As a newly qualified childminder I have been told by my area's network co-ordinator that I will be ineligible to be recruited into her network until I have been minding for at least six months. This is demoralising for enthusiastic new childminders like myself, and it does nothing to improve the service for children cared for by new minders.
I am one of the Government's newly recruited and supposedly much-needed childcare professionals, and I am proof of the success of the childminder registration programme. It is unhelpful of the National Childminding Association to discriminate against those newly qualified minders like myself, who are the ones most in need of professional encouragement and support.
My attitude now is that I do not need any network that is not interested in me until I have more experience, and I will go it alone to provide my own professional standards and 'children come first' service while gaining support from other less exclusive sources.
Name and address supplied
