Q1.      What are childminder agencies?

Agencies will be ‘one-stop-shop’ organisations that will help childminders with training, business support, advice and finding parents. They will also provide a valuable service for parents who want to find a high quality childminder.

By enabling the creation of new childminder agencies, we hope to attract new childminders to the profession who want support to work as a childminder.

Agencies will also provide a range of services for childminders such as marketing, administrative support, and training and development opportunities to help them to further raise the quality of their provision.

Q2.      How will childminder agencies help parents?

Many parents struggle to find the right local childminder, so agencies can help by providing a matching service for parents. They can maintain lists of local childminders, the services and hours they provide and offer assurance that that the child minder is high quality and subject to a robust quality assurance regime. Agencies will also be able to provide holiday and sickness cover, ensuring parents have reliable childcare.

Q3.      Will childminders be required to join a childminder agency?

No.   Joining a childminder agency will be voluntary.

Q4.      Will the establishment of agencies put independent childminders out of business, forcing them to join an agency?

No, this is not the case.  Nobody will be forced to join an agency.  Individual childminders will decide what is best for them.  Some will welcome the support an agency can offer whilst others will prefer to operate independently. We have opened up early education to all good and outstanding childminders, putting a childminders in a simpler position.

Q5. Who will run the childminder agencies?

A wide variety of organisations have come forward wishing to participate in the trial of childminder agencies. They include schools, nurseries, children’s centres and private enterprises. They are all committed to providing a high quality service to children and their families. They will be self-funded and independent of government.

Q6.      What are the childminding agency trials?

The trials are exploring different aspects and models of an agency in order to fully understand the challenges and solutions to an agency style of working. About 100 organisations came forward wishing to participate in the trials and about 20 were selected who we felt would be able to successfully explore an

aspect of how agencies might work.  Further information can be found at:  https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-the-quality-and-range-of-  education-and-childcare-from-birth-to-5-years.

Q7.      So why would childminders choose to join an agency?

The creation of childminder agencies will give childminders, that want it, the opportunity to access a range of support that an agency can offer.  Agencies need to work for childminders and parents, and offer a sustainable deal and excellent package of support. If not, where is the incentive to join?  Some childminders, especially new ones, may want to join an agency to be part of an established business model.

Another key feature of agencies will be the focus on continuous professional development, training, quality assurance and sharing resources which is likely to be attractive to childminders.

At the same time, we understand many childminders are content with the way they are working. The Government is simply offering two different ways of working.

Q8.      Will a childminder be forced to give up their self-employed status if they choose to register with an agency?

This will be a matter for the childminder and agency to agree, as part of any contract an agency and childminder want to put in place alongside the registration. The Government will not legislate on this and its view is that childminders should be able to retain their self-employed status or become an employee of the agency as they wish.

Q9.      How does the Government see the inspection of agencies working?

As with other childcare providers, agencies will need to register with and be inspected by Ofsted to ensure they meet all the necessary standards. The focus of Ofsted’s inspection of an agency will, of course, be on the quality of the childcare it provides. The Department and Ofsted are working on the detail but, as stated in the Government’s Policy Statement, the Department expects that Ofsted’s inspection of agencies will include careful assessment of the agency’s arrangements for quality assuring its childminders.

This will include sampling a proportion of individual childminders registered with that agency to ensure that the agency is providing proper support, training and guidance to their childminders. Ofsted will need to satisfy itself that the agency is making the right judgements about the quality of care provided by childminders and how they should improve.  Ofsted will also develop a registration and inspection model that takes into account a range of potential business models.

Q10. How can parents be sure that the childminders registered with an agency are high quality?

CMAs will be expected to conduct home visits to their childminders on a regular basis. They will also have the economies of scale to provide much more active training, inspection and quality improvement services. They will also have to meet all the same safety and quality standards as any other type of childcare provision. Agencies will also be inspected by Ofsted who will also visit a number of the childminders registered with the agency as part of that inspection. We are working with our trialists on this issue to ensure that all agencies develop a robust, rigorous system to reassure parents.

Q11.  Isn’t there a risk that the introduction of agencies will result in a drop in the quality of care for children?

No.  Under the existing Ofsted inspection framework, a childminder might only receive a visit once every three or four years.  Agencies will have much more contact with childminders - including regular home visits and additional contact time on top of that.  They will have a real focus on quality and support.

Q12.  Will parents be charged by agencies and won’t agencies increase costs?

It is simply wrong to say parents will be forced to pay higher costs because of childminder agencies. Agencies will share administrative burdens currently undertaken by individual childminders, cutting out duplication and delivering greater efficiency. At the moment individual childminders are responsible for their own training and development, but the introduction of agencies will allow childminders to concentrate on what they do best – caring for children.

Agencies will be optional for both childminders and parents – so childminders can continue working on their own should they choose to do so, and parents can still opt for an independently registered childminder if they prefer.  Our aim is to see a rise in both independent and agency childminders, which as they are affordable, local childcare will increase choice for parents.

Q13.         When will we know how much it will cost agencies to register with Ofsted and for childminders to register with agencies?

Ofsted are in the process of developing their framework for registration, inspection and enforcement and plan to consult shortly. We realise that knowing the cost is important for the business models of prospective CMAs and hope to be saying something on this soon.  It will be for CMAs to determine their registration fees, in the context of the overall package of support they will be providing to childminders and parents.

Q14.  Have there been other recent changes that will help childminders?

Yes.  More affordable childcare published in July, set out plans to reform the role of the local authority in early education including enabling childminders rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ to directly access funding to provide early

education places for two, three and four-year-olds without undergoing a separate quality assessment by the local authority, or meeting locally set quality conditions.

The change to make all good or outstanding childminders automatically eligible for government funded childcare places will mean 32,000 childminders are now eligible for this funding, compared to only around 4,000 which receive this funding at the moment. This is potentially a huge increase in choice for parents. The change came into force on 1 September.

Any childminder rated ‘satisfactory’ will also be able to deliver three and four- year-old places, but local authorities can place funding conditions on these providers to address concerns raised by Ofsted at inspection.

Q15.  How many childminders will benefit from the changes to early education funding?

Our reforms will enable up to 70% of childminders to access funding under the early education programme when currently only 10% do so. Making it easier for childminders to access this funding will enable them to compete on a more equally with other providers and increase the affordability and choice of childcare for many parents.

Q16.  Why have the Department for Education contracted 4children through the VCS grant scheme to deliver  community childcare hubs when CMAs are being introduced?

Community childcare hubs and childminder agencies are two different things, being set up in different ways, to different timescales and with slightly different aims. Community Childcare hubs is a specific programme to support childcare provision in a local area.

Q17.  What’s the difference between a community childcare hub and a childminder agency?

The key difference between community childcare hubs and childminder agencies is that the hubs will work with and be based in a range of early years settings (such as schools, private nurseries or children’s centres) whilst agencies will work with childminders as their main priority. That said, we do expect that agencies will want to work with other providers and with hubs to help increase the choice and quality of provision. Providers involved in hubs will retain their individual Ofsted registration.

In addition, one of the key roles of hubs will be to improve the quality of all forms of local childcare provision, including within private, voluntary and independent nurseries, maintained nurseries and childminders, through peer- to-peer mentoring and sharing best practice.  Agencies will have more of a focus on childminders registered with them, and who they will be responsible for inspecting and ensuring quality.