Nursery World - Childminders are most likely to achieve quality practice under LA support structure

New research shows that childminders are more likely to achieve outstanding practice when supported by their local authority.

The key findings of the study, which set out to identify factors that have enabled childminders in rural local authorities to achieve an Ofsted outstanding, show that childminders are most likely to achieve quality practice when working in a local authority with a structured childminder network that incorporates a quality assurance scheme, with officers solely responsible for childminders and where the LA holds a full record of childminders' qualifications.

Local authorities with the highest number of outstanding childminders commonly employed an officer with sole responsibility for supporting childminders, had an established childminder network and operated on a ratio of one support worker to 74 childminders.

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