Quality | 2009.06.08
Fears of summer childcare crisis
• Lib Dems blame \'toddler curriculum\' for decline
• One in seven leave sector over six years
Parents could be faced with a childcare shortage this summer, according to figures that reveal there are 10,000 fewer registered childminders than six years ago, with the numbers still rapidly declining.
At the very least, one in seven childminders has left the job since 2003, and the most dramatic reductions have come in the last year with the government\'s introduction of its controversial "toddlers\' curriculum".
The figures, released in parliament to the Liberal Democrats, reveal a six-year decline in the number of carers looking after under-eights, with the level dropping from 70,000 in 2003 to 60,900 in March this year. In the last 12 months there has been a more dramatic decline, with a loss of 4,000 childminders.
Annette Brooke, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, warned of a crisis in the summer holidays, a time when parents often need extra childcare, and blamed the introduction of the Early Year\'s Foundation Stage (EYFS), which has been dubbed a curriculum for toddlers. "The government\'s overly prescriptive and bureaucratic approach to pre-school care is causing childminders to turn away from the profession," she said.
The shortages are likely to be exacerbated by a baby boom in some areas of the country, which is also causing a shortfall in primary school places.
Childminders typically look after small numbers of youngsters in the carer\'s own home; while nannies provide childcare in the child\'s home.
The controversial EYFS was introduced last September. It sets 69 "early learning goals" for five-year-olds, and specialists in early child education have labelled it too prescriptive. Among the goals, children are required to "use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words", and to "write their own names and other things such as labels and captions, and begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation".
Childminders have to record children\'s progress through the goals and their paperwork can be inspected by Ofsted.
Andy Fletcher, joint chief executive of the National Childminding Association, said there were several reasons behind the steady fall in childminders: the economy had played a part, with job losses leading families to need fewer childminders, but the EYFS had "definitely" had a role.
"We know, anecdotally, of childminders giving up because of increasing regulation and a lack of training to help them," he said. "Parents need genuine choice in childcare and there needs to be different types of childcare available. In some areas there are shortages and parents don\'t have that choice. It affects both urban areas with high rates of working families and some rural areas as well."
Brooke added: "As we approach the long school holiday it is going to be a real struggle for hard-pressed parents to find quality and affordable childcare. Childcare costs have spiralled over recent years and there is clearly a risk that the drop in the number of childminders is going to drive up costs even further.
"We already have the farcical situation where some parents find they are better-off giving up work rather than forking out for expensive childcare."
Emma Knights, joint chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said the drop could partly be due to more parents opting for nurseries. "We need to look at the whole childcare sector across the piste. Taking all childcare into account there are a lot of places available to families. Nursery places and playgroups have risen at the same time as the decline in childminders."
Sarah McCarthy-Fry, the schools minister, said: "It is nonsense to suggest that childminders are leaving the profession in droves as a result of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The EYFS is not a burden on childminders and most of them will be familiar with it because it\'s what they are already doing – helping children learn and develop through play.
"The number of registered childminders has always varied over time, for a number of reasons. For example, before the introduction of their new registers Ofsted undertook an exercise to remove childminders who were no longer actively looking after children."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jun[...]ldcare-shortage-summer-holiday
