Ok - first point not everybody on here is a NCMA member - it is personal choice and as such Ofsted can not mark you down for not being a member.
However you can get extra 'brownie points' in the working in partnership with others section.
As Rickysmiths has said NCMA is a member organisation that represents childminders at national level and ensures its members needs are met. There are so many things that NCMA (and its volunteers) do to support not only NCMA members but all childminders.
Now the important thing is without its members - the like of me, Rickysmiths and many others on here - there would not be a NCMA and who would then respresent childminders views? NO ONE.
As a childminder I know my voice alone will not be heard - but as a member my voice is one of many - and it is in that collective form (as many) that NCMA get things done / changed.
I am what is called a key volunteer for NCMA - and in the last couple of months - as a NCMA memberand volunteer
I have been involved in getting clarification on the issue of childminders paying public performance licence by working with NCMA (good news we don't have to pay)
I have been to London to meet with the DfE to put childminders views about the revised EYFS,
I have chaired a regional forum where members discussed a wide range of subjects - and have just submitted the report to NCMA so that it will help inform them of members views
All of this volunteering stuff that I do (and many others across the country) helps NCMA represnt childminders views and support its members.
I think the answer to your question is YES it is worth it - why not try it for a year? Get involved either at a personal level by responding to things on the website or as part of a NCMA group or by attending the regional forum in your area. If you don;t try - you won't know - and if no one became a member - childminders would be in a worse position and paying a lot more for a lot of things and quite likely having to operate more like nurseries as there would be no one to put the childminders view to government.
If you have not guessed I am passionate about childminding and about NCMA as a member organisation.
Go on - give it a try.
Penny
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