Questions of trust

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Nannies and childminders have been rated above nurseries as the highest-quality form of care for babies and toddlers, apart from their own mothers. Introducing the Families, Children and Childcare study to this month's National Childminding Conference, researcher and childcare expert Penelope Leach said, 'I believe nannies have a unique part to play in childcare for babies and toddlers.' She found that for working mothers choosing who to leave their baby with, the most important considerations were trust and 'good adult-to-adult communication'. After talking to mothers about their satisfaction with the childcare they were using, she said, 'The better the communication between a mother and childcarer, the more satisfied she was with her childcare. This finding probably goes some way to explaining why more of the mothers in the study were more satisfied with childminders or nannies than with nurseries.' See our feature about research on page 6.