Delegates at the National Childminding Association's annual general meeting in Eastbourne last weekend voted overwhelmingly in support of a proposal that the national standards should be amended to allow childminders to care for more than one child under the age of one.
Anne Bennett, the Manchester-based childminder who put forward the proposal, told Nursery World, 'We feel this is letting parents down and restricting their choice of childcare. Experienced childminders are contemplating leaving the profession because they cannot fill vacancies with other children.'
Under the current regulations, childminders can only care for more than one child under 12 months if the babies are twins or siblings. Ms Bennett pointed out that numerous experienced childminders had cared successfully for more than one child under the age of one before the regulations came into force, and that children often enjoyed being with others of the same age and formed lasting friendships with them.
The annual general meeting was addressed by Catherine Ashton, the minister for Sure Start, early years and childcare, who introduced delegates to the new framework for care for under-threes, Birth to Three Matters (see lead story, left). During a question and answer session she was asked why childminders should be permitted to smack the children in their care and smoke in front of them with parental consent in England, while this is banned in the rest of the UK.
Baroness Ashton indicated that she had taken note of the childminders'
concerns about smacking and smoking and the restriction on caring for babies under one, and would bear them in mind during the review of national standards for childminding, due to start in May 2003. She suggested that childminders should write in to her about these and any other concerns they had.
