Nursery World - Grants boost childminders

Prospective childminders in Wales are to receive a start-up grant from 1 April 2002. Jane Hutt, minister for children, said the Welsh Assembly will consult on how much the grant should be and added that the country's 22 local childcare partnerships have been given an extra 6,000 to allow them to publicise the initiative beforehand.

Jane Hutt, minister for children, said the Welsh Assembly will consult on how much the grant should be and added that the country's 22 local childcare partnerships have been given an extra 6,000 to allow them to publicise the initiative beforehand.

She said, 'Childminders play a vital role in children's services, and I hope my announcement will help increase the number of childminders in Wales.'

Sian Davies, development manager at the National Childminding Association's (NCMA) Welsh Office in Cardiff, said she was delighted with the decision and hoped the start-up grants would stem the fall in the number of childminders in Wales, which currently stands below 3,000. She said, 'Local authority figures for 1999 in the Early Years National Training Organisation workforce survey showed there were 3,770 childminders in the whole of Wales. However, according to NCMA figures published in June, this fell by almost 1,000 in two years to 2,792 - a total drop of more than 25 per cent and a loss of 6,000 childcare places.'

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