder to register on @homechildcare childminder agency's books. There seems to be a lot of negativity towards agencies. I am wondering, am I going to be seen as an outsider?

I hope not, I am so very excited about my chosen business venture and also nervous that I can make it a success. As far as I can tell I have done every step of the process that any 'independent' CM has and I'm waiting anxiously to be inspected.

So please tell me... Am I welcome?

I look forward to making new friends 😊

[sarah707]

Hi all childminders are welcome here on the Childminding Forum - agency and independent.

Personally I have spent the last year and a bit working incredibly hard to offer support and help to childminders so they don't need to join agencies ... I'm not, as you might guess, their biggest fan.

But each to their own. I am sure you have made the right decision for you

[loocyloo]

welcome to the wonderful world of childminding

I have been a childminder for a long time, and in childcare all my working life, so I'm not in need of an agency to support me, and again, I'm not in favour of them, but I can see how they could be useful to a newly registering/registered childminder.

It would be interesting to hear how they have supported you in the process of becoming a childminder, and how they will continue to support you. Out of pure curiosity, will you be inspected by Ofsted or the Agency in order to become a childminder?

best wishes xx

[blue bear]

Ooh do tell from start to now what was the process like, what did it involve, what's the cost, what do you get for your money? Or maybe just tell us what you would like about the process. I'd really like to know, not because I ever intend to join an agency but it would be nice to be informed when asked questions from potential minder who have the choice to make if tat makes sense.

[Simona]

I have a feeling that cms may have not understood that an agency does not have to be on your doorstep to operate in your area!

I think it is easy to work out why.

[rickysmiths]

I have a feeling that cms may have not understood that an agency does not have to be on your doorstep to operate in your area!

I think it is easy to work out why.

I am fully aware of that though I have to say I don't see that as a helpful model for Parents of Childminders but hey ho!

[EmmaCP]

Phewph! Thank you for being welcoming, it's a relief. I feel so very anxious at the moment. So it's nice to think there are people I can talk to who have been through this already.

As for doing the right thing... Honestly I still don't know. I didn't know about agencies until I went for my training at @homechildcare. They were just going through the process of becoming an agency and so after the childminder training it was pitched to us. All of the soon to be childminders on the course I was on weren't impressed but I started to do some research. In the end this is what I thought:

I like the fact that I could pick up the phone or email and have someone help me with anything.

Getting registered is a lot quicker with an agency.

I can be graded straight away so don't have to wait so long to take funded children on.

I am given my own personal mentor who will help me with anything and is guaranteed to visit 3 times in be first year.

I have the use of EYFS software which will help with the documentation of children's learning and also gives parents some reassurance that this is monitored.

I am inspected yearly.

I understand that you maybe thinking why would you want so much interference? However I have spoken at length with the agency about this and they assure me that they do not interfere with my paperwork, I am free to do my own planning, I can have as little involvement or as much from them as I want. In short I do not work for them but they are a support network for me and a direct access to CPD and also someone keeping an eye on the quality of childcare I am providing. Why would I not want that? Surely parents will love that too? I am passionate about childcare, I want to offer the very best and if there is someone there to help me get to that 'outstanding' grade and stay there year to year then I'm all for it.

I will be inspected by the agency but the agency itself is inspected by Ofsted so I have been told its exactly the same. In fact so far the trainers on the course that I have seen are Ofsted inspectors. They are under so much scrutiny that they will be doing nothing short of perfect I am sure. I suppose that's why I am so nervous! That and I am putting a lot of pressure on myself!

Yes the cost is a little more than just being registered with Ofsted in that you have to pay for each child that you have on your books (£5 per child) however I am being transparent about this and explaining to the parents about this extra cost. I know some nurseries that have started to use this software also pass the cost onto the parents so this is not a new concept at all and even with this cost I will be competitively priced.

I hope this answers some of your questions and thank you again for being welcoming.

[rickysmiths]

Phewph! Thank you for being welcoming, it's a relief. I feel so very anxious at the moment. So it's nice to think there are people I can talk to who have been through this already.

As for doing the right thing... Honestly I still don't know. I didn't know about agencies until I went for my training at @homechildcare. They were just going through the process of becoming an agency and so after the childminder training it was pitched to us. All of the soon to be childminders on the course I was on weren't impressed but I started to do some research. In the end this is what I thought:

I like the fact that I could pick up the phone or email and have someone help me with anything.

Getting registered is a lot quicker with an agency.

I can be graded straight away so don't have to wait so long to take funded children on.

I am given my own personal mentor who will help me with anything and is guaranteed to visit 3 times in be first year.

I have the use of EYFS software which will help with the documentation of children's learning and also gives parents some reassurance that this is monitored.

I am inspected yearly.

I understand that you maybe thinking why would you want so much interference? However I have spoken at length with the agency about this and they assure me that they do not interfere with my paperwork, I am free to do my own planning, I can have as little involvement or as much from them as I want. In short I do not work for them but they are a support network for me and a direct access to CPD and also someone keeping an eye on the quality of childcare I am providing. Why would I not want that? Surely parents will love that too? I am passionate about childcare, I want to offer the very best and if there is someone there to help me get to that 'outstanding' grade and stay there year to year then I'm all for it.

I will be inspected by the agency but the agency itself is inspected by Ofsted so I have been told its exactly the same. In fact so far the trainers on the course that I have seen are Ofsted inspectors. They are under so much scrutiny that they will be doing nothing short of perfect I am sure. I suppose that's why I am so nervous! That and I am putting a lot of pressure on myself!

Yes the cost is a little more than just being registered with Ofsted in that you have to pay for each child that you have on your books (£5 per child) however I am being transparent about this and explaining to the parents about this extra cost. I know some nurseries that have started to use this software also pass the cost onto the parents so this is not a new concept at all and even with this cost I will be competitively priced.

I hope this answers some of your questions and thank you again for being welcoming.

If you pay £5 for every child on your books then if you have 6 under 5s you will be paying the same as the £35 pa current fee to Ofsted. Any more children and it will cost you more. For example if you had 10 part timers making up the week. Good though for cm who may not be able to fill all their vacancies.

[Simona]

Close your eyes Bunyip....Here is a link to Orange Moon...looking for registered Cms and EYPS to support their agency CMs!
I rest my case...if we do not offer support to their members other Ofsted registered cms will

Childminder (childcare) Development Tutor/Mentor (28719879) - reed.co.uk

Orange Moon or Leap Ahead...neither titles means anything and have no connection to children!

[bunyip]

Close your eyes Bunyip....Here is a link to Orange Moon...looking for registered Cms and EYPS to support their agency CMs!
I rest my case...if we do not offer support to their members other Ofsted registered cms will

Childminder (childcare) Development Tutor/Mentor (28719879) - reed.co.uk

Orange Moon or Leap Ahead...neither titles means anything and have no connection to children!

As I said, they approached me to help with 'support'.

You'll be pleased to hear I said no 'professionally'. That is, I resisted the overwhelming temptation to deliver my reply tied to a house-brick.

[Simona]

As I said, they approached me to help with 'support'.

You'll be pleased to hear I said no 'professionally'. That is, I resisted the overwhelming temptation to deliver my reply tied to a house-brick.

Yes I was recently made aware of this...so another prediction has come true.

Next is that agencies will become members of our associations and attend conferences alongside ORCMs!

[k1rstie]

Orange Moon...looking for registered Cms and EYPS to support their agency CMs! IURL="http://www.reed.co.uk/jobs/childminder-childcare-development-tutor-mentor/28719879"]Childminder (childcare) Development Tutor/Mentor (28719879) - reed.co.uk[/URL] !

This advert is very interesting Simona. It sounds similar to the role our LA development officers do. I personally do not mind jumping through the occasional hoop to help them justify their jobs, if it means that in our small borough ( with approx 200 childminders), our officers continue to do what ever it is they do.

[Simona]

This advert is very interesting Simona. It sounds similar to the role our LA development officers do. I personally do not mind jumping through the occasional hoop to help them justify their jobs, if it means that in our small borough ( with approx 200 childminders), our officers continue to do what ever it is they do.

Oh the irony of it!...I wonder were they got those ideas from!

I recall discussing these at DFE and with a certain minister 3 and half years ago...not sure how clever @Home childcare are ...or just taking hints from ICMs!

[k1rstie]

Hi Emma. I think you should think wisely before speaking about your agency too much on here.
All existing childminders have different views on belonging to an agency or remaining independent.
I think that you are easily identifiable by your agency, your local authority and also other childminders.
Although, I would also like to know all the juicy details, I feel that you could end up in trouble from your agency.

Sorry everyone, it's just my initial reaction to the post.

[bunyip]

Hi Emma. I think you should think wisely before speaking about your agency too much on here.
All existing childminders have different views on belonging to an agency or remaining independent.
I think that you are easily identifiable by your agency, your local authority and also other childminders.
Although, I would also like to know all the juicy details, I feel that you could end up in trouble from your agency.

Sorry everyone, it's just my initial reaction to the post.

I do think K1rstie has a very good point. At the very least, check that you're not breaching some sort of confidentiality agreement or code of conduct that your agency may have. I'll say that much and, unlike your agency, I don't even charge for this sort of advice.

I OTOH have no such obligations toward @homechildcare. I did my level 3 diploma with their training department. They have some very good, very nice people there, so don't get me wrong, this isn't personal. I'm just not in step with their agenda for childcare.

For one thing, the training was less about us learning anything and more about getting lots of "criteria" boxes ticked in the quickest and most efficient way possible.

As coincidence would have it, the debate about agencies was running at the same time as I was doing the level 3. If anything I say here appears a little unkind, perhaps even brutal - and it probably will - then it is at least bears the marks of integrity by being consistent with what I and many of us were arguing at the time. Remember at the time this whole issue was (and maybe still is?) seen as a fight for the very survival of independent CMing in the face of a government determined to press ahead with the agency model in the face of massive critical opposition from the practitioners and parents alike. It's easy to forget that now in a bid to be all nice and welcoming but that is the reality and I make no apologies for reminding everyone of what may be something of an inconvenient truth at this point in history.

I worry that @homechildcare's priorities are overwhelmingly economic: including occasions on which they may have been somewhat, ahem, "economical with the truth." When the agency issue was discussed during a break in one of my seminars, the @homechildcare people were at pains to point out they had no intentions of extending their territory into my area. This didn't stop them approaching me personally to sign up with them as an agency CM last year. Hmm....odd that.

Then, when I pointed out I had no wish, need or desire to pay them for what I can do perfectly well for myself, they followed up with a request for me to become an agency CM support person for them. They'd pay me to offer the sort of help we all offer one another for free here on the Forum. They only seem to understand the cash imperative.

I'm about to "offend" - at least by the modern ridiculous definition, by which I mean I'm about to say something absolutely frank, honest, morally upstanding (not to mention quite possibly correct) but which some people don't like to hear.

If agencies are all they're cracked up to be and offering all the services and support a CM needs, please tell me why a CM would need or even want to be on a forum such as this?

If the answer to that question is that agencies are leaving gaps in their support/services which the forum is left to fill, then my second question is this: why should I or any other independent CM feel obligated to do the agencies' jobs for them and make up for the agencies' inadequacies by offering free advice of a kind those very agencies purport to provide, for which they charge, and which we may conclude they do not indeed deliver?

[sarah707]

We found a couple of agency childminders on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and wondered the same thing Bunyip -

Why would they need to be members of our group? Surely their agency gives them the support they need ... we removed them.

We have however said that the Forum is open to anyone who wants to seek support - an agency childminder might, after all, decide to change to independent (unlikely - I imagine they are going to be tied in - but it's possible) so we want to be as welcoming as we can be...

Hence opening up a new agency section to the forum where they can post and make friends

[bunyip]

We found a couple of agency childminders on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and wondered the same thing Bunyip -

Why would they need to be members of our group? Surely their agency gives them the support they need ... we removed them.

We have however said that the Forum is open to anyone who wants to seek support - an agency childminder might, after all, decide to change to independent (unlikely - I imagine they are going to be tied in - but it's possible) so we want to be as welcoming as we can be...

Hence opening up a new agency section to the forum where they can post and make friends

Thanks for the clarification.

[Simona]

I think that I have explained why I find it difficult to isolate agency cms from anything that would be of benefit to them....I am keen to avoid the 2 tier system that was in place before.

It is my personal feeling And I find it difficult to understand...the same way I found difficult to accept why non network cm were isolated from the network ones in the past.

I also have said both my association...PLA and others...such as NEYTCO have welcomed agency cms so they get equal support.

It is the forum decision and while I respect it I do not feel it is helpful...no offence to anyone.

[bunyip]

I think that I have explained why I find it difficult to isolate agency cms from anything that would be of benefit to them....I am keen to avoid the 2 tier system that was in place before.

It is my personal feeling And I find it difficult to understand...the same way I found difficult to accept why non network cm were isolated from the network ones in the past.

I also have said both my association...PLA and others...such as NEYTCO have welcomed agency cms so they get equal support.

It is the forum decision and while I respect it I do not feel it is helpful...no offence to anyone.

I fully respect your right to "agree to disagree" on this point.

As I said earlier, my understanding is that the Independent CMs' FB page does exactly what it says on the tin: it is a FB page for independent CMs. I don't go on it cos I have issues with FB. Agency CMs aren't to go on it because they're not independent, so it's not for them.

This sort of thing does happen in other areas of CMing and childcare in general. The following is not an exact comparison (comparisons tend not to be exact anyway) but there are points of convergence by way of an example. My occasional CM group holds occasional trips to women-only sessions at a local swimming baths; they also book occasional women-CM-only spa days or pamper evenings. My view is that they are entitled to do that and it's not my place to demand admission or protest that I've been excluded, or think that the women members have turned against me.

I imagine the independent CMs' FB doo-dah meets the needs of independent CMs in those areas which an agency should, by definition, already be meeting the needs of agency CMs (hence agency CMs don't need the independent CM's FB doohicky.) I guess those areas are, to a greater or lesser degree) something like:-

1. Help with matching childminders and parents together

2. Removing some of the burdens of registration for childminders

3. A support network and a more secure way of working

4. Help with handling day to day issues and emergencies

My source for the above list is DofE's own description of an agency's basic function, taken from: Childminding Agencies - #OfstedBigConversation (dated Valentine's Day - ahh, how sweet , 2013.)

As synchronicity would have it, and I have to extend my sincere admiration of your foresight in this matter Simona, you were already predicting on that very same webpage that the existence of agencies would create "a two-tier system". I absolutely agree with this. It is the existence of agencies, not the reaction of independent CMs, which has created the two tiers and whatever 'split' may inevitably follow.

[EmmaCP]

Hi Emma. I think you should think wisely before speaking about your agency too much on here.
All existing childminders have different views on belonging to an agency or remaining independent.
I think that you are easily identifiable by your agency, your local authority and also other childminders.
Although, I would also like to know all the juicy details, I feel that you could end up in trouble from your agency.

Sorry everyone, it's just my initial reaction to the post.

Why do you think it would get me in to trouble? I have been nothing but honest and I want to try and alleviate this negative stigma that agencies seem to have. Are we not all striving for the same thing... Excellence in childcare? Whether registered with Ofsted or an agency on behalf of Ofsted the outcome is the same, surely?

Thank you for your concern though, I will certainly query this point and review my replies accordingly.