Nursery World - CACHE course for childminders: Gaining recognition

Childminders, a key part of the national childcare strategy, have long been demanding professional status. Patricia Slatcher outlines the new course that gives it to them

Childminders have had to go to extraordinary lengths to be acknowledged as professionals. Take the case of Karen Bellamy. She's been successfully childminding in Sheffield for almost 20 years, but it wasn't until her own 18-year old daughter got her NVQ3 in early years care and education, that the reality of her own lack of qualifications and status dawned.

Karen started her trawl round local colleges to see what was on offer. 'But there was just nothing locally specifically for childminders and no-one offering the out-of-hours tuition we needed. I could go and learn flower arranging of an evening, or stand on my head in a yoga class, but gain a recognised childminding qualification? No way!'

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