When our children were tiny, I wanted to go back to work part-time. Our ideal form of childcare would have been for them to be cared for by a local childminder, but our nearest didn’t have any spaces available and they ended up going to a nursery, and they were happy there. But I always felt just a little bit disappointed that they hadn’t had the chance to build a relationship with a childminder.
One of the most worrying things to happen in our sector over the past five or so years has been the relentless decrease in childminders. I am amazed the DfE appears disinterested in this statistic. It should be promoting childminding as a great option, and supporting those practitioners who want to work in this way.
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