National Children

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Childminders training qualifications and
professionalism in England

• Workshop presentation for
• Quality Employment in Care Work with Young
  Children
• European conference,
• Brussels April 21st- 22nd 2008
• Sue Owen
• Director, Early Childhood Unit, National
  Childrens Bureau, England

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What are the elements of professionalism for
childminding?

• To quote Moss (2003)
• Improved employment conditions
• Rising levels of educational qualifications
• Job related training
• The prospect of career progression
• Distinctive pedagogical approaches

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Some factors which research studies have shown to
be important in predicting higher quality
provision

• Intentionality, the positive choice to be a
  provider
• Training to do that specific job
• Support networks and contacts
• Adequate regulatory standards
• Small to moderate sized groups of children
• Good communication between provider and parent
• An orderly physical environment appropriate to
  childrens activities
• A wide range of activities and toys
• A safe and healthy environment
• A sensitive and responsive relationship between
  provider and child.
• Also a good general level of education
• Clarke-Stewart, 1987 Pence and Goelman, 1991
  Hennessey and others 1992 Galinsky and others,
  1994 Kontos and others, 1995

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Mandy Riley registered childminder in
Middlesbrough in the north east of England

• A childminder for 2 years, she began when her own
  child needed childcare
• Had always loved children and enjoyed having them
  around my house was always filled with children
  anyway
• Had a background in care work as a health care
  assistant and training for playgroup work
• 6 weeks introductory training pre-registration
  (required)
• Paediatric first aid (required)
• Criminal Records Bureau checks (required)

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After registration

• Diploma in Home Based Childcare (nationally
  accreditation qualification at level 3)
• Short training courses including
• Parents Early Years and Learning (PEAL)has
  registered for accreditation
• Common Assessment Framework (CSF)
• Supporting Inclusion
• Early Years Foundation Stage training
  (Communication, Language and Literacy and Social
  and Emotional Development)

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And..

• Mandy has a waiting list, all through word of
  mouth contacts
• She is part of her local authoritys network on
  listening to the voices of young children and
  speaks about this at conferences but has not
  joined a quality assured network
• She has made a video on her childrens
  development of their fire drill

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The ChildmindersBrian Jackson, New Society 1973

• I suspect, the biggest group of all are what we
  might call maternal minders. They half see
  minding as a career. They are not grasping for
  moneythey are not cruel.They see the good
  child as the quiet, undemanding, physically
  static child. The talking, playing, exploratory
  creature is the naughty child.

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How far does her training pattern meet the
requirements we considered yesterday?

• on-going, not one-off
• leading to recognised qualifications
• accessible in terms of finance and timings
• arising from their own debates and situations
• linked to improved pay and conditions (career
  progression and status)

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Diploma in Home based Childcare training figures
for 2007

New courses enrolments completed passed
Unit 1 347 4461 4144 3728
Unit 2 43 602 408 372
Unit 3 45 584 362 358
Unit 4 33 510 352 356
Unit 5 28 422 273 273
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Other current statistics

• There has been an increase in childminders
  undertaking training from 61 in 2003 to 88 in
  2005. Most childminders contribute to their own
  training costs
• The proportion of childminders reported as
  holding any relevant qualification has risen
  from 34 in 2001 to 64 in 2003 and 65 in 2005.
• There is a substantial increase in the proportion
  of childminders holding at least a Level 3
  relevant qualification (from 16 per cent in 2003
  to 26 per cent in 2005 and 26.2 per cent in
  2007).
• 65,000 people have registered to undertake the
  Introduction to Childminding Practice (level 1)
  qualification since Sept 2000 8500 to under the
  Developing Childminding Practice (one of the
  units of a level 3) qualification and 5000 the
  Certificate in Childminding Practice (level 3)
  qualification

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Quality assurance

• There are around 400 quality assured childminding
  networks in England and Wales of which 383 are
  NCMA Children Come First quality assured networks
• This means there are over 10,000 NCMA quality
  assured network childminders
• Additionally, 3347 childminders are undertaking
  Quality First, NCMAs individual quality
  assurance scheme

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Relationship between training and professionalism

• The majority of childminders do see themselves
  as professional childcare workers. Yet less than
  a quarter considered it very important for
  childminders to have a childcare qualification
  and only a third thought it was very important
  for childminders to attend training coursesThe
  majority of case study childminders felt that a
  childcare qualification was less important to
  them in their work than the experience of being a
  parentThose with a childcare qualification were
  much more likely to say that it is training
  rather than the experience of parenting which is
  more valuable Mooney A, Knight A, Moss P and
  Owen C (2001) Who Cares? childminding in the
  1990s, London , Joseph Rowntree Foundation and
  Family Policy Studies Centre

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Early Years Professional Status (EYPS)

• A graduate in every childcare setting
• the Childrens Workforce Development Council
  (CWDC) published the updated Early Years
  Professional National Standards on 18 July 2006.
• Those awarded EYP status must demonstrate through
  their practice that they meet standards
  regarding
• knowledge and understanding
• effective practice
• relationships with children
• communicating and working in partnership with
  families and carers
• teamwork and collaboration
• professional development.
• There are 39 standards in all. Guidance to the
  standards is being drafted.

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Contacts and more information

• Sue Owen (NCB)
• sowen_at_ncb.org.uk
• NCMA
• www.ncma.org.uk