Tabloids at it again!

[Jayse74]

Before I turn in for the night I could not help but read this article! Forgive me as its the Daily Fail again:

School FINES parents if they are more than 15 minutes late picking up children (...but at £6 an hour is it cheaper than childminders?) | Mail Online

This paper is so biased towards the cost of childminders being high and a bad thing!

Some of the comments, one stands out:

"With reference to the headline, can I just point out that the average hourly rate for childminders in my area is £3.80, can the press stop making out that childminders are somehow ripping off parents and charging a fortune. Registered childminders offer a professional, affordable, flexible service to parents."

This has probably happend at the local school we are based at! They are collating views/data on this and I assume they are putting a provision in place. There has been a couple instances of children stuck with a teacher from what we have heard! nothing to do with any mindees we collect. Infact all the mindee's we have, their time keeping is perfect as we deliver and pickup bang on time. But as childminders we are still slated even after ensuring children are on time and collected on time.

So I guess they have got annoyed with parents not turning up for prompt pickup at 3:30pm and have decided to provide childcare on site? This is will affect us BIG time but thats another story.

Maybe a full page advert in a couple tabloid rags stating that the average wage of a childminder is WAY below national minimum wage backed up by Pacey or something would do us all a favour for once!... instead of causing lots of negative rantings by parents, tv reports etc?

I doubt the papers would let it happen

[sarah707]

We really are taking a bashing aren't we? would they work for the money we earn and do the job we do with all the extra hours? I think not

[bunyip]

The Daily Mail: now there's a proper newspaper, isn't it?

Not just a wad of Tory press releases stuck together with pictures of Princess Krate.

Is it?

Honest.

[Simona]

If we look at this sentence we have to question what this is all about....considering this is the Mail and a very Tory supportive paper (if we can call it that!!)

Germander Park School in Milton Keynes wants to discourage parents from treating it as a 'childcare provider' by charging whenever it has to look after pupils outside school hours.

Have schools not understood that it is exactly what Truss et al want them to become: a childcare provider? and therefore a business.
The evidence points to that...so if schools were to charge £6 for late pick up I wonder if we could blame them when CMs constantly complain parents do that to us all the time?

This could be the wake up call for CMs to reflect on their fees and charge accordingly
We are under attack but I fail to see who is there to defend our profession and the work we do?

[unalindura77]

Grrrrrr!