Nursery World - Push for registered carers

The only way informal childcarers such as grandparents or other relatives can expect to be subsidised by the Government will be if they become registered childcarers, the Sure Start minister told the Work and Pensions select committee last week. At the hearing in Westminster to discuss affordable childcare and its funding, Catherine Ashton, who is responsible for childcare and the early years in England, stressed that the Government had no intention of subsidising unregistered childcarers after Joan Humble, Labour MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, pointed out to her that many parents had expressed a preference for informal care. Baroness Ashton said, 'My job is to use Government resources to support good-quality experiences for children and to get parents back to work. I am keen to create career paths for informal carers to turn them into formal carers such as childminders or nursery nurses.'

At the hearing in Westminster to discuss affordable childcare and its funding, Catherine Ashton, who is responsible for childcare and the early years in England, stressed that the Government had no intention of subsidising unregistered childcarers after Joan Humble, Labour MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, pointed out to her that many parents had expressed a preference for informal care. Baroness Ashton said, 'My job is to use Government resources to support good-quality experiences for children and to get parents back to work. I am keen to create career paths for informal carers to turn them into formal carers such as childminders or nursery nurses.'

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