NCMA carried out interviews with childminders who had inspections after 1 September last year when the EYFS started. The majority of childminders said they felt they were responding well to delivering the EYFS, were positive about the new inspection process and were not overburdened by excessive paperwork.
The findings appear to contradict some reports that childminders are leaving their jobs amid fears over the EYFS (News, 14 May 2008). Official figures show that there were 1, 671 fewer childminders at the end of December than there were at the end of August (News, 26 March).
Andrew Fletcher, director of communications at NCMA, said, 'We are encouraged by the largely positive response, in particular the usefulness of the self-evaluation form. While many found filling in the form time-consuming at first, the majority found it helped the inspection to go smoothly and encouraged them to record and reflect on good practice.'
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