There are concerns about the 'light touch' nature of the Childcare Approval Scheme - will parents be lulled into a false sense of security about how rigorous the checks are? What happens if a parent wants to report bad practice?
However, another potential obstacle to the success of the scheme is the cost, at 96 per year. This is obviously a large sum for a nanny to pay, and it will not be reduced in subsequent years, nor if the nanny has just had a Criminal Records Bureau check before applying for approval.
Perhaps parents should expect to pay, but for some this could practically wipe out the benefit of any tax gains they will make through employing an approved carer. And if one family ends up having several different nannies over a year - not uncommon - the costs will really stack up.
So parents and nannies must pay a private company a hefty fee for light-touch regulation which perpetuates the two-tier system with other forms of childcare. How many will bother?
