February 2019 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to February – and the land of ice and snow! We are reading ‘Say hello to the snowy winter animals’ by Ian Whybrow and the children are enjoying playing in the snow (real and pretend), making snowmen (real and pretend) and cutting snowflakes.
 
Here are some news snippets to keep all childminders colleagues who want to stay independent of agencies updated and informed… follow the links for more information.
 
What do you want to see in early years in 2019?
Nursery World magazine have canvassed early years practitioners for their views in this article.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1166499/what-the-sector-wants-in-2019
 
Delays to new childminder registrations
I have heard about worrying delays from a lot of childminders who are trying to register with Ofsted – then I read this Nursery World article which, in my view, promotes childminder agencies as quicker and more efficient. I have been working tirelessly for the last few years to support childminders who want to stay independent of agencies – this newsletter is part of my work to ensure independent childminders stay up-to-date. Reading this heavily biased article has left me feeling very despondent and a little cross. Questions were raised on Twitter as well from leading early years specialists about whether the Ofsted delays might be pushing registering childminders towards agencies. What do you make of it – I would be interested to hear your views?
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1166497/ofsted-delay-hits-childminders
 
Universal credit review
Universal Credit is a concern for a lot of childminders (as I noted in my recent blog). We welcome the news that a cross party group of MPs are going to review the way the credits are paid. This will include the possibility of making direct payments to childcare providers and looking at the way the current Universal Credit is causing debt problems for many claimants.
https://independentchildminders.weebly.com/blog/universal-credit-and-childminders
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/inquiry/
 
Changes to the Ofsted inspection framework
Ofsted are sharing lots of information about the proposed new inspection framework on YouTube and SlideShare. You can read more on the consultation that they are currently running in this Nursery World article.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1166596/ofsted-launches-consultation-on-how-it-inspects-from-early-years-to-further-education
Lots of questions are being asked about the new inspection framework – this is an interesting article from TES. I will comment more when I have further information to share… I am still making up my mind and some of the wording is a little … erm … not early years friendly so I hope they have a re-think!
https://www.tes.com/news/how-will-ofsted-evaluate-how-much-four-year-old-knows
 
How does screen time affect children?
A recent report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has shown that children with higher screen time tend to have: a less healthy diet, a higher energy intake, and more pronounced indicators of obesity; more depressive symptoms, although it has been found by some studies that some screen time is better for mental health than none at all. Recommendations include: avoid screens an hour before the planned bedtime; families should negotiate screen time limits with their children based upon the needs of an individual child.
Source: Caspar newsletter
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2018-12/rcpch_screen_time_guide_-_final.pdf
 
Activity passport from DfE
The newly released activity passport from DfE has received mixed reviews from early years practitioners – it’s here if you want to read. A lot of practitioners feel it’s teaching us to suck eggs…
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/my-activity-passport
 
Happiness for all providers
Are you happy? Most childminders say they are … in recent research, science is being used to teach us about happiness. One of the things that has come out of the research is the importance of ensuring you have some ‘me time’ every day – time to sit and do absolutely nothing or to relax in front of the television without thinking about work…
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/5-new-positive-psychology-findings-that-will-help-you-live-a-happier-life.html
 
Latest CEEDA research
About Early Years 4 – latest information from practitioners about the state of early years.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1166678/ceeda-data-about-early-years-4-gaps-in-the-market
 
Keeping young children safe online
This is a useful link to share with parents – it has been written by experts specifically for children under the age of 5. It is especially important given the latest news that ‘more than 5% of young people have their own smartphone.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/keeping-your-under-five-safe-online
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1166744/more-than-5-per-cent-of-young-children-have-their-own-smartphone
 
Keeping Ofsted updated
In a recent Nursery World article Ofsted have clarified what they want to be informed about in relation to children’s accidents (serious ones only). They also state that inspectors who carry mobile phones during inspections shouldn’t be expected to hand them over. It is useful when Ofsted share these updates so we can stay informed.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/opinion/1166536/bumps-and-bruises-what-ofsted-needs
 
School readiness
What do children need to know when they start school? Lots of things… but a recent study suggests them knowing how to make friends is key to a successful transition. You can read more information about the study here.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1166575/knowing-how-to-make-friends-most-important-for-starting-school
 
Staff pay rises
Staff pay rises are coming in April – have you budgeted for the increase? Note that the National Living Wage, the statutory minimum for workers aged 25 and over, will increase by 4.9% to £8.21 per hour and minimum contribution rates for pensions will increase at the same time. Remember - if you need to put your fees up, you will normally need to do it in March so parents have a months’ notice to make arrangements.
https://app.croneri.co.uk/whats-new/nlw-will-rise-821-april-2019
https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/helpcentre/contributions/calculating-contributions/changes-to-minimum-contributions.html

I hope you find this newsletter useful - please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions for articles. 

Chat soon, Sarah 
​

January 2019 newsletter for independent childminders

Happy New Year to you all! Here is my latest newsletter for childminders who want to stay independent of agencies.

Ofsted annual report
The latest Ofsted annual report has been published and Amanda Spielman has been out there making speeches.

The focus seems to be on keeping children safe while allowing them to experience risk, early literacy and phonics teaching in reception (with a big focus on increasing children’s vocabulary) and the importance of play. Ofsted want children to ‘know more and remember more’, a theory which links closely to cognitive science and the way learning links to their long-term memory.

Some feedback from the Pre-school Learning Alliance.
 
Writing in the early years
The gender gap in the early years profile results is most obvious in writing – girls outperform boys every year. Boys typically achieve at a higher percentage than girls in expressive art and design so it is a good idea to use their love of creativity and pop in some mark making experiences which will lead to writing when they start school. Some activities we do with our boys and girls to support their mark making include:

• Painting to music
• Role play mark making
• Tools in the messy tray
• Drawing inside boxes
• Marking winners during games
• Drawing under the table

What are your best mark making ideas to get boys involved? Share them with your colleagues on the Independent Childminders Facebook group.

Wages for staff
In the recent budget, the Chancellor announced the new National Minimum Wage rates that will apply from April 2019:
£8.21 per hour for adults aged 25 and over (also known as the National Living Wage) (up from £7.83)
£7.70 per hour for adults aged 21-24 (up from £7.38)
£6.15 per hour for 18-20 year olds (up from £5.90)
£4.35 per hour for 16-17 year olds (up from £4.20)
£3.90 per hour for apprentices (up from £3.70)
 
Pensions for staff
Do you have staff? Do they earn enough to be entitled to a pension? If so, you need to sign up with NEST (or another pension provider) and enrol them. They pay a contribution and you will have to pay a contribution as their employer – the amount you have to pay is going up next year. More information from the Pension Regulator here.
 
Children who speak English as an additional language
You will find some useful information in this booklet from Oxford early years.

I also have a free Childcare.co.uk ‘English as an additional language’ webinar planned on 22nd January 2019 – you can sign up and log in from this link.
 
Improving the home learning environment
DfE has released some new information about how early years practitioners can work with parents to improve the home learning environment to help promote early language and literacy development.
 
Updated qualification checker
DfE has updated their qualification checker (Nov 2018) – you can find the latest version here.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eyfs-staffchild-ratios-dfe-approved-qualifications
 
Supporting children with SEND
Ofsted have been busy! Another speech talking about the ‘crisis in support for children with SEND’ has been reported in Nursery World magazine.

The BBC has published an interesting article.
 
Are you an employer?
HMRC have published a series of webinars and guides for employers to help ensure the national minimum wage is paid correctly – we often see early years providers on the annual HMRC ‘name and shame’ list.
 
The importance of self-evaluation
When Ofsted withdrew their self-evaluation form a lot of providers were confused – do we still need to evaluate? The answer is ‘yes’ – we don’t have a guidance document to follow any more but inspectors will look for self-evaluation and action planning to show how we are driving our businesses forward.

My blog is full of ideas for childminders – I hope you find it useful.

Self-regulation in the early years
The suggested revised Early Learning Goals (currently being trialled) talk about children developing self-regulation skills to help them cope in school and life. A lot of early years professionals do not believe the statements go far enough – this guest blog on the ABC Does website by Mine Conkbayir is an interesting and thought provoking read.
 
Ofsted early years pedagogy and practice forum
Ofsted have announced the members of their new early years pedagogy and practice forum – you can read more about it in this Nursery World article.
 
What’s in a name?
Childminders have been talking about their name for years! Is it appropriate for the world of childminding in 2018? Does it still describe what we do and the way we work? The Pre-school Learning Alliance asked these questions recently when renaming their Alliance membership category and decided to call us ‘Childminding Professional’ … childminder viewpoints on what we might want to be called in the future varied hugely.
 
Safeguarding – staying updated
I am often asked how I keep up-to-date with the latest safeguarding information and good practice guidance. I look at websites and I am set up to receive different emails through the month and put the relevant information into my newsletter… Safeguarding in Schools by Andrew Hall is one of my ‘go to’ websites and there is a useful monthly email.

That's it for this month ... chat soon, Sarah. 

December 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

IC December newsletter
 
Welcome to December! We have planned our Advent calendar with the children and we are going to have lots of fun learning about Christmas before we break for the holidays.
 
Here is some updated news for all early years providers…
 
Ofsted updates
Ofsted have updated lots of their guidance including –
Linking people to your registration
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/people-connected-with-ofsted-registered-childcare
Registering to provide childcare on domestic premises (CODP)
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/childminders-and-childcare-providers-register-with-ofsted/childminders-and-childcare-on-domestic-premises-registration
Registering as a childminder
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/childminders-and-childcare-providers-register-with-ofsted
The Ofsted registration visit
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/childminders-and-childcare-providers-register-with-ofsted/the-registration-visit
You will find information on the Ofsted monthly newsletter.
 
Registration requirements
There is a useful new Ofsted page for the registration requirements – I have referred to it a few times already when answering questions on Facebook groups.
 
Losing providers…
We know there are less and less childminders. This report looks at what is happening.
 
Tax free childcare
Oh dear – providers have said all along it doesn’t work well – and it seems from this Nursery World article that parents agree.
 
The Pre-school Learning Alliance
Pre-school Learning Alliance (my member organisation of choice because of the amazing work they do to promote early years and childcare) is rebranding and changing its name to the Early Years Alliance to better reflect the range of early years providers it supports.
 
Tax-free childcare
Tax-free childcare has been around for a while now. It will eventually replace the current childcare vouchers because new families cannot sign up to voucher companies any more – this is their only option. Providers report it is difficult to use, slow to send money across to them and not very reliable – parents find it difficult to locate the provider they want to use and are missing out on other benefits when they use it – so it’s not very popular.

There has been a tax-free childcare underspend this year which is, according to news reports, being returned to the Govt rather than being spent on childcare!
 
30 hours funding – the hidden cost
Reports in Nursery World magazine on the mess the government has caused by introducing the underfunded 30 hours childcare policy and its impact on the most vulnerable children.
 
Reducing unintentional injuries in children
A new report from ROSPA which might be useful to share with parents – and interesting reading for home-based childcare providers.
 
Proposed changes to the Early Learning Goals – feedback
An early years expert from the Pre-school Learning Alliance has commented on the proposed changes to the Early Learning Goals – calling them ‘criminal’. You can read the full report here.

Funding rates for Las in 2019/20
Latest information from Local Authorities on funding rates for next year - most are either staying the same or going down slightly which is a worry, especially for settings with staff as staff wages are going up in April.

It will be more important than ever to ensure parents understand the funding is not ‘free’ it is a subsidy – a contribution by the Government to help fund their child’s early years space.
 
Safeguarding: Mongolian blue spot
Unexplained bruising or marks on a baby or child’s body must always be investigated. In a recent update email from www.safeguardinginschools.co.uk I read about the case of a young child new to a nursery who appeared to have bruising at the bottom of their spine. Staff contacted children's services and a medical examination was carried out. 

The bruising was identified as a skin condition known as Mongolian Blue Spot – a flat, blue-grey birthmark. The report states that Mongolian blue spots are rare in children of white European background, but very common in children of African, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean or Asian background. As many as three-quarters of children from these ethnic groups are born with Mongolian blue spots. Typically these birthmarks fade in adolescence.

I have downloaded this information sheet from Great Ormond Street Hospital and printed a copy for my safeguarding file.
 
Keeping children safe online
Online safety - keeping children safe online - is a focus of GDPR and the Prevent Duty and Ofsted will often ask about it during inspection. This calendar from Childnet Intl and the UK Safer Internet Centre reminds you to prioritise one aspect of online safety each month of the year and can be shared with parents.
 
Child neglect
Do you know how to spot a child who is being neglected? Do you know what to do if you are worried a child is being neglected? Do you know what your Local Authority expects you to do if you have concerns? In Cheshire east we must complete a lengthy neglect form before contacting anyone to report concerns… what are your Local Authority reporting guidelines?

According to the NSPCC, child neglect is the most reported issue so this is clearly a very concerning area of safeguarding and child protection we need to be aware about.
 
Volunteer Risk Assessment 
EYFS requirement 3.17 states that we must ‘have regard’ to the government’s statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (DfE, 2018).
The latest version of ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ introduced the requirement to formally risk assess volunteers. ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ states: "Under no circumstances should a volunteer in respect of whom no checks have been obtained be left unsupervised or allowed to work in regulated activity." (KCSIE, para 161). Experts advise that all volunteers in the setting need an individual risk assessment.

You will find more information in this Nursery World article.
 
Childminders and regular visitors
We have recently been informed by Ofsted that regular visitors to childminding settings need an enhanced DBS and an EY2 form completed on the Government Gateway. This includes cleaners who are ‘regular visitors’ to the setting at times when the childminded children are present.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/people-connected-with-ofsted-registered-childcare
 
The importance of keeping Ofsted updated about changes to family member DBS status is highlighted in this recent news report about a childminder sentenced for working illegally because they didn’t inform Ofsted about a family member’s arrest for a sexual offence.
 
Repeating DBS checks for existing staff (Ofsted)
‘Keeping children safe in education’ was updated recently (Sept 2018).

One of the revised statements linked to this statutory guidance is: 'Inspectors (Ofsted) should be very clear as to the standards that schools are required to maintain and should not expect to see evidence of schools taking actions beyond these standards, such as routinely checking the DBS status of existing staff.'  

However, if you are concerned about the suitability of an existing staff member, ‘Keeping children safe in education’ states that you should, ‘carry out all relevant checks as if the person were a new member of staff’ (paragraph 156).

The EYFS states that we must ‘have regard’ to ‘Keeping children safe in education’ so these rules apply to early years providers as well as schools.

If you have any questions, please join the Independent Childminders Facebook group. 

Thank you, Sarah. 
 

November 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

Free training webinars

More Childcare.co.uk free training webinars have been added to the list taking us through to the Christmas break. They cover learning, development and progress – key aspects of day-to-day work for early years providers.

If you struggle to access the webinars because of low bandwidth or are always busy on a Tuesday night at 7.30pm you might want to ‘listen again’ – this is a new service for Childcare.co.uk gold members.

Firework safety

If you are planning activities with the children about bonfires and fireworks you might find some of the safety information on the Rospa website useful.
 
Motivational advice

I went to the Ofsted Big Conversation North West meeting in October – the keynote speaker was Andy Cope from ‘The Art of being Brilliant’ who I would advise anyone to see or look up on YouTube. There are motivational posters on Google images as well which you can use for your Facebook page or to share with parents.
 
Safeguarding update

New staff – in all childcare settings – must not be left unsupervised with children until they have a DBS check. This has now been clarified in the latest version of Ofsted’s ‘Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years Settings’. If you have an old version of this inspection guidance you will need to update it in your computer files – it is essential pre-inspection reading.
 
New Childline website for under 12s

Childline has launched a new website aimed at children under the age of 12. It includes age appropriate content on topics including: bullying, family, friends, feelings, school, abuse and staying safe. It also includes games for young visitors to play and help them to express how they are feeling.
 
Flu immunisation advice

The Chief Medical Officer has written to settings asking them to raise awareness of the childhood influenza immunisation programme. You might want to share this in an email to parents.
 
Childcare payments for students

The Department for Education is moving the payment process for Childcare Grants online. This means that, in the future, payments for parents in full time higher education will be made directly to the childcare provider rather instead of the student. The new online portal for payments will be administered by Wider Plan.
 
Online accounting

Do you use an online system for your accounting – or Excel spreadsheets – are manual accounts?

The Government is introducing ‘Making Tax Digital’ at some point in the future (the date keeps being pushed back). This will mean that accounts will have to be prepared digitally and reported quarterly. It is supposed to make us more efficient and help us stay on top of our financial affairs – it will possibly make accounts a bit tricky for those childminders who usually sit with a box of receipts in a state of panic during the week between Christmas and New Year!

You can read more about Making Tax Digital here.

There are a number of online systems which say they will support you as we move towards this new accounting requirement including QuickFile which is free – I will do more research and share more information as the new rules are introduced because I imagine lots of new companies will pop up over the coming months...
 
End of reception test results

The EYFS Profile (EYFSP) results show an improvement again this year. While it doesn’t directly impact on childminders because we do not track children’s learning once they start school, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on these results because they are used by the Government to decide early years as well as school policy.

You can read more about the results in this Nursery World magazine article.
 
Children and the law

The NSPCC has updated its information about children and the laws that protect their rights. You can find the information on the NSPCC website here.
One of the rights is the right to be listened to – I have blogged about this recently for our Budeez Out of School Club parents – you can read it here.

Caring for children with special educational needs and disabilities

The Government has announced a new fund for projects that aim to improve outcomes for children with special educational needs and / or disabilities from the age of 3.  According to this Nursery World article, any organisation including schools and nurseries can apply for the funding (closing date for entries 14.1.19) – you can find more information here.
 
Bye bye childcare vouchers

Childcare voucher companies such as Computershare, Fideliti and Cooperative are now closed for new applications. This means that they will slowly fizzle out and be replaced by the Government’s voucher system – Tax Free Childcare. Vouchers have stopped despite a campaign to keep them and the fact that many parents report they are worse off using Tax Free Childcare. You can read more in this Nursery World article and on the voucher company websites.
 
Business rates for nurseries

Nurseries have been campaigning for a while for the Government to reconsider their requirement to pay business rates. This article in Nursery World magazine states that the campaign has failed… it’s not just childminders who are being ignored by the current administration.

 Epipen shortages

According to news sources there is an Epipen shortage and advice is to keep and use them beyond their expiry date. This only applies to certain pens - you will find more information on the Epipen website.
 
Safeguarding is about culture, not box ticking

Ofsted’s latest blog for TES magazine is on safeguarding – and worth a read.

Synthetic phonics – yes or no?

A recent report suggests head teachers, teachers and parents are not overly keen on the Government’s policy of prioritising synthetic phonics in the early years as the only way of teaching children to read. As most early years practitioners recognise, it is important to use a range of strategies to teach children to read including picture and context clues and ‘reading on’, especially when children come to a new word in the text.

In a world where children are becoming more stressed and anxious at earlier ages, one has to wonder whether a Government strategy which is contributing to extra stress on children is based on sound research.
 
Safer sleep and the Lullaby Trust

Great for sharing with parents – the Lullaby Trust has relaunched their Baby Check App – it can be downloaded from the Google App store and there is a free guide for professionals.
 
Older children are worried about terrorism

Do you work with older children? Have they talked to you (or parents) about their concerns over terrorism such as the Manchester bombing (May 2018) or the London Tube attack (Sept 2017)? Young children can feel concerned about going to group events after seeing the outcome of terrorism in the news and on social media and it is important to speak to them honestly and openly about their concerns.

You will find some support in this article from The School Bus.
 
Asking parents for feedback
​
Parent feedback is an important part of what we do in early years because, without parents, our businesses would fail so we need to ensure they are happy. What are your best ways of soliciting feedback? Here are some popular ones…

• Asking verbally – can be useful but parents might be busy or not want to give verbal feedback if it’s negative
• A written questionnaire – apart from making the assumption parents can read and write, this type of feedback request is popular among providers. Parents might feel more comfortable if it is anonymous but that would depend on how many families are on your books!
• Online software – SurveyMonkey is just one example - it is a popular provider because it is quick to set up, free and easy to monitor – you email a questionnaire to parents and they reply using their phones or computers.

Keep your questions open to encourage feedback – and welcome all comments including negative ones because they can help you to push your business forwards.

If you have any ideas for articles - or blogs - please let me know.

Chat soon, Sarah 

October 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to my latest newsletter for childminders who want to stay independent of agencies. 

Please join the Independent Childminders Facebook book to stay updated with all things childminding.
 
Autumn activities
Autumn is an amazing time to explore nature and to support children’s mathematical learning. There is symmetry in leaves and there are numbers opportunities for counting everywhere. We also use autumn to focus on children’s arts and crafts, from paint mixing to colour recognition.

I often use websites to inspire our activities and Stimulating Learning is a good one.
 
Loose parts play
Did you catch my webinar on loose parts play a few months ago? It is one a series of training webinars delivered on behalf of Childcare.co.uk which will be repeated in the future. I was interested to read this blog about loose parts play recently.
 
Data collection and GDPR
When you ask parents questions about their child/ren and family lives you need to ask yourself – why am I asking this question? What do I need it for… is it an appropriate question? Am I prying into something I don’t really need? Under GDPR there are a legal bases for asking questions – is your question on your form covered by a legal basis?

According to reports including this one, DfE have now stopped asking for information about a child’s nationality and country of birth – if you ask these questions on your child registration forms you need to consider why – how can you justify requesting this information?

Free webinars
Talking about free webinars which I deliver for Childcare.co.uk – you can find more information and dates of upcoming webinars here.

30 hours funding – are you sustainable?
Recent reports state that a lot of nurseries and childminders are concerned about their future sustainability under the 30 hours funding. I have been feeding articles and information to my local authority – Cheshire East – for months now to ask them to change their wording on posters and leaflets from ‘free’ to ‘funded’ or to make the fact that providers can charge parents for extras more transparent.

Does your LA still use the word ‘free’ in relation to the 30 hours funding? It might be worthwhile writing to them and sharing your concerns.
 
Healthy eating is an Ofsted focus
I have read a few Ofsted inspection reports recently which suggest inspectors are focusing on healthy eating in early years settings at the moment. A childminder was downgraded from outstanding for offering children sausage rolls for lunch and a nursery was recently graded inadequate for serving ‘a buffet of junk food’ which Ofsted found to be high in salt and fat.

It is important to think about healthy eating as part of your healthy living ethos in your setting – food must be healthy, balanced and nutritious alongside effective hand washing, promoting independence, cooking with children, using food as a learning experience etc. It is even more important that children are offered healthy food in settings when children live in low income families – as reported by Pre-school Learning Alliance in this article.

Promoting a ‘healthy eating ethos’ (turning a negative into a positive) is discussed in this Teachwire article.

Sure Start Centres in trouble
Do you have a local Sure Start Centre? Does it still welcome childminders? Our Children's Centre in  Knutsford hasn’t allowed childminders in for a while… they took away our session to 'target' support elsewhere and the room remains empty on the morning we used to use it. 

Recent figures note that spending on Sure Start Centres has dropped significantly and many are at risk of closure.

Proposed changes to the Early Years Outcomes
There has been a lot of rhetoric about the proposed changes to the Early Years Outcomes on social media with Twitter, forums and Facebook groups full of mostly negative comments. The proposed changes are being trialled for a year – then there will be a consultation – so nothing is going to change overnight but it is something we need to keep an eye on in the early years because changes in schools place top down pressure on us to prepare children for future learning.
Early Education has done a lot of lobbying to clarify the proposed changes and to consider their impact on providers. You can read more in their response to the draft ELGs here.

A lot of commentators said this would happen … the next stage towards change … resources produced by one of the advisors to the proposed changes (the Ruth Miskin Read Write Inc. programme) is now being promoted by DfE (for a price) – many are not impressed.

Musical Development Matters
As attendees of my regular Childcare.co.uk free webinars will know, music and movement is one of my early years passions so I read about a new Musical Development Matters with interest. I haven’t implemented it in my setting, it’s guidance not statutory – and it’s absolutely not a checklist – but I will be using some of the ideas in our music and movement sessions.
 
About Early Years reports
A lot of childminders were involved in the recent About Early Years surveys – your views have informed the recently released reports which you can find here including the latest free preview of some of the key messages of the annual report.
 
Healthy and unhealthy relationships
ChildLine has launched a campaign, ahead of the new relationships curriculum requirement in schools, to help children learn the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships. It is more for older children – if you care for teenagers or have your own at home.
 
Safeguarding – noticing every child
This is an excellent article from Teachwire, well worth reading for your continued professional development. It talks about the ways practitioners can ‘make a difference in child protection’.
 
Socket cover reminder
We are regularly asked on the Independent Childminders Facebook group – should I use socket covers? The answer is that Ofsted do not make judgements on the use or no-use of socket covers – they will check all children are safe and will ask questions about how you keep them safe. More information from the Foundation Years here.
 
Ofsted’s early years forum
Ofsted are recruiting for a new early years pedagogy and practice forum. If you are interested in joining in you can register your interest here.
 
The impact of your work
What impact does early education have on outcomes for children? According to a recent SEED study – quite a lot! Great and very positive news for us hard working early years providers who support children’s care and learning on a daily basis.
 
Toxic school runs
How toxic are your school runs? Are you and the children exposed to daily air pollution going to and from school? Can you take a different route to minimise the damage caused by pollution? You will find more information, including the findings of recent research, in this Nursery World article.

Chat soon, Sarah 

September 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to my latest newsletter for independent childminders. I hope you find it useful and informative. 

FREE webinars for everyone - https://www.childcare.co.uk/webinars. 

Ofsted’s report website
The  ‘find an inspection report’ has been updated and a lot of childminders are very unhappy with the way it reads and the lack of reports that come up when they look for themselves! Please give your feedback to Ofsted if you have any concerns.
 
Teaching children about life skills
Do you read books, sing songs and tell stories about life skills with the children? You will find lots of story ideas in this Nursery World article.
 
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1165244/parents-encouraged-to-read-basic-life-skill-stories-to-children
 
Worrying rise in child deaths
Nursery World magazine reports on a new study which has found that unexplained baby deaths are increasing. Childcare providers can help with this – share information with parents about safe sleep and don’t talk about ‘cot death’ as it may suggest to parents that cots are dangerous. You will find lots of guidance for parents on the Lullaby Trust website.
 
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1165340/rise-in-unexplained-baby-deaths-for-the-first-time-in-three-years
https://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/safer-sleep-advice
 
Keeping children safe online
Childnet has answered some frequently asked questions from parents about online safety. You can find the responses on the Safer Internet website here.
 
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/blog/answering-parents-commonly-asked-online-safety-questions
 
Funded childcare
Is it working for you? Is it working for the children?! According to researchers there is little evidence to show it is making a difference to outcomes for children.
 
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1165223/not-enough-evidence-that-funded-childcare-works-say-researchers
 
How’s business?
Are you full – empty – looking for work urgently? Think about your marketing and plan to grow your business through the year –

• Ask parents to promote you – it’s free and we all like a recommendation!
• Websites and email addresses – make sure your website is up-to-date with accurate information and link it to your email addresses so potential clients see you as professional.
• Promote on social media – Facebook and Twitter can be a useful resource.

 
Development Matters for music lovers
This Development Matters for Music was an interesting addition to my inbox last week – we love our music and movement sessions here at Knutsford Childminding. It’s not statutory – it’s not a tick list – it’s just some ideas for developing children’s music in the setting and at home.
 
 https://early-education.org.uk/musical-development-matters
 
30 hours funding report
This new report talks in detail about the challenges faced by providers who are offering the 30 hours funding to children in their care. If the current underfunding crisis affects you it’s a useful read.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1165494/dfe-30-hours-report-lays-bare-the-challenges-for-providers  
 
Reporting to Ofsted
New EY3 forms for childminders have been added to the Ofsted website.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-and-childcare-providers-ey3-changes-to-individuals
 
Updated safeguarding documents
A number of safeguarding documents have been updated for September 2018 – you don’t need them printed but you do need a working knowledge of them. Here are some of the main changes –
 
Working together to safeguard children (2018)
This document has been updated recently.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.
 
Changes include –

• Children including those with disabilities, children drawn into criminal behaviour and children at risk from domestic abuse (there is a list in Working Together) must be provided with early help from their local authority
• GDPR myth busting guidance to re-confirm that data protection is not a barrier to information sharing.
• Contextual safeguarding refers to environmental factors which might put children at risk such as online radicalisation and gangs - you need to be aware of the term.
• Local Safeguarding Children Boards will be replaced by ‘Local Safeguarding Partnerships’ over the next few years – watch out for changes to your LSCB website.

 
You will find more information about the changes on the NSPCC website –
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/news-opinion/summary-key-changes-keeping-children-safe-in-education-2018/
 
Information sharing (2018)
This document has been updated recently to reflect the changes in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safeguarding-practitioners-information-sharing-advice
 
Keeping children safe in education (2018)
The EYFS says we must have regard to this document so make sure you have the updated link in your files ready for September. Updates include information about peer-on-peer abuse, female genital mutilation (statutory reporting), definitions of ‘reasonable force’ and the importance of having more than 1 emergency contact for every child.

Staff must be interviewed by someone who has taken safer recruitment training and introduced to the Designated Safeguarding Lead (and deputy) during induction. All staff must read and understand the child protection policy, the behaviour policy, the staff behaviour policy and how to respond if children do not attend the setting - this must be covered in induction training as well. 

All children must have 2 emergency contacts - this follows on from recent serious case reviews / deaths of children.

The DSL must have a clear role including responsibility for information sharing and transferring child protection files.
 
https://consult.education.gov.uk/safeguarding-in-schools-team/keeping-children-safe-in-education/supporting_documents/Keeping%20Children%20Safe%20in%20Education%20Proposed%20Revisions.pdf
 
You will find useful guidance to the changes (for schools – but it translates to early years) here –
https://www.safeguardinginschools.co.uk/latest/.

This is a useful article in Nursery World magazine.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1165460/new-schools-safeguarding-guidance-reflects-latest-concerns
 
Disqualification by association rules (from 1st September 2018)
These new rules – which mean providers will not have to inform Ofsted if staff are disqualified by association – are NOT relevant to childminders.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disqualification-under-the-childcare-act-2006 

The updated legislation is here. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/794/part/2/made#f00015
 
Trampolines in childminding settings
This guidance from ROSPA might be useful for providers who have trampolines in their gardens. You will find lots more advice leaflets on the ROSPA website for all areas of health and safety.
https://www.rospa.com/leisure-safety/advice/trampoline/
 

August 2018 newsletter for independent childminders 

Ofsted Big Conversation North West
Tickets are selling fast for the next opportunity to positively engage with Ofsted in the North West on Sat 6th October 2018 @ the Last Drop Village, Bromley Cross Rd, Bolton BL7 9PZ.

The keynote speaker is 'The Art of Brilliance'. It’s usually a full house so buy your tickets early.
 
Changes to disqualification rules – NOT for childminders – from Sept 2018
DfE has released an updated version of its ‘Disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006’ statutory guidance and has removed the disqualification by association rule for childcare practitioners in non-domestic settings and schools. This means that nurseries and pre-schools should not ask their staff routine questions about cautions or convictions relating to someone who lives in their household.

However, a number of relevant offences must always be disclosed - these have been added to Table A of the statutory guidance. 
Update your paperwork - staff suitability disclosure paperwork including recruitment documentation will need to be updated to reflect this change.
More information in this Nursery World article. 

Keeping children safe in education
The statutory guidance has also been updated for use from Sept 2018 – you can find the new version (to use from September 2018) here. You will find my blog review here.

This is a useful guide to the changes on the Safeguarding in Schools website.
 
Update your documentation: to comply with the updated statutory guidance you need to make sure you have at least 2 emergency contacts for each early years child in your care. This is to ensure, if there is an emergency, you have more than 1 person to call.
 
Working together to safeguard children
The statutory guidance has been updated – you can find the new version here. You will find my blog review of the changes here.
 
Child obesity information
The Government has released new information about how to protect children from obesity. Chapter 2 of the ‘plan for action’ focuses on children eating and drinking less sugar and supporting children and their parents to make healthier choices. You can find more information in this article from the School Bus. If you are on catch up you can read part 1 of the plan here.

**Some Ofsted updates**
Ofsted have announced that from January 2019 you will not be able to inform them about statutory changes by email – you will have to use the online EY3 form.

Ofsted have also said that they are not sending out registration certificates by post – they will send email certificates instead. Ofsted are not updating certificates – the ones you already have are still valid.

There is a useful Ofsted childminder Facebook page for more information and to help stay updated. Latest inspection feedback and figures from Ofsted (31st March).   

Gender separation in school
This article from Hub 4 Leaders makes interesting reading – it tells schools what they can and cannot do when considering gender separation. Gender is a ‘protected characteristic’ under the Equality Act 2010 and must be carefully considered when schools are offering activity opportunities and teaching to boys and girls.
 
All providers have a duty to ensure children are protected from discrimination and it is important that a ‘gender neutral’ curriculum and provision is offered to children. This includes, but is not limited to: listening to children and respecting their views; addressing children by their preferred title and knowing what language to use to describe children’s sexual orientation and using the child’s preferred terminology; educating other children and, where necessary, parents to recognise similarities and differences and to be respectful – effective anti-bullying policies will support settings with this; adapting uniform requirements where necessary.
 
Subject access requests and GDPR
Have you been asked to comply with a subject access request yet? Under GDPR parents have the right to ask you to provide them with copies of all documentation held on their child – and other agencies such as the police or HMRC might ask you to supply them with information - and this must be done within a month of the request being made. 

You will find more information about subject access requests in this free guidance.

 
Proposed updates to the Early Learning Goals (ELGs)
DfE have released proposed changes to the ELGs - this one is going to run and run I think as everyone comments and inputs their thoughts. The general opinion seems to be that the proposed revisions are not popular – with positive comments coming from those who input into the changes and think they are absolutely fine. You can read more in this article from Nursery World magazine.
 
The proposed changes are being trialled in 25 schools this year and there will be a consultation at the end of the year to consider their usefulness before they are rolled out to everyone the following year. We know from experience that what happens in schools tends to affect expectations in the early years so we are watching this one with interest and will keep everyone updated.
 
30 hours update
Are the 30 funded hours working for you? Some providers receive slightly more money from their funded hours but the majority don’t – they receive less and need to ask parents for extra money because the funding is a subsidy and does not allow them to remain sustainable.

Providers are lobbying MPs to try and make changes to the funding rates – you can read more about it in this Nursery World article.

Pre-school Learning Alliance have a new annual survey on the 30 hours which you can access from their website.
 
Introduction of RSE in schools
You need to know about this change to the school relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum if you look after older children. However, this blog from the Sex Education Forum suggests it won’t be introduced until the next school year (2019 – 20) so we have plenty of time to find out more about the changes.
 
Children who have family members in prison
The recently updated statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ states that providers must support children who have family members in prison. This is a useful website for information and guidance documents which can be accessed by staff who are caring for children and shared with families.

Other useful resources can be downloaded from the Families Outside website and the Storybook Dads website.

Speech and language red flags
I was asked for more information about this during my recent ‘Child Development’ webinar for Childcare.co.uk so I thought I’d start with a blog about speech and language red flags and ideas for how to support children’s speech and language development. I hope you find it useful.

Universal Credit
The change of benefits to Universal Credit is affecting a lot of childminder colleagues. I have written a new blog to offer support.

Practitioner wellbeing is at risk
Do you feel low or stressed by your work? Do you feel that it’s all too much? Is your health suffering? The recently published ‘Minds Matter’ survey from the Pre-school Learning Alliance makes worrying reading.

You will find new advice and guidance for practitioners from Childcare.co.uk (for gold members) on ‘Practitioner Wellbeing’ can be found here.

Newly registering childminders
You might be eligible for a Childcare Business Grant to help you pay for the essentials needed to set up a new childminding business. You will find more information on the DfE page here.

Childcare Expo Coventry
This popular early years show will be at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on 28th and 29th September. You can get your free tickets from the website.

Your website
How hard does your website work for you? There is little point having a website if it just sits there and never reaches the top of the search lists when a parent is hunting for a childminder in your area. You don’t need to pay lots of money – but getting your wording right can make a big difference. You will find lots of advice in the free article on pages 28 and 29 of this free online magazine.

Tips for newly registering childminders… what are parents looking for..?
When parents come to look round your setting for the first time – what are they looking for? What makes them come back for a second visit to sign paperwork and leave their child with you?
Parents perceptions vary but, as a general rule they want to see:

• Staff who look happy and engaged
• Staff talking to and playing with children
• A clean and peaceful environment
• Resources they think their child will enjoy playing with – inside and in the outside area
• Healthy eating menus
• Happy children who are comforted when they are upset
• An organised setting with a daily routine that will be flexible to include their child. 

I hope you have found this newsletter useful. If you have any ideas for future articles or information sharing please message me. 

Sarah.
Knutsford Childminding 

July 2018 newsletter for independent childminders 

Childminder numbers continue to fall
Not the news we wanted to read – we had hoped that resignations were slowing down. More information in this Nursery World article.
 
Monthly funding payments
Do you want to be paid your Local Authority funding termly – start and end of the term – or monthly?

We have been talking about Universal Credits on the Independent Childminders Facebook group recently - and how providers will need to show a regular income / expenses figure to input into the Universal Credits system every month - or they could lose their benefits. Monthly funding payments would certainly help those colleagues affected by the Universal Credits changes.

What about the other early years providers? According to the Nursery World article above opinion is divided but a recent report ‘highlights major problems’ with Universal Credit and the way it is administered.

Good news about funding payments
According to DfE in this Nursery World article which quotes the DfE there are NO concerns with the rate of funding! All must be well then.
 
New information from DfE – consent, GDPR and the EYFS
This is an important blog about the GDPR legal basis of consent and one which turns the traditional ‘permission’ list written by many providers on its head – and especially for providers who struggle to claw useful information out of settings with which they are supposed to be working and sharing.

Please take a moment to read the information because it will affect pretty much every one of us.
 
Childhood obesity – are you helping children to stay trim?
There are lots of ways early years providers can support children’s health and wellbeing and share information with parents about healthy eating and appropriate portion sizes.

Brainstorming with colleagues, we came up with –

• Lots of outside play all year round
• Sharing websites like ‘Little People’s Plates’ with parents
• Healthy eating themes to follow with the children
• Teaching children to buy and cook healthy food
• Growing fruit and vegetables in the garden
• Not using food as a bribe or a ‘treat’ – healthy food is always good for us

 Useful article with more information here. 

Ofsted – what next?
First it was increasing risky play … then it was narrowing the attainment gap … and now it’s closing the word gap! Amanda Spielman introduced it by talking about us helping children to ‘develop a love of reading’ in recent articles and speeches and I am sure we all agree it’s a worthy cause – however, there is a question mark over whether it’s children from group and childminder settings who struggle with a ‘word gap’ when they start school!

I know my little tiddlypeeps never stop talking and we actively encourage this – apart from when we are reading, of course, and we teach them not to shout out when we are helping parents to prepare them for school…

Ah well, I suppose they are telling us about their ‘pet’ projects so we know what to do during inspection but I do wonder if they are the regulator or the teacher? Is their role, as asked by Anne Gladstone, early years education and training consultant (on Twitter) to ‘inspect or instruct’?

Best dust off your communication and language training and work on how you teach new words and phrases ready for inspection!
 
The latest blog from Gill Jones, deputy director of early years at Ofsted is on the PLA website here.
 
DfE – what next?
While we are talking about new projects – DfE has released information about the proposed new Early Learning Goals. They will be trialled by just 25 schools this year and then there will be a consultation after the end of the summer term. There is a lot of controversy – not least because they have been written by people with little early years experience and are only being trialled in a few places before being ‘independently’ reviewed by a limited group.
 
You will find more information about the proposed changes from Early Education – the company which wrote ‘Development Matters’ back in 2012 here. 

And the proposed changes are detailed in my blog. There is also a petition against the changes reported in Nursery World magazine.
 
Minds matter – report from PLA
I have written some guidance on practitioner wellbeing for Childcare.co.uk gold members following the release of this report. It is very worrying that so many early years providers talk negatively about the impact of the job on their wellbeing.

Safeguarding updates
Domestic abuse - we were told in Cheshire East training recently that there is a focus on the impact of domestic abuse on children. I keep reading more information about domestic abuse as well and it’s clear that we need to support children who are going through it…

Sharing information - Operation Encompass supports children by ensuring information is shared between agencies (and there is more advice to follow from DfE).

Child Sexual Exploitation – useful information and toolkit for supporting children.

Physical intervention and restriction of liberty – we have recently been provided with new Ofsted guidance.

Bullying – if you care for older children the resources here might be useful

Online grooming – this guidance highlights the importance of keeping children safe online and providing parents with information to help them keep their children safe online at home. There are leaflets available online and in most mobile phone shops which can be shared with parents and used with the children to discuss the issues that might arise – I find a ‘what if..?’ scenario type discussion works best with our older children.
Smartie the Penguin is a useful website for younger children.

How safe are our children? The latest information from NSPCC does not make for easy reading.

We are still waiting for final guidance on ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ updates and the review of the ‘Information Sharing’ guidance – as well as transitional arrangements for Local Safeguarding Children Boards to Safeguarding Partnerships (required by the revised ‘Working Together’ document).
The revised ‘Keeping children safe in education’ has been published for use from Sept 2018 – the EYFS states we must have regard to this document which means we need to know about it and refer to it when relevant.
 
GDPR – what next?
It is important to keep an eye on the ICO website – as with all legislation, GDPR is new and it is likely that changes might pop up from time to time.

• One of the principles of GDPR is to do a data audit and you will need to keep it updated, especially if something changes such as if you start to process data in a different way.
• The Data Protection Act (2018) is our Data Protection Bill. You will find more information about it on the ICO website.
  

• This is a useful GDPR myth busting guidance document from Pre-School Learning Alliance.

• Don’t forget – when your policies and procedures are due for renewal this year make sure you refer to GDPR (not the old data protection act) and update everything to talk about the changes you have made for GDPR.

 
GDPR and sharing information with schools
Childminders are asking me whether they should share information with schools to support children’s transitions. The DfE Schools Toolkit is clear about sharing information with new schools on transition:
“GDPR does not prevent, or limit, the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children safe. Legal and secure information sharing between schools, Children’s Social Care, and other local agencies, is essential for keeping children safe and ensuring they get the support they need”. (Page 21)

Information can be shared without consent if to gain consent would place a child at risk. Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of promoting the welfare and protecting the safety of children. As with all data sharing, appropriate organisational and technical safeguards should still be in place”. (Page 21) - more information here. 
 
Newly registering childminders
The DfE pre-registration briefing guidance was updated in May 2018. You will find lots of information and advice on this free page on Childcare.co.uk as well.
 
Challenges and things to bear in mind
What are your current business challenges? During my recent ‘Business Management’ webinar for childminders I talked about a lot of ways we can recognise and overcome challenges with a bit of imagination, using documents like the funding Operational Guidance to our advantage. According to a recent nursery consultation from the NDNA, the biggest worries for group settings are ‘wages, admin and profitability’ and those same themes come up time and time again for childminders as well.

Some tips include:

• If you employ staff they must be affordable – consider wages and national insurance and tax and pension and make sure you earn enough from the extra children you will need to take on to pay them every month. You might need to put up your fees – and make sure you also have planning permission (if needed from your Local Authority – it can be a long, costly and trying process) before taking on staff.
• Funding – there is a shortfall for most providers including childminders. Make sure you charge for allowable extras including an ‘on call fee’ if you are providing wrap around care for the child, food and drink and outings. The 30 hours must work for you – if they don’t, then you might need to make difficult choices to ensure you are sustainable.
• Admin – including the tax free childcare, vouchers, Ofsted expectations, Local Authority audits (we had a 100+ question safeguarding audit a few weeks ago from Cheshire), funding paperwork, changes for GDPR, 2 year progress checks, helping parents fill in forms and claims, Universal Credits (which require monthly accounting) and more… all lead to overwhelmed and frustrated providers. It is important to keep to what is absolutely necessary and to stay up-to-date because it always feels worse if you get behind.

Do your accounts regularly and if you are not sustainable make difficult choices quickly so the situation does not spiral out of control – whether it’s saving money on shopping, cutting back on spending and consumables, cutting staff hours, changing gas and electricity suppliers or putting up prices for new and existing families… whatever it takes to make your business sustainable because we need all our childminders to stay registered! 

I hope you find these newsletters useful and informative. Please ask me if you want me to include any articles or information.

Best wishes, Sarah. 

June 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

A reminder why we are here! 

The Government has opened and is promoting childminder agencies and we do not want to join them - so we have joined together with colleagues instead and we are supporting each other on the Childminding Forum and Independent Childminders Facebook group to stay independent. 

It's hard work being independent - we have to do our own research and stay updated in our own time - we cannot rely on someone to spoon-feed us information. 

We need to find our own training opportunities as well - like the FREE weekly webinars on Childcare.co.uk. 

However, together we can help and support and encourage each other ... and stay strong and independent! 

Here is some up-to-date news! 

Childcare Expo Manchester
Are you going? We are! We love it and visit every year. Childcare Expo are giving lucky winner the opportunity to be a VIP for the day with access to all the seminars and free drinks.

**Childcare Expo 2018 – 15th and 16th June at Event City, Manchester**
 
UPDATED record retention guidance
The Pre-school Learning Alliance has released its latest guidance to record retention periods for GDPR… I always use PLA guidance and this is what I will signpost for colleagues when they ask me how long to keep different pieces of documentation.
 
Keeping children safe online
I have read a number of Ofsted inspection reports which refer to online safety and sharing information with parents so they can protect their children at home. This is a useful link for your next parent newsletter or to pop on your parent group.
 
Universal Credit is coming
Are you ready for the changes? More information and advice in my blog and Facebook post
 
Keeping children safe in education
This guidance will be updated from September 2018 – the EYFS says we must have regard to it so it’s important we make ourselves aware of the changes. This website – Safeguarding in Schools – is a good source of information.
 
I found this free article from Hubs 4 Leaders useful as well.

More safeguarding – peer-on-peer abuse
A few colleagues have been asked how they tackle peer-on-peer abuse in group settings and when they care for older children. You will find a lot of guidance in this Hubs 4 Leaders article.
 
Mental health in the early years
There is a big campaign at the moment by the Pre-school Learning Alliance looking at the challenges faced by young children and their effect on children’s mental health.
 
It was mental health awareness week in May – but you don’t have to wait until a special week to introduce some mindfulness activities and nourish children’s mental health with music and movement and other activities which promote wellbeing.
 
Early Years Compliance Handbook updated
This Ofsted guidance is useful to keep in your files for reference.
 
Promoting home learning
This was the subject of one of my recent free Childcare.co.uk webinars. I found this article on Teachwire an interesting read.
 
Newly registered childminders
There is a grant available for newly registered childminders – you can find information in this Nursery World article.
 
You will find information about how to register as a childminder free on the Childcare.co.uk website.
 
New communication resources
A new initiative has been introduced by the Communication Trust (with funding from the Department for Education) to promote children’s communication and language development. It supports providers who want to action plan to improve communication and language and includes an Early Years Commitment which covers 5 areas of practice:

• Leadership
• Workforce development (training)
• Communication friendly settings (environment)
• Supporting children with speech, language and communication needs (individual and group planning)
• Engagement with parents, families and other professionals (partnership working)

There are toolkits, presentations, training, links to websites, factsheets and posters for parents and much more. You can register to find out more here.
 
Ceeda report - latest
The latest funding shortfall figures from a recent Ceeda report show big problems for providers now and in the future.

It is important that providers know what they can charge parents when thinking about extras to make up the shortfall. We can charge for outings and food and childminders can charge parents an ‘on call’ fee if the child attends another setting and we cannot fill the space.
 
All the details are in the Operational Guidance to the funding.
 
Campaigns are still running to try and resolve the funding crisis. I belong to the Champagne Nurseries Lemonade Funding Facebook group which also supports childminders.
 
I asked Cheshire East to remove the word ‘free’ from their latest funding poster and they told me they wouldn’t remove it because ‘this is the wording used by the Department for Education’ – despite only paying £3.98 an hour for funded sessions. I am sure this will rumble on as more and more providers are forced to close through lack of money.
 
Putting the theory into practice – a new article
This article by Alistair Bryce Clegg is good reading over a cuppa for your weekly CPD.
 
GDPR – how’s it going?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is now law – and we have a new Data Protection Act from the Government which clarifies certain aspects of the GDPR. Have your parents all received a new Privacy Notice? How many emails have you received from companies wanting to re-confirm your email preferences? It’s all been a bit overwhelming hasn’t it?!
 
Ofsted Privacy Notices were updated on 25th May.
 
The Ofsted Childcare Registration Facebook page confirmed on May 25th: ‘The GDPR comes into force today.
We won't be looking at your GDPR compliance during inspection. The Information Commissioner's Office can help you make sure you're compliant.’
 
However, a number of childminders on the Independent Childminders Facebook group report that inspectors are asking them questions about information they have shared with parents regarding GDPR so you do need your answers ready.
 
Child Safety Week 2018
Child Safety Week – 4th – 10th June - free resources including planning and a poster to display for parents are available from the website.
 
SENCO guidance
As a childminder you are the SENCO (special educational needs coordinator) for your setting and it is your responsibility to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

DfE have published new guidance for SENCOs including a job description and training course.
 
Questions you ask parents
Under GDPR you need to read through your parent documentation and think about your legal basis for asking the questions.
 
You might need to ask because it’s a requirement of the EYFS – or the Childcare Register – or because your Local Authority ask the question on funding forms.
 
The Department for Education has confirmed that they no longer need information about ‘child nationality’ and ‘country of birth’ – more information in this article.

 Chat soon, Sarah. 

May 2018 Newsletter for independent childminders

NatCen early years survey
Have you received a letter or email asking you to complete this survey into childcare costs?

It doesn’t take long to fill in and it will help inform future funding rates so it’s important to do it if you can.

Minds Matter survey
Survey into practitioner wellbeing from PLA - worth 5 minutes of your time to inform this important research. 
 
Safeguarding – non-mobile baby protocol
Do you have a written non mobile baby protocol as part of your Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and Procedures? On recent LA safeguarding training I was the only person in the room with this policy – the trainer recommends everyone has a copy in their file. You will find writing guidance on the Childminding Forum (free) here.
 
Teaching children about safeguarding
What safeguarding messages do you share with children? We talk about the Pants Rule (NSPCC), teach children how to cross the road safely, talk about stranger danger when we are on outings and reading books such as ‘3 little pigs’ and much more. Don’t forget to share what you have been learning about with parents so they can continue talking about it at home.

You will find lots of information on the NSPCC website.
 
Record retention periods continue to baffle providers
With NSPCC, major childminder insurance companies, PLA, the EYFS, the Childcare Register, ICO and software companies all saying different things, it’s no wonder childminders are confused about how long to retain documentation when children leave the setting!

I have done my best to take the most direct road to compliance but it’s not easy and in many instances with specific documents I have had to be vague. I think the basic rules are –

• If you might need it to help you comply with legislation including the Limitation Act 1980 which is referenced by insurance companies keep it –
• If it is linked to learning and development send it home when the child leaves the setting or starts school
• If your LA says to keep it keep it
• If someone says you don’t need it or questions why you’ve got it look at it again…

You can find my Retention Policy guidance on the Childcare.co.uk website here.
 
Safeguarding training
I am asked about this so often I thought I’d clarify …

The best course is local – it gives you local reporting procedures. You should try and attend every 2 or 3 years depending on local advice. Other courses, webinars, online blogs etc will help you to stay updated and are important for your continued professional development.
 
Childminder numbers continue to decline
Ofsted’s latest information about childminder and group provider numbers shows that there are less childminders than ever before.
However, on a positive note, inspection grades have continued to improve.
 
Healthy eating
We talk about healthy eating regularly with the children. This is an article from Nursery World magazine about new animated TV series about healthy eating which we will look out for to watch with our older children.
 
Calm down breathing exercises
I have been researching mindfulness in detail as part of my ‘Behaviour and Self-Regulation’ webinar training for Childcare.co.uk.

During my research, I found some good free breathing exercise cards which I have been using with our little ones. We sit calmly and quietly and we breathe deeply, using the cards as a guide. We have shared them with parents to use at home as well.

Children’s centres are closing
Are you still linked to a local children’s centre?

Ours used to be brilliant but kicked us out some time ago to target our weekly session time at another group – which is now not using it so the centre stands empty. At least we still have a children’s centre to benefit parents – according to latest figures at least 1000 centres have closed across the country.

Visiting the dentist
Do the children in your care visit the dentist with their parents? Official advice is to take babies for their first visit to the dentist before they are 1 year old but many don’t know about this advice and, for many reasons, don’t take their babies for a dental check-up and fail to access free advice about dental hygiene, healthy eating and drinking, tooth and gum care etc.

As 41% of 5 year olds have tooth decay, early dental care is really important. Some childminders and settings help children to brush their teeth during the day - I am not aware of any collated results on the effectiveness of tooth brushing programs but I imagine it can only help to protect teeth from decay.
Early years providers can support parents by suggesting the names of local dentists and planning healthy eating – healthy teeth activities in the setting with the children. Information can be shared with parents from planning and subsequent observations to support children’s home learning.
 
Sharing safeguarding information
If you have a concern about a child and safeguarding you must share it with other agencies or professionals to protect the child. any recorded safeguarding information must also be passed on to the child’s next setting so they have as full a picture as possible about the child’s early years.

GDPR is not a barrier to information sharing. The newly released GDPR toolkit for schools from DfE states – "GDPR does not prevent, or limit, the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children safe. Legal and secure information sharing between schools, Children’s Social Care, and other local agencies, is essential for keeping children safe and ensuring they get the support they need.

Information can be shared without consent if to gain consent would place a child at risk. Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of promoting the welfare and protecting the safety of children. As with all data sharing, appropriate organisational and technical safeguards should still be in place". (Page 21)
 
Ofsted updated their myth busting document
The myth busting document from Ofsted has been updated (March 2018) to reflect the removal of the Ofsted self-evaluation form (you must still self-evaluate and plan for the future).

My Ofsted myth busting threads on the Childminding Forum have proven useful to many colleagues so I have been busy gathering some new myths and legends to share - 
 

• You must display your insurance certificate … yes if you have staff … no if you work on your own.
• You must provide sand and water play every day … no – children need access to a wide range of resources through the week including opportunities to explore messy play.
• Children must pour their drinks at meal times … no – but they do need opportunities to practice pouring so they can do it when they get to school.
• You must allow free flow play all year round … no -  you need to ensure children are offered opportunities to play outside every day but that doesn’t mean leaving your doors wide open in the middle of winter.
• If you have staff they must observe each other (known as peer observations) … no – it’s useful to improve practice but not a requirement.
• Children must have free access to mark making … no – mark making should be available for the children who want to use it but that doesn’t mean leaving the paints out all day for the baby to eat.
• You must write detailed planning every day … no – you need a plan so you know what you are doing and don’t waste time faffing about but it can be in your head or a series of scribbles if that’s how you want to work.
• You must record how long fire practices take … no – you must ensure children understand emergency procedures to keep them safe and that might mean doing regular escape practices but there is no requirement to record how long they take.
• You must have lots of posters up outside … no – you need a literacy rich environment and the outside should complement the inside with a focus on nature and the natural world. If an inspector asks you to put up posters, be ready to challenge them by showing them all the activities you plan outside to support learning and ask them where it requires posters in the EYFS.
• You must not use themes … no – you can use them if you find them useful or not if you don’t!

 
Ofsted have stated a number of times that do not have a preferred style of teaching – they are looking at how your teaching raises outcomes for the children in your care. They will observe your interactions with the children and watch how the children are learning and developing their learning characteristics.
The inspector wants to see all children making progress – and if there is a delay in progress or if a child has joined with lower than ‘typical’ starting points, they will want to know what you are doing about it to support the child.
 
Ofsted try to explain their ‘Bold Beginnings’ report ...with a series of blogs and presentations – Jan 2018.

We have all read it wrongly – it was never meant to be about early years – it shouldn’t mean any changes in the early years - it doesn’t mean that inspectors will be looking more closely at literacy and numeracy despite providers telling us that inspectors are looking more closely at … yes, you’ve guessed it … literacy and numeracy!
 
House of Commons finance committee report on childcare
This report from the House of Commons finance committee tells it like it is – early years providers are under-funded for the funded hours.

GDPR in schools
New guidance from DfE on safeguarding in schools … I follow blogs from the 'Safeguarding in Schools' link here which give me updated information about GDPR and other safeguarding documents.
 
**UPDATED EY inspection handbook FROM Ofsted**

The Early Years Inspection handbook has been updated (3rd April 2018), mostly to confirm that Ofsted have now withdrawn their self-evaluation form (SEF).
 
Updates / changes as follows:

• Paragraph 4 – updated to reflect current inspection cycle.
• Paragraphs 37 & 59 – amended for the removal of the Ofsted self-evaluation form (SEF) and confirming there is no requirement for self-evaluation to be written.
• Paragraph 109 – clarification that it is an offence to fail to notify Ofsted of a significant event or fail to comply with a condition of registration, ‘without good reason’.
• Paragraph 113 – deleted final sentence to remove duplication.
• Paragraph 107 – provides guidance of when an inspector should contact ARC about an inadequate judgement.
• Paragraph 121 – further clarification to confirm that we do not make the judgement on ‘outcomes for children’ for providers who provide care exclusively before or after school for younger than Reception aged children.
• Paragraph 134 – inspection managers added to those who may undertake quality assurance of inspections.
• Paragraphs 148 & 170 – references to ‘narrowing gaps’ amended to ‘reduce any differences’.
• Paragraph 153 – minor amendment to the final bullet in good grade descriptors for effectiveness of leadership and management to more accurately reflect descriptors for overall effectiveness. Deleted ‘the setting meets the statutory safeguarding requirements’.

 
Updates to the Ofsted myths document (16th March 2018):

• Ofsted updated myths 4, 8 and 9 which cover self-evaluation and risk assessment.

 
The Early Years Inspection handbook is very good reading for your self-evaluation and action planning and useful to check through if you are due an inspection. It tells you what will happen and how your setting will be judged by Ofsted.
 
You can read more about how I will be self-evaluating and planning for the future in this blog.

If you have any ideas for future articles please let me know. Sarah. 
 

April 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

Childcare voucher scheme deadline extended
Good news for parents and providers! The deadline for the Childcare voucher scheme closing to new families has been extended by another 6 months.  This means that parents who move jobs or become eligible through their company can still join voucher companies such as Busy Bees, Computershare and Kiddi Vouchers.

We know that the tax free childcare scheme has been causing providers a lot of problems with late payments – hopefully this will mean a change to policy after 6 months as well. It certainly gives providers longer to lobby the government!
 
New CPD video from the Communication Trust
The Communication Trust has published a new video ‘Talking to parents about their child’s speech, language and communication’. It’s a useful guide – worth watching if you have a spare half hour.
https://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/projects/professional-development/a-professional-development-video-talking-to-parents/
 
Child abuse and neglect update
The Govt has published its response to the ‘Reporting and acting on child abuse and neglect’ consultation – another safeguarding document we need to be aware about in the early years.

The Govt are not going to introduce a mandatory duty to report child abuse for practitioners and will instead focus on other reforms including improving information sharing and multi-agency working; improving the assessments and decision-making process and working with children at all stages of their engagement with the safeguarding system.

There will be, for example, a new campaign to tackle child abuse, relationship and sex education mandatory in schools from Sept 2019, updated ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (Sept 2018), targeted support as concerns arise such as the recent abuse claims in sport and support for whistle blowers.

You do not need to make any changes to your documentation or policies and procedures as a result of this report (good news for providers who are currently bogged down with GDPR changes).

For more information see: HM Government (2018) ‘Reporting and acting on child abuse and neglect’.

Are you preparing for GDPR?
With less than 2 months to go until the start of GDPR (25th May 2018) early years providers need to start preparing for the new legislation.

Childcare.co.uk are offering free documentation for all providers to help you with your…

Data Audit – step 1 of preparing for GDPR is to know what documentation you hold – and why – and how long it needs to be retained (see Retention Policy).

Privacy Notice – you will need a written Privacy Notice to share with parents.

Retention Policy – all providers will need a Retention Policy to share with parents which states how long they need to keep documentation relating to parents and their children. I have also included retention information in the updated Contract Termination letter to remind parents when their child leaves the setting.
You might want to update other documents to comply with GDPR such as your Permission Form, Parent-Provider Contract and Confidentiality Policy … you will find all the support you need on the Childcare.co.uk website.
 
Learn from serious case reviews
A useful link for early years trainers and practitioners who are interested in learning more about safeguarding children linked to serious case reviews and commonly noted risk factors.
 
Ofsted focus on physical activity
Ofsted have commented in recent articles that settings are not encouraging children to be physical enough and we understand this is an area of practice they will focus on during inspections in the future. The EYFS links to the Government physical activity guidelines which are as good a place as any to start.

Providers might find it helpful to audit their daily routines and make sure children have opportunities to be physically active for at least 3 hours a day, including periods of activity that make them puffed.

Alongside this new focus, you might find it interesting to read this blog from Gill Jones (deputy director, early years, Ofsted) about risk management and keeping little children safe.

How do your early years children learn best?
An excellent article from Teachwire about early years teaching and learning to read with a cuppa and boost your CPD and understanding of child development.

Ofsted myths updated
Ofsted have updated their myth busting guidance to reflect the removal of their self-evaluation form (SEF) from 1st April 2018.

If you have a self-evaluation form online you will need to grab the information from it and copy it into a document on your computer before it disappears! 

Do you teach phonics to early years children?
Gill Jones, director of early years at Ofsted said, during a recent Ofsted Big Conversation open meeting: 'There is no place for formal phonics in the early years'. More information in this blog on my new Nursery Chat website which links to the new Nursery Chat Facebook group.

While we are talking about the recent Ofsted Big Conversation open meeting… it was at Aintree Racecourse (a very impressive venue). These are my notes from the presentation – I hope you find them useful.

Another important quote from the meeting – Gill Jones again: 'Do what you think is right for your children at the time - not what you think is right for Ofsted' ... I bang this drum loudly and regularly in my training, consultancy, writing and support messages - it was good to see it on a presentation slide in writing from Ofsted themselves.
 
The next Ofsted Big Conversation North West open meeting - Sat 6th October 2018 @ Last Drop Village, Bromley - keynote speaker 'The Art of Brilliance'

Ofsted Big Conversation - NEXT NEXT North West open meeting - Sat 9th March 2019 @ Aintree - keynote speaker Alistair Bryce Clegg (selling out fast!!) 

Tickets only £15 each ... OBC is a non-profit making group – book early to avoid disappointment.
 
Information about safeguarding and GDPR
Breaking news about amendments to GDPR in relation to safeguarding. I need to read this properly – it’s only just hit my inbox – but it looks like good news from a child protection and information sharing point of view.
 
Group planning for 2018
We are planning for our tiddly peeps this year using immersive reading – a holistic way of using storytelling and reading sessions to link to children’s interests and teach something new. You can read more about it in this blog written for Childcare Expo.

This type of planning links through all the group planning activity guides for gold Childcare.co.uk members.

All the best, Sarah. 

March 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

Happy March everyone! Blimey this year is going sooo quickly! I hope you are all ok with the snow and ice and keeping warm.
 
Ofsted self-evaluation form (SEF) has been withdrawn!
Ofsted are withdrawing their self-evaluation form (SEF) in favour of all providers self-evaluating and reflecting on their practice in their own ways. This is not an end to self-evaluation and you will need to consider what you are going to use to support your own practice.
 
I am going to use a combination of the Ofsted SEF and the Early Years Inspection handbook outcomes for inspection. You can see my way of doing things here.
 
You will also find more information here on my blog.
 
Changes to some Govt funding
The DfE have announced changes to the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) and 2 year funding criteria. You can read more in this article from the Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA).
 
Safeguarding – NSPCC resources
The NSPCC is always a useful resource for brushing up on safeguarding and child protection knowledge. NSPCC are currently putting together new resources for providers who find themselves dealing with safeguarding disclosures from children. Please consider contributing to this survey which will lead to NSPCC producing documents which will help us all.
Note - time-limited link which will expire.
 
Preparing for GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation is due to come into effect from 25th May 2018 and it cannot be ignored. It will impact how we work and mean changes to, among other things, some of our Policies and Procedures and Permissions forms. All providers will also need a written Privacy Notice (suggested wording to follow – I am still waiting for some points to be clarified).
 
This is the first in a series of new blogs introducing GDPR to raise awareness of the changes an support colleagues.
 
Childcare.co.uk are working on further guidance at the moment – but it is really important that the information is right from the start so it is taking some time to research and put together.
 
Are you a newly registering childminder?
Childcare.co.uk have put together a new pre-registration toolkit FREE for all newly registering childminders. It covers every aspect of your pre-registration and registration journey from deciding whether to set up as a childminder to preparing your initial paperwork. There is a useful chapter on the Ofsted registration visit and the questions your inspector might ask as well.

You can download the free guidance from this link.

Bold Beginnings report … Ofsted attempt to clarify some points
I talked last month about the concerns raised by a lot of providers after reading the latest Ofsted report: Bold Beginnings. Gill Jones, deputy director of early years, has contributed to this Nursery World article which does explain some of the comments in the report.

However, many providers are still getting a ‘top down’ message from inspectors who are focusing on literacy and maths for ever younger children. This is something we need to be prepared to challenge if the expectations are age-inappropriate.
 
Risk management
In November 2017, Amanda Spielman (Ofsted chief) commented on her concerns over risk averse nurseries. Gill Jones has been busy this month … she has also written an article for EYFS forum ‘Keeping little children safe’ which is worth reading with a cuppa.
 
Ceeda latest report
Childminders fed into this report from Ceeda, the private sector research agency. It makes interesting - and worrying - reading.

Reducing educational disadvantage
A new article by Penny Tassoni looks at how we can help raise outcomes for all early years children and especially those children with lower than typical starting points. I will be talking about this in more detail in my upcoming webinar which will look at the new Ofsted buzzword ‘Narrowing the Gap’.
 
NEW webinars for March!
Childcare.co.uk have added some new webinars to the website for March –

• Leadership and management
• Narrowing the gaps (as mentioned earlier)
• EYFS learning and development requirements
• EYFS safeguarding and welfare requirements

The last 2 webinars will be useful for newly registered childminders … and anyone who wants to brush up on their skills and knowledge and check compliance with the statutory requirement.
 
Nursery Chat
Our nursery and other group providers are always welcome to browse the Independent Childminders website and will find lots of advice about GDPR on the new Independent Childminders website blog … but I have also opened a new Nursery Chat website which will focus on nursery and group provider issues.
The new Nursery Chat website will link to the new Nursery Chat Facebook group owned and managed by Childcare.co.uk
 
What are Ofsted looking for during inspection?
One of my first blogs on the new Nursery Chat website covers what Ofsted are looking for during early years inspections during 2018. To write this blog I have read lots of inspection reports from childminder and group providers on the Watchsted website and I have researched thoroughly.
Inspections follow the outcomes in the Early Years Inspection handbook. I have covered all 4 inspection outcomes in a new series of Information Guides for Childcare.co.uk – you can find them here.

I think there will be a focus on self-evaluation and action planning by inspectors after Ofsted’s decision to stop the online SEF – they will want to make sure providers don’t simply stop evaluating and planning for the future now the Ofsted form has disappeared.

If you have any ideas for articles, blogs or training please let me know. 
 
Chat soon! Sarah. 

February 2018 newsletter for independent childminders

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation
This is an EU law which will remain after Brexit. It will impact on all businesses in the EU including early years providers in the UK. The GDPR replaces the current very out-of-date Data Protection Act and covers both paper and online data recording.

I have released a blog which is an initial information sharing exercise to raise awareness of the approach of GDPR which will be law from 25th May – which means we have around 4 months to learn more and prepare ourselves – plenty of time and no need to panic – more information will follow.
 
Ofsted Big Conversation North West open meeting
Have you got your tickets for the next Ofsted Big Conversation North West open meeting yet? They are selling out fast!! Sat 10th March at Aintree - from 9.30 am! An opportunity to listen to quality speakers including a presentation on early years neuroscience by Mine Conkbayir AND the chance to ask Ofsted all your burning questions and get the answers from their senior management team.
 
Accident and incident tracking
Do you track children’s accidents and incident records in your setting? Do you know if there is one part of your setting which is causing a lot of accidents? This is something we understand Ofsted are looking for during inspection so I have written a blog.
 
Dept for Education reshuffle
It’s frustrating when you make someone aware of problems – they nod and ignore you completely – or they say they will look into it – and then they are re-shuffled and replaced by someone else! We have a lot of outstanding questions with Dept for Education at the moment including childminders claiming 30 hours funding for their own children which we had hoped to tackle through Pre-school Learning Alliance soon – with the recent reshuffle I imagine that it’s all going to be delayed.

PLA have assured me they are ‘on it’ making links with the new administration – however, I note there is a question mark over his suitability for the role so he might not be around for very long!
 
Are you risk averse?
Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman reported that she is concerned too many settings are risk averse. She says we must not stop taking children to the park or remove climbing frames and we shouldn’t create an overly risk free environment. However, Ofsted do expect providers to supervise children properly.

Interestingly, Ms Spielman is reported as agreeing that Ofsted haven’t always got risk management issues right in the past.

Informing Ofsted about changes
This is an important reminder for all childminders to inform Ofsted about anything that might affect your suitability to work as a childminder… and to all group providers to inform Ofsted about any staff disclosures, such as if a staff member says they have moved in with a new partner who has a history which makes them unsuitable to work with children.

Ofsted consider each case individually and providers might need to apply for a waiver before continuing to work with children. However, if they are not informed, Ofsted react very robustly if they find out about things through other sources – such as if your child is involved with another agency or if you have police involvement at the weekend.

If you are unsure whether to inform Ofsted about something you should check the non-compliance handbook (page 15 onwards) and inform Ofsted if you are concerned – they can decide whether they need the information or not.
 
Ofsted myth busting
Ofsted have added information about what sort of snack we should be providing to their myth busting list. They state that Ofsted don’t prescribe ‘rolling’ snack or ‘everyone sit down together’ snack – it’s up to the provider to decide what works best for their children.

​In the report, Ofsted state that communal snacks might encourage table manners and ‘if children have other opportunities to pour water in play time, then self-service pouring is less important.’
 
Protecting yourself and the children from flu
You will find some useful information from Public Health Agency (Ireland) on flu including the Australian flu which hit the headlines recently. It’s a useful leaflet to send to your families as well.
 
New from NSPCC
Signs of abuse – a helpful guide from NSPCC to download and print if you have a safeguarding file – or keep on your computer for reference.
 
Ofsted’s bold beginnings report
Ofsted are doing some ‘clarifying’ of the information in their widely questioned ‘Bold Beginnings’ report in response to the open letter to the Guardian newsletter signed by thousands of early years experts and providers. It’s worth reading – and keeping an eye on future developments because they are likely to have an impact on early years. Did you see my blog for Childcare Expo on ‘Bold Beginnings’?

I have tried to provide advice for providers and wrote a further article for Practical Pre-school magazine which you might find interesting.
 
30 hours – how are you getting on?
Nursery World magazine recently reported on how a number of group providers are making the 30 hours funding work for them – in light of the DfE’s refusal to recognise that there is a problem with the funding rate. The report states that all providers approached do things slightly differently – but they all do something to make it work for them: either placing restrictions on places offered and / or asking for a voluntary contribution from parents. Many providers also state they have increased fees for non-funded children to make it affordable
 
A further article in Nursery World magazine states that ‘completely free’ funded hours are ‘shunned’ by most providers – that will be because we are losing money on them! I wonder if anyone at DfE has put 2 and 2 together on that one yet as parents complain they are not ‘free’ and we say ‘well we told you we couldn’t afford it if you pay us peanuts’…
 
Ratios and apprentices / staff qualifications
All early years providers working with children from birth to 5 years old must follow the regulations on EYFS staff:child ratios.

Quite a few childminders nowadays have apprentices – the Eyfs states in requirement 3.29 - 

'Only those aged 17 or over may be included in ratios (and staff under 17 should
be supervised at all times). Students on long term placements and volunteers
(aged 17 or over) and staff working as apprentices in early education (aged 16 or
over) may be included in the ratios if the provider is satisfied that they are
competent and responsible.'

DfE have clarified that early years apprentices do not count towards the staff:child ratios until they have qualified. You can find out more on the Early Years Qualification Checker page.  The wording on the DfE website is as follows - 
 'Apprentices can be included in the unqualified part of the staff to child ratios in an early years setting providing they are competent and responsible.
This means that an apprentice working towards a level 2 or 3 apprenticeship can’t take up a level 2 or 3 position, and count in the ratios at either level, until they have achieved their level 2 or 3 early years qualification. However, they can take up a post where a qualification is not required and be included in the unqualified part of the ratios.'
While we are on the subject of staff, if you want your staff member to be in ratio you must check their qualification levels to ensure their qualification is full and relevant. You can find the qualifications checklist page as well - and further advice about apprentices.

Safer internet day
Safer Internet Day – 6th February 2018 – more information on the website. There are also some useful activity ideas for 3 – 7 year olds and older children on the website.
 
Favourite children’s books
What are your children’s favourite books? The Book Trust has published the ’60 great books guide’ for 2017 – are yours listed on there?
 
Coping with stress
A useful video from ChildLine on the subject of mindfulness for all teens who are struggling with stressful situations.
 
Knutsford Childminding – updated information for 2018
I have updated my e-book 22 'Celebrations Calendar' for 2018. If you have already purchased a copy of this e-book please message me for your free update - if you don't have a copy yet you can buy one from my website page 'e-books for sale'.

 I regularly add Information and Activity Guides to the Childcare.co.uk website, many of which are free.

I have written a series of blogs for parents and practitioners - little pockets of information which might prove useful.

New webinar training for 2018 is offered through Childcare.co.uk and is free for all members.

I also offer face-to-face training and consultancy to local childminders and group providers - please contact me for more details. 
I constantly strive to offer customers and early years colleagues as much information and support as possible to enable all childminders to stay independent of agencies. It is important that all providers stay up-to-date with changes in the early years.

The Independent Childminders Facebook group is full of information and support.

The Childminding Forum is full of information and support for all childminders in the UK.

Please contact me for more information and advice. Sarah. 
 

January 2018 newsletter for independent childminders 

Happy new year to all my readers! I hope you have had a lovely break! Here is some news for January…
 
What is your planning for January looking like? I have changed the monthly planning format for Childcare.co.uk gold members this year and we will be focusing on a ‘book of the week’ to immerse the children in a literacy rich experience. I started this new series of Activity Guides long before Ofsted announced their renewed focus on literacy and maths during inspection … clever me! Or is it that extending vocabulary, engaging imaginative minds and challenging curiosity are essential early learning experiences regardless of what Ofsted decide their latest hobby-horse to be?
 
Free Childcare.co.uk webinars for January
You asked for courses – I listened! This is the webinar list for January – all the courses are linked to colleague requests…
- Working with babies – Tues 9th January @ 7.30pm
- Technology – Tues 16th January @ 7.30pm
- Health and self-care – Monday 22nd January @ 7.30pm
- Self-evaluation – Tuesday 30th Jan @ 7.30pm

You can book onto these free webinars here and log in from the same link on the night.

Yellow Pages
Have you ever been approached by Yellow Pages to place an advert for your childminding provision? If you are, please tell them that childminders should not be in a section linked to ‘see nurseries’ – we are a business in our own right and very different from group providers. This specification might be losing us potential work so it’s important we explain what makes childminders unique and special.
 
SEED report into early years
A recent study of quality of early years provision in England report has highlighted staff qualifications and access to continuous professional development as essential for high quality provision
 
You can read more about the findings of the report here.
 
30 hours funded childcare
It’s not free – it’s funded. We have been trying to get that message across for a long time.
DfE have now responded to a legal challenge and changed some of the wording on their website – now is the time to lobby Local Authorities to change their flyers and leaflets.
More information in this Nursery World news article. 

CEEDA survey – childminders!
Have you joined the childminder panel yet? Have you completed the survey? If you have any spare time it doesn’t take long and it’s important childminder views are heard.
 
Reflections on 2017… thinking ahead to 2018
My latest blog for Childcare Expo - a round up of 2017 – always supporting colleagues.
 
Ofsted and teaching
We should have known when we read reports from Ofsted that changes were coming. Now we have ‘Bold Beginnings’ which Ofsted will use to ask the Dept for Education to change the EYFS in reception year and we will need to think about how this will impact (in a top down way) our early years provision.
 
I wrote this blog for Childcare Expo before ‘Bold Beginnings’ was published – already thinking about the future and the type of support providers might need – more will following the new year.
 
Ofsted annual report
Ofsted have published its annual report – early years has its own section. Interestingly, in view of the new Bold Beginnings report, Amanda Spielman (Ofsted chief) emphasised the importance of learning through play in the early years in the report – but also stated children are not being well enough prepared for year 1 at school.
 
I found the PLA (Pre-school learning alliance) review of the report a useful read.
 
Effective early years environments
My friend Kathy Brodie’s new blog for Teachwire: ‘7 ways to make your early years environment work for every child’. Enjoy!
 
Safeguarding online for 3 – 7 year olds
The story of Digiduck who has to make a difficult decision – useful for all early years children to help keep them safe online. A good resource to share with parents as well.
 
30 hours confusion
While many parents are taking up the 30 hours funded sessions for their children, thousands more are not accessing them. Part of this might be due to the benefits they lose when they sign up for the 30 hours… and the extra payments they are being asked for by hard-pressed providers who simply cannot offer the hours ‘free’ without risking their sustainability. More information in this article from Pre-school learning Alliance including a link to the Fair Future Funding campaign which is important because the funding rate is fixed until 2020 while prices and delivery costs are constantly rising.
 
Relationships education for 4 year olds
The Government is consulting on modernising sex education for all ages of children and this change will include mandatory relationships education for 4 year olds. The current sex education rules were brought in before the internet made everything so much more of a challenge for children.
Relationships education at primary school will focus on:
·       Different types of relationships, including friendships, family relationships, dealing with strangers;
·       How to recognise and understand healthy and unhealthy relationships,
·       Healthy relationships and safety online
·       How relationships may affect health and wellbeing.
 
The consultation finishes on 12th February and is here on the .gov.uk website if you want to have your say.
 
Chat soon! Sarah. 

 

December 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

Are you all prepared for the festive season yet? It's only a few weeks away and we are already seeing a flurry of lovely craft activities on the Independent Childminders Facebook group.

Here are some updates and latest news... 
 
Are you thinking about becoming a childminder?
I am proud to announce that I have been accepted as an assessor for the Pre-School Learning Alliance. I will be assessing pre-registration childminders who are doing the Cache Level 3 ‘Award in Preparing to work in home-based childcare’. The course helps prepare you to work as a childminder… what you waiting for?!
 
Illness and exclusion times
This is the latest Public Health England guidance – updated Sept 2017. It replaces previous similar documents. 
 
30 hours provision – does it close the gap?
I have been busy writing some new webinar training about ‘narrowing the gap’ because this is an area Ofsted are focusing on during inspection: the inspector will look closely at children’s tracking to see how those with lower than ‘typical’ starting points are supported to quickly catch up.

Reading the recently released Sutton Report was, therefore, worrying because one of the report’s key findings is that, ‘the 30 hour entitlement for working families are well-designed to promote social mobility, meaning longer hours in state-funded early education for children who are already relatively advantaged, which may be expected to widen gaps in child development at school starting age.’

To read that one of the Government’s key policies is likely to be responsible for widening the gap rather than narrowing it is very worrying and I hope that DfE are taking notice before they fail these children with their vote winning scheme.
 
Ofsted focus for 2018
Ofsted have been telling us about the new inspection focus for 2018. Amanda Spielman – Ofsted chief – talks about the focus of Ofsted inspections in the future. You can read my precis of her speech here and the speech in its entirety here.

RSPB Birdwatch
Do you watch the birds in the garden with the little ones? We don’t have many because of the neighbour’s cats but we do enjoy spotting birds on our outings. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is asking early years settings to take part in the 16th annual wildlife survey (register before 31st January).

You can register on the RSPB website here.
 
Glitter-gate – eek!
Did you read the latest articles about a nursery who have banned glitter because of the harmful effects it has on the environment?
We have been talking about it on my Knutsford Childminding Facebook page – lots of childminders are wondering whether to start using the more expensive environmentally friendly glitter – or just stop using glitter altogether because it’s not always popular.
 
Is Local Authority SEND provision good?
I was reading an Ofsted report which brings together the results of recent inspections of LA SEND provision recently – called ‘Local area send inspections – one year on’. It was a worrying read – so many children and young people are being let down by lack of local provision. However, one area that scored highly was how more early years children are being diagnosed and offered support because, in part, of the introduction of the 2 year progress check.

Then I read a Nursery World report that says Local Authorities are being forced to ‘slash early help services’ due to budget constraints… how very sad when that’s the one area of SEND provision Ofsted were able to praise during their inspections.
 
Childcare Vouchers petition
Do you receive Childcare Vouchers from parents – vouchers from companies like Busy Bees and Computershare? Do you know that from April next year new parents will not be able to sign up to the voucher companies and they are all being phased out in favour of Tax Free Childcare? Tax Free Childcare could lose parents a lot of money because it is linked to other benefits they receive – and could cause providers a lot of hassle because the system, managed by HMRC, is not working properly.
There is a petition to try and keep voucher companies here.
 
How to talk so children will listen
This is a blog by speech and language specialist Catherine Jackson which is worth reading. Catherine has a website called ‘Wise Old Owl’ and you can subscribe to her email updates. Don't forget, if you have a child with speech and language delay, Ofsted will want to know how you are supporting them to make progress. Showing you have read blogs, used ideas from books and online and asked for support for the child will help you to evidence how you are doing this. 
 
Childminder numbers are down again
According to Ofsted's latest figures, there has been another drop in childminder numbers… we know why and we have told Ofsted why! We need to get the message to the DfE and there is clearly a lot more work to be done supporting colleagues. We do all we can, information sharing through the Independent Childminders Facebook group and the Childminding Forum – we have lots of free information for childminders – and free webinars to enable easy-to-access evening training…

What more can we do? Please share if you have any ideas!
 
Tax free childcare delay
The full roll out of the new Tax Free childcare scheme has been delayed. It’s not working well for parents or providers and childminders are still waiting to hear how they will protect our personal and private information while at the same time advertising us on the same platform as group providers. You will find the latest information on the Money Saving Expert website.

 
SEND resources for childminders
Nasen have released some new free SEND resources for childminders – I have been involved in the production of these resources and they are useful for supporting providers who care for or are planning to care for children with special educational needs and / or disabilities.

Parental involvement
How involved are your parents? Do they follow-up ideas you give them for home learning? How often do they say, ‘we tried that at home and it was really good’? a new study has shown that outcomes for children are raised when parents support them at home and complement what they are doing in the setting … this is something Ofsted will look at during your inspection so you need to make sure it is embedded in practice. It’s not ‘homework for babies’ – it’s you saying, ‘we have tried this and it went really well / your child got a lot out of it / your child was really engaged … why not try it at home?’
 
New reception report – Bold Beginnings
This report has been making waves in the early years sector over the last few days – the report is here and was published on 30th November and says that children are not doing well enough in reception class at school. The focus of the report is very much on children’s progress in maths, reading and writing and preparing children for ‘the demands of year 1’. I am sure this will filter down into early years with more pressure on us to include maths, reading and writing in children’s routines during the year before they start reception class… let’s wait and see what comes out of inspection!
 
That's about it for this month! Ideas for things to cover and new blogs to write are always useful.

​Chat soon, Sarah. 

November 2017 newsletter for independent childminders 

October has been a busy month with lots happening in the early years world!

Here are some of the main events and updates…
 
Ofsted Big Conversation North West meeting
The Ofsted Big Conversation North West open meeting was a huge success with 600 delegates and lots of Ofsted senior management getting together to discuss all things early years. You can read about it in my feedback blog here.  

After the meeting I was given the opportunity to talk about childminder specific issues with Ofsted – a colleague came from the OBC Leeds group to support me and we were able to share a lot of our concerns. Many were related to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, 2017) which we asked Ofsted to discuss with the Dept for Education on our behalf – the rest we will feedback as and when we have any information to share.
 
Updated health protection advice
We have received updated information from Health Protection England about the prevention and control of infectious diseases. You can find all the documents on the .gov.uk website here.
 
Childminders are frustrated
Goodness we are! The feedback I am getting from colleagues is of ongoing frustration and irritation. We have so many things being thrown at us – while working on our own – in our houses, for less than minimum wage in many cases.

I have written a little blog for Childcare Expo who are supporting us through the muddle.
 
Childminders are cross
Shortly after I wrote my ‘childminders are frustrated’ blog for Childcare Expo I listened to a clip on the Champagne Nurseries Lemonade Funding Facebook group which left me cross … very cross. For the Minister of State at the Department for Education to suggest childminders should ‘fill the gap’ between nursery and home time is insulting in the extreme... so, of course, me being me, I wrote another blog! 

Ofsted Self-evaluation form
Ofsted have asked our views on the current self-evaluation form (SEF) and childminders were very keen to share them! Some colleagues find the form useful – but not many compared to the 1000+ who voted to stop using it.
It is important to remember that the Ofsted SEF is not a statutory document but self-reflection and action planning for the future are a big part of your Ofsted inspection, so whatever you choose to use, you need to ensure you look back at how things are going and always strive to improve.
 
New FREE webinar training courses from Childcare.co.uk
I have added some new webinars to the Childcare.co.uk website for November. Webinars are free to access for all Childcare.co.uk members and another way in which we are supporting childminders to stay updated and informed with the latest information and good practice.  You can find the new webinars and sign up to them on the Childcare.co.uk website here – don’t forget to put the date in your diary.
 
Childminders, assistants and the workplace pension
If you employ an assistant you will need to start a pension for them – this is a statutory duty depending on their age (between 22 and pension age) and their annual income (at least £10,000 a year – more than £113 a week). I have included lots of information in my latest blog here.

You can find more details about the workplace pension here.
 
Sutton Trust report – ‘Closing Gaps Early’
The new Sutton Trust report into social mobility worryingly warns that the 30 hours funding and the new Tax Free Childcare are likely to widen rather than close the inequality gap. The report says "neither the tax-free childcare scheme nor the 30 hour entitlement for working families are well-designed to promote social mobility, meaning longer hours in state-funded early education for children who are already relatively advantaged, which may be expected to widen gaps in child development at school starting age. Particularly worrying, these investments are coming at the expense of the quality of provision." I wonder if the Government are listening yet…  
 
Early Intervention report – Language as a child wellbeing indicator
This report states that ‘Early language acquisition impacts on all aspects of young children’s non-physical development. It contributes to their ability to manage emotions and communicate feelings, to establish and maintain relationships, to think symbolically, and to learn to read and write. While the majority of young children acquire language effortlessly, a significant minority do not.’ We are reminded of the importance of asking for support early and putting plans in place to raise a child’s communication and language starting points as quickly as possible so they are well prepared for school.
 
Reconfirming the 30 hours
If any of your parents are signed up for the 30 hours funding, they will need to reconfirm their hours for next term or risk losing them! We know that many parents had problems signing up in the first place and we are hopeful that the reconfirmation process goes more smoothly – don’t forget to remind your parents to get their code early! You will find more information and concerns from the sector in this Nursery World article.

While we are on the subject of the 30 hours, you might like to read this blog from PLA who are doing a lot of work to support all early years providers including childminders, entitled ‘What next for the early years?’
 
And to follow-up on how to ensure the 30 hours are as cost-effective as possible I have written a healthy eating blog to support colleagues to keep food costs down while still ensuring quality.
 
Changes to DBS checks
Childminders no longer need to sign their own and family DBS checks to the update service – they can if they wish, but it is now up to the individual provider to decide what to do – Ofsted can no longer require it - see this on the DfE website updated 6th October 2017. Some childminders were concerned about the effect a lack of update service might have on their inspection outcome so we asked Ofsted and they said all inspectors have been updated on the new rules which reassured many.

To remind childminders – some have police checks and they are fine – some have CRB checks and they are fine – some have the early (pre-2014) DBS checks and they are fine – some have the newer (post-2014) DBS checks and they are the ones that no longer need to be linked to the update service.
 
Food hygiene inspections for childminders
We are hearing on the Independent Childminders Facebook group that more and more childminders are being asked to undergo a food hygiene inspection. All childminders must be registered as food providers and should be using Safer Food Better Business for Childminders to ensure consistent food hygiene and safety. I have written some tips for providers in this blog here.
 
Safeguarding changes coming…
I said in my latest safeguarding update for Childcare.co.uk on YouTube that I had heard a rumour Working Together to Safeguard Children might be updated soon … there is now a consultation which I think we need to keep an eye on because I am sure any changes will impact us in the future.
In the meantime, my latest Safeguarding Policy guidance is free for all Childcare.co.uk members (free and gold) on the .
 
Forward planning
The next Ofsted Big Conversation North West open meeting is on 10th March 2018 at Aintree Racecourse. Tickets are available to purchase now!
You can find out more about the Ofsted Big Conversation and the impact is it having on provider relationships with Ofsted in my Childcare Expo blog here.

Childcare on Domestic Premises – new blog
A lot of colleagues would like to work together with each other and expand their childminding provisions.
 If you want to work with more than 2 providers (more than 3 total together) you will need to change your registration to Childcare on Domestic Premises (CODP). You can find more information in my latest blog here.
 
What makes an outstanding childcare provider?
Childminders on the Independent Childminders Facebook group (the biggest group on Facebook for childminders who want to stay independent of agencies) were discussing this question recently … what do you think makes an outstanding provider?

Here are some of the replies…

• You don’t need to be perfect – but you do need to show you are constantly pushing for improvement
• Really enjoying what you do – having a ‘sparkle’ and a spring in your step
• Being yourself during the inspection and showing off all the amazing things you do
• Being willing to listen to new ideas and try new things
• Being reflective – my inspector loved how I am constantly trying to make my business better
• Everyone wants the best for the children… you need to show this during inspection
• The reply ‘being lucky with your inspector’ got 66 ‘likes’ and a lot of colleagues added similar comments...
• One of my inspectors said I would have been graded outstanding if I’d got some left handed scissors – I lost faith in the inspection process after that…
• Some childminders comment they have been ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ while working in exactly the same way – inspectors do look for different things and it really can be the luck of the draw and how early in the inspection cycle you are inspected (because changes take time to embed).
• Willingness to embrace change and continuous professional development.
• Being flexible – parents love you for it and Ofsted can see that you are really focused on doing your best for the children.
• How things go ‘on the day’ does impact on grade according to a lot of members – how children behave (including our own) and how you interact with the inspector. If you go to pieces and can’t answer questions about safeguarding or the children’s progress you unlikely to be graded outstanding.
• Being up-to-date – a lot of providers say that their inspector spent time asking about children’s progress and they couldn’t have answered the questions without updating files and doing some quick revision the night before about each child’s next steps etc. 
• Being inspiring – making the inspector want to join in with your play.
• Allowing every child to be an individual … some inspectors want to see every child doing the same activity and this can lead to issues with individual learning (especially if you rarely plan group learning opportunities) so you need to be confident when you explain why you allow a child to do something else and what the child is learning from their play.

For many colleagues, childminding is a vocation rather than a job. They pour everything into it and are truly heartbroken when an Ofsted inspector comes along and looks hard to find ‘something’ to stop them gaining outstanding. We are working with Ofsted through the Ofsted Big Conversation to stop inconsistency and it is getting a lot better but it does still happen. It is very important members tell us if there is a problem so we can support them – especially if the inspector has failed to follow their own rule book properly.
 
Some reminders about inspection… 

Ofsted inspect us on the Early Years Foundation Stage 2017 - this is the statutory framework. 
 
They have also written some inspection guidance – the Early Years Inspection handbook - this is their translation of the EYFS.

Safeguarding is a limiting judgement – mess up your safeguarding and that’s your inspection grade gone.  You will find some safeguarding questions and answers in this blog so you can test yourself before your inspection.

Teaching and learning are also huge parts of the inspection – how well you support children’s learning and development and move them quickly on from their starting points. I have written this blog about teaching and learning
 
I am also delivering a free webinar for Childcare.co.uk in November about children’s starting points which you might find helpful.

 
 I was asked by a colleague to make the embedded links bigger for those with fat thumbs on phones - I hope I have managed to do that for you this newsletter!

If you have any ideas for articles please let me know - I couldn't do this without you all supporting me!

Thank you, Sarah
​
Knutsford Childminding

October 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to October! What activities are you covering with the children this month?
We had a brainstorming session at our local Childminder and Nanny group last week and I think the focus is going to be on autumn changes, mostly because nature is a wonderful free provider of so many amazing activity opportunities! 
Please share your activity ideas on the Childminding Forum or Independent Childminders Facebook group to support colleagues. 

Change to the DBS check update service
Childminders - assistants - family members do not need to pay for the annual update service on their DBS any more. Ofsted 'recommend' you keep it going but they no longer require it. Everything else remains the same.
​You will find more information in this post on the Childminding Forum. 

Ofsted Big Conversation North West
The next Ofsted Big Conversation North West open meeting is on Sat 7th October in Bolton.
This is an amazing opportunity to engage with Ofsted and do some CPD with like-minded early years professionals.
Last few tickets left... see you there?! 

Are you doing too much?
A reminder for childminders – don’t do unnecessary paperwork and then say you are overwhelmed! Read through my 4 ‘are you doing too much?’ blogs free on the Childminding Forum for more information.
 
New resources from Eric
Eric, the children’s bowel and bladder charity, has added a series of resources to their website including a guide to potty training, night time wetting and bowel problems.
 
Nasen SEND resources
Nasen has produced a range of resources for practitioners who care for children with special educational needs and disabilities written by early years professionals who have experience (including me on behalf of Childcare.co.uk).  You can find the resources here.
 
Data protection reform
From 2018 the data protection rules are changing. You will find a free information guide about the changes from Childcare.co.uk - including a sample Privacy Notice which you should share with parents. 

I have also had quite a long chat about the changes with ICO to help colleagues. You will find my question and answer session here. 

As a result of the conversation with ICO I have further questions which they were unable to answer so I have asked PLA (my member organisation) to intervene on our behalf. 

You can read more about the changes on the ICO website here.

Paperwork retention after a child leaves
Do you know what to keep – what to destroy – what to hand over to parents when a child leaves your provision? This blog takes you through the rules and clarifies some common confusion.
 
Fine motor skills blog
Enhance your CPD by reading blogs from different early years experts. This one is written in First Discovers magazine and has some resource ideas as well as reminding us that fine motor skills ‘require calmness and concentration’.

Talking about  free CPD
I have added 3 new webinars – free for Childcare.co.uk members – to the website for October. I will be talking about ‘Reading in the early years’, ‘Writing in the early years’ and ‘On the Spot planning’… 3 subjects I very much enjoy presenting. I look forward to chatting to you!
 
Parental responsibility – House of Commons briefing note
The House of Commons have published a ‘briefing note’ about parental responsibility which covers the exercise of parental responsibility; dwindling parental responsibility as a child gets older; acquiring parental responsibility; and parental responsibility agreements and orders.

30 hours funding – how’s it going?
A recent article in Nursery World magazine warns that settings – big and small – are worried about their viability now the 30 hours has started being rolled out.

A recent poll by the Pre-school Learning Alliance showed that two-fifths of providers believe their businesses will not be sustainable in a year’s time. A reasonable percentage of childminders are offering the funding now but of those who are signing children up for it, many say they are doing it reluctantly.
 
Making tax digital – new requirements
The Government has changed the dates for Making Tax Digital - the new scheme which means most self-employed people will have to input their income and expenses to HMRC 3 x a year. The new dates for introducing the scheme are as follows:
April 2019 if your turnover is below the VAT threshold (current VAT threshold for 2017 is £83k)
Exempt if your turnover is under £10,000 (turnover = net income - income before expenses)

You can read more about the changes here on the Govt website.

Food hygiene inspection for childminders
I have compiled a list of commonly asked questions and answers to help colleagues who are told they must undergo food hygiene inspections. I hope you find it useful. 

New ratios rules for childminders
We’ve had 2 new announcements from Ofsted and DfE about adult / child ratios recently that childminders need to be aware of…

1. We can count a child as 5 for our ratios (rising 5) when they start school. We do not need to wait until they are in full time school any more.
2. If you provide wrap around care for 3 and 4 year olds who take their 30 hours funding at a maintained school, academy school or independent school then you can replace them with another child rather than charging parents an ‘on-call’ full day fee.

You can only do this if the child is in their school setting for a full school day (usually 9am – 3pm) when you are providing wrap around care – but you can carry on during the holidays with the extra child. You will be able to replace them if you are confident you can manage 4 under 3s well and you keep to 6 under 8s.
We are still waiting for further clarification of this new rule but the basics are in this Nursery World article.
 
Domestic violence and the impact on children
After reading a report in the Guardian newspaper recently from Ofsted about not enough being done to support children who are impacted by domestic violence I thought… I bet this is something that’s going to come up in inspections! This is worth reading…
 
Love vouchers – hate the new Tax Free Childcare system?
The voucher companies have started a petition to try and protect the ‘hundreds of thousands of parents will lose out under the new tax-free childcare.’ The voucher companies believe that the voucher schemes should be kept open alongside tax-free childcare to give parents a genuine choice for the support that best suits their family. There are over 26,000 signatures at the moment (30.9.2017).

 I hope you find this newsletter informative! I you have any suggestions for articles please let me know.

Chat soon, Sarah. 
 Knutsford Childminding

September 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

30 hours funding – how is it working for you?

With the start of September comes the start of the 30 hours funding. Are you offering all of it – or sticking to 15 hours – or choosing not to offer it at all?
Nursery World magazine reported that a lot of nurseries plan to restrict places / hours offered, limit the amount of 30 hours spaces they offer and charge for extras to make the funding work for them. Many childminders across the country can – and are – doing the same. It is important to keep within your LA contract (of course) but beyond that you can be flexible and make private arrangements with parents.

You will find lots of information for childminders in my YouTube presentation about the 30 hours funding for Childcare.co.uk.
 
Ironing anyone?
30 hour business advice has been … patchy to say the least! If you have accessed it, what have you been advised? It seems some trainers have suggested nurseries take in ironing, cut ratios to the minimum and much more. This Nursery World article makes worrying reading - does it show, like many have suggested, Childcare Works' true views of early years providers? I hope not... 
 
Updated safeguarding information for providers
See my new YouTube presentation on safeguarding the Childcare.co.uk YouTube channel – full of up-to-date information which will help you to stay on top of your safeguarding training.
 
Social mobility report
New reports often give us an insight into what Ofsted will be looking at during inspection. For example, a new report on social mobility (published June 2017) shows that while the attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children is closing, it is closing slowly… something tells me that Ofsted will be putting more focus on ‘narrowing the gap for disadvantaged children’ during inspection in the future. 
 
Childcare Expo – Coventry
Are you going to Childcare Expo in Coventry this year – it’s on 29th and 30th September? Sadly we can’t make it but I do have a discount code for advance booking seminars, kindly sent to me by Childcare Expo! If you want to attend any of the seminars. You will receive an exclusive 20% discount code for seminars when you register for the event via this link and use the code CCM2017 when booking seminars.

Tax free childcare – when it goes wrong
I have written a number of blogs in an attempt to improve the way tax free childcare works including this one for Childcare Expo blog – things do not seem to be improving yet... Parents have been offered compensation if tax free childcare hasn’t worked properly for them but what about providers who are owed money. What about providers who have been hit with bank charges because of late payments or who have been forced to wait much longer than they should for payments to be made - or who have made multiple phone calls and spent time speaking to parents to try and resolve issues? While it is good to see something has been done, this smacks of unfairness to me…
 
Keeping children safe online
It is a requirement to keep children safe online and good practice to share information about online safety with parents, this is a useful blog from Safer Internet.

School starting and childminder ratios…
When a child is starting school – those awkward settling-in weeks before they are in full time – childminders have always had to count the child as 4 for ratios, meaning they cannot take on another child. This has now changed and Ofsted have informed us in a recent post on their Childcare Registration Facebook page that we can count them as ‘rising 5’ and replace them with another child as a variation.

This will make a huge difference to childminders – you can read more about it on my Facebook page here. I am working on ironing out some problems that have been raised by colleagues – I will update you in a blog when I know more.
 
FREE Childcare.co.uk webinars for September
We all love free don’t we? These webinars last about an hour and deliver CPD training on a variety of subjects. Over the months we have worked through lots of areas of provision.

The following FREE webinars are booked for September: 5th – phonics; 13th – group planning; 19th – learning environments; 25th – risk taking. You can book your place here – don’t forget to set a reminder in your phone for the night – they all start at 7.30pm.
 
Do our children live in a cotton wool world?
I asked on my Facebook page – ‘is it a cotton wool world?’ This was in response to a blog for schools by the new Ofsted chief who talks about the 'difference between real and imagined risk'.

Then I wrote a training webinar (to be presented on 25th September 2017) about risk in children’s play because I realised that we all have different views on risk and risky play and it might be helpful to support providers by delivering some training.

These myths of the month from HSE are useful for reference as well.
 
 Wishing you a successful September! Chat soon, Sarah
​
Knutsford Childminding 

August 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

Hello to newly registering colleagues!
We are welcoming a lot of newly registering colleagues to the Independent Childminders Facebook group at the moment, so we asked established members… what do you wish someone had told you at the start?

These are a few of their wise words…

• Get payment in advance from parents – always – and don’t work without being paid.
• If it doesn’t feel right with parents or children from the start – you can say no.
• Less is often more with resources – don’t clutter the place – children cannot play in clutter.
• There is lots of free paperwork on the Childcare.co.uk website – don’t waste time, energy or money until you have checked it out first. 
• Join the Independent Childminders Facebook group and keep an eye on this website and blog to stay updated and informed.

 
30 hours – new guidance from DfE
With the 30 hours funding only a month away, DfE have released updated Operational Guidance which clearly states that parents should ‘expect to pay’ for extras such as meals provided for their child. This is positive news for all providers, many of whom were concerned about how to raise the issue of payment with parents of funded children.  You can download the updated guidance here.
 
New SEND resources
New resources for providers who care for children with special educational needs and disabilities have been released by nasen, the children’s SEND charity.

2 webcasts are already online with more planned for the future and the early years page of the website contains further information and advice for providers. You can find out more about the project from Childcare.co.uk, one of the early years leaders involved in the project.

About Early Years
I am delighted to have been invited to join the advisory group of a new project by ceeda – About Early Years.  I have talked about my involvement in the research here.

Childminders and early years group providers are wanted to join the panel of experts whose feedback will inform policy and support future development in the early years. If you have an opinion on all things early years and time 3 x a year to complete online surveys please sign up here.
 
Summer sun safety
Welcome to summer! Yes… I know… it’s not been amazing so far but I am sure it will buck up soon. Remember to ask parents for sun cream (new each year, labelled and with written permission in place), sun hats, suitable shoes and clothes … and share information with them about sun safety and how you will keep their precious one safe if it does get hot.

Sunburn now can lead to cancer in years to come so teach children about sun safety and plan your outside play times carefully.
 
Child did not attend
There is a campaign within Local Safeguarding Children Boards to raise awareness of a common issue: when completing records about a child and noting that they failed to attend a meeting, it is important to state: ‘child was not brought’ rather than ‘child did not attend’.

An early years child cannot be held responsible for missing appointments because they have no way of knowing about them or getting to them. The parents are responsible for ensuring their child gets to appointments on the right day at the correct time and missed appointments must be chased up to ensure the child receives the support, medical attention or other intervention they need. The following short film from Nottingham LSCB highlights the issue.
 
Fire safety information
Are you thinking about planning some fire safety activities for your early years children? This series of resources from Cheshire Fire – ‘how to train your family’ – are based on the popular children’s film ‘how to train your dragon’. The website includes child-friendly fire safety messages, presentations for children and other activity ideas.

For practitioners there is a useful reference booklet ‘Fire safety risk assessment in educational premises’. It is very long so I am not printing it – and quite old (published 2006) – but it might be helpful if you are newly registered or updating your fire safety information for parents.

I am covering fire safety in my October planning article for ChildCare magazine so I have been giving it some thought and we are going to do some work with our little ones in addition to our regular fire practice. 

Tax free childcare reminder!
If parents want to pay you using the new tax free childcare scheme from HMRC which will eventually replace the current voucher system, you will need to be registered first. You can apply online but you will need your letter with your unique reference on it before you apply.

You can find out more information here. I advise parents to use the HMRC calculator to find out whether they will be better or worse off using the scheme first.

Child sexualised behaviour
Do you feel confident that you know when you are observing ‘inappropriate sexualised behaviour’ in young children? During recent Local Safeguarding Children Board training in Cheshire East we were directed to the Brook Traffic Light Tool which can be used to provide useful indicators which will help early years providers to note when behaviour is normal (green), concerning (amber) or needs to be reported immediately (red). It is a useful document to put in your safeguarding file.

I have talked about various aspects of safeguarding to update early years providers in more detail in my latest YouTube presentation for Childcare.co.uk. 

Illegal childcare providers in England
As this Nursery World article shows, Ofsted do take illegal childcare providers to court and fine them for putting children at risk. If you hear about or witness an illegal ‘childminder’ working in your local area you should always follow your Whistleblowing Procedures’ which should be part of your Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and Procedures and report them.
 
Boys and body image
Reports state that body image is becoming more of a concern with younger children. In this YouTube presentation, Dr Ranj is talking about boys and body image and where boys can get support if they are worried about the way they look. This is a useful link to share with parents and with older boys in your provision.
 
Ofsted requires improvement!
This article in Nursery World magazine made me smile – quality and consistency at Ofsted and during inspection has come a long, long way in the last few years but Ofsted has been likened to a huge ocean going tanker in that takes ages to turn around and it seems Ofsted have themselves admitted they still have a way to go! Part of the way I support childminders to engage with Ofsted is through the Ofsted Big Conversation: I attend regular meetings with other providers and Ofsted in the North West to share information and provide feedback…
 
Literacy and numeracy focus during inspection
To be fair, inspectors can focus on pretty much any aspect of the EYFS or early years practice – but we are hearing more and more colleagues tell us that their inspector wanted to check how they supported children’s literacy and numeracy outcomes as they prepare children for school. We have known that maths is an inspection area for some time – literacy now seems to have joined it and how you teach children about reading and writing will be looked at closely during inspection.

I am planning free webinars which will focus on all 7 areas of learning over the coming months – don’t forget to keep an eye on the schedule and sign up - they are free for all Childcare.co.uk members.
 
Funding and financial implications
Despite practitioners across the country worrying themselves silly about how to stay financially viable when the 30 hours funding arrives in September and many provisions (group settings as well as childminders) closing down because it will be financially unsustainable for them to continue, we are relieved to read that DfE say we are wrong and we have nothing to worry about! Whoopee!

Labour – and especially the new shadow education secretary – are interested to hear our views in a new survey. I contributed to it (aka had a good moan) the other day … have you completed it yet?
 
New blogs for independent childminders
I use my blogs to answer questions asked by colleagues and to keep everyone updated on news and information. Some of my recent blogs which have been popular with providers including childminders (I have a lot of nursery and pre-school readers too) include:

• Training for assistants
• Keeping food costs down – this is one of a series of blogs I am writing to support providers who are offering the 30 hours funded childcare from September because, as we know, Government funding does not cover our normal fees so we might need to make compromises.
• 30 hours funding advice – what you can and cannot do and say to parents – with advice for setting out your funding offer.

 
Hot weather and children
It can be hard work looking after children in hot weather – all that sun cream to put on and those sweaty feet to wrestle into sandals! Just a reminder that you need to talk through your sun protection policies with parents to make sure they know you are caring for their child appropriately in the hot weather. You need written permission in advance for putting on sun cream – if it’s your policy and a parent says they don’t want you to apply it you need a response ready.

We ask for a new and labelled bottle of sun cream around late April so we are ready for any eventuality and remind older children to re-apply cream when we have brought them back from school if they want to play in the garden. We share the Dept for Health Heatwave Guidance by email every year.
 
Benefits of early years childcare
A new report from Frontier Economics talks about the long-term benefits of children being in early years childcare and concludes that early years care offers good value for money. Childcarers have been battered for years by the Government telling parents we are too expensive – we have always known the care and learning opportunities we provide are priceless! It’s nice when new reports agree with us.
 
Children’s Food Trust closing
We have been regular visitors to the Children’s Food Trust website over the years – their research and commitment to providing healthy food and drink ideas for the children in our care has been welcomed and their menus have given us lots of good ideas to adapt for our own childminded children. However, Children’s Food Trust is a charity and lost its Government funding some time ago…

Children’s Food Trust were recently working on some new menu ideas alongside Public Health England and the DfE – we are not sure what will happen to these and whether publication will be delayed. We will report back when we have more information in future newsletters.

I think that's it for your monthly update ... if you have any news stories you want me to cover or blogs you want me to write please let me know!

Chat soon, Sarah. 

July 2017 Newsletter for independent childminders

Childminder information data breach
We were shocked to learn that our details had been put on the Childcare Registration website for all to see … even though we had ticked the Ofsted ‘no sharing’ box! We contacted Childcare Registration (part of HMRC – the company which has received £35 million so far to administer the 30 hours funding and the tax-free childcare scheme) who said they couldn’t do anything because the information had been supplied to them by Ofsted – we contacted Ofsted who batted us back to HMRC. We got Pre-school Learning Alliance involved and the website was taken down for ‘maintenance’ and the addresses were secured

However, that now leaves us with another problem – if parents are searching for a provider they will put in their postcode and list of nurseries and pre-schools comes up – but very few childminders because a large percentage don’t want their full addresses on a Govt website! This will put us at a disadvantage when parents are searching for providers who are offering the 30 hours funding or who accept tax-free childcare payments.

There must be a better system. Yet again childminders are being discriminated against – this time because we need to protect ourselves and our privacy. I am working with PLA to resolve this issue quickly but with Liz Truss now at the treasury and knowing what she thinks of childminders it could be an uphill battle…
 
50/50 rule for childminders
I have spoken to Ofsted and written some new guidance for childminders who want to work 50% in their house and 50% in other suitable premises.
 
Feedback from the last Ofsted Big Conversation meeting (May 2017)
My feedback is here - including lots of advice to speak to Ofsted if you are concerned about any comments made by inspectors during your inspection – you can make a difference if you all speak up and whatever you say will not be held against you at your next inspection.
 
Emergency contact information – updated guidance
You need to ask parents for emergency contact information in case they cannot collect their child: this has been highlighted even more since the recent and terror attacks across the country including in Manchester and London. I have updated the free emergency contact information form on the Childcare.co.uk website to include information which will help you to support the child in an emergency.
 
Childminder numbers fall again
Ofsted statistics show that childminder numbers have fallen again this year. It is a very worrying trend and one we are doing all we can to reverse on the Childminding Forum and Independent Childminders Facebook group.

It is important that we all work together: for example, I have made links with Ofsted to help childminders get quick answers to questions, I have written information for newly registering childminders to help them find the answers they need and I continue to attend Ofsted Big Conversation meetings to share childminder worries directly with Ofsted.

If childminders need support it is here for them! You only have to join the group or Forum and ask…
 
On a positive note… the latest Ofsted figures show that grades are still high! By supporting each other we are helping to keep everyone updated and informed and that is clearly having an impact during inspection – long may it continue!
 
NASEN CASE STUDY REQUEST
I have put a form in files on the Independent Childminders Facebook group (or you can message me and I will send it to you) which you might like to use to share information about how you have raised outcomes for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). This request is part of a study into the impact of early years provision for children with SEND. The information provided will be used anonymously in publications which will be made available to other providers so good practice is shared widely. Nasen have stated that they are specifically looking for childminders to contribute!! 
Nasen are also requesting contact from any childminders in the MIDLANDS area who care for children with special educational needs and / or disabilities and are happy to have photos taken – with permissions of course – email alex@nasen.org.uk. The Nasen study is being supported by Childcare.co.uk. 
 
Children with SEND and the 30 hours funding
There are some new grants available for childminders who care for children with diagnosed SEND or additional undiagnosed needs. You can find more information about how to apply (bear in mind every LA will have slightly different application procedures) and how they work in this blog.

Transition to school – supporting childminders
We are hearing from more and more childminders who say they are losing children to pre-schools: parents are being told their child ‘needs’ to go to the pre-school to be sure of their place at school and they will not receive a ‘proper’ preparation for school elsewhere.

Of course, childminders know this is ridiculous! No children are guaranteed a school place, regardless of what pre-school they attend and childminders do an amazing job preparing children for school, especially with the benefit of small ratios and lots of child-specific learning.

I have written lots of guidance for providers including a new blog and information which childminders can use to share information with parents about the value of using a childminder to prepare children during the ever-more-important year before school.

Children’s concentration levels
To answer a Childminding Forum member’s question: can you please explain the outcomes related to concentration in Early Years Outcomes (see Communication and Language – listening and attention) in simple English? Of course I can! Here is some guidance.
 
30 hours fundinghttp://independentchildminders.weebly.com/blog/childrens-concentration-levels
Are you ready to go with the 30 hours funding yet? A lot of providers tell me they are fed up of all the negativity and want me to share ways to make it work for them. I have updated my Information Guide on Childcare.co.uk and written a 2nd chapter to share more information with colleagues. I hope you find them useful.

You also need to make sure parents have applied early for a 30 hours funding place for their child. The Operational Guidance states they will need to apply a term in advance so you need to share the Childcare Works website with them and encourage them to log in and input their details.

Free webinar training
Have you been accessing the free webinar training from Childcare.co.uk? I have really enjoyed putting this training together and delivering it to practitioners in the evenings. There are lots of new courses coming up including a focus on literacy – reading, writing and phonics – during July and for August I am planning a maths course and something on group planning... more details to follow.

You can sign up for the free webinars here – you just need to be a free or gold Childcare.co.uk member.
 
Tax free childcare
Have you signed up for it yet? Have your parents sent you money and it hasn’t arrived?

The scheme – which has apparently cost £35 million so far – has not been as successful as hoped and the online system has been plagued with problems. This is one of the reasons why it is important for childminders to have a robust written Fees Policy which is shared with parents and explained to them if necessary. The Fees Policy should include information about late payment of fees and set a charge to ensure the provider does not lose out financially if fees do not arrive. 

You will find a free sample Fees Policy which walks you through the charges you might need to make on the Childcare.co.uk website here.

Healthy eating menus
Do you need help putting together healthy eating menus for the children in your care? The news that Public Health England, the DfE and Food Trust have been working together to prepare some new menus for early years providers received a mixed reception on the Independent Childminders Facebook group with some providers saying they didn’t want to be forced into something by the Government! Nobody is making you use them – they are being provided as guidance to make your job easier… I was involved in the consultation earlier this year and there are some lovely ideas to broaden children’s tastes.
 
Phew! It’s a scorcher!
How did you and the children get on in the recent hot weather? Did parents provide sun cream and suitable clothes and hats? We are lucky to have some shady areas in the garden or I think we would have struggled. Public Health England have shared some advice about looking after children during hot weather or heatwaves which you might find helpful to email to parents.

If you would like me to cover any issues in my newsletter please ask! Thanks, Sarah
Knutsford Childminding
 
 

June 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

Hello and welcome to this June newsletter for independent childminders - childminders who want to stay independent of agencies in England.

The support we are offering childminders who want to stay independent of agencies is allowing more than 20,000 childminders on the Independent Childminders Facebook page to continue working without the shadow of a childminder agency hanging over them. 

Ofsted inspection grades are continuing to rise and childminders tell us they are receiving the support they need from the group. We are very proud of the work we do on the Facebook page and on the Childminding Forum to raise the profile of childminders and we are continually beavering away in the background to ensure independent childminders have the help and support they need.

This monthly newsletter is just one of the ways we hope to reach independent childminders and keep them informed. We also have a blog on this website, regular training webinars for all Childcare.co.uk members (free and gold) and we have just started to introduce YouTube videos - this is our most recent offering to provide guidance on the 30 hours funding.

I work closely with Ofsted on Facebook, Ofsted and other early years providers through the Ofsted Big Conversation, my Local Authority and other agencies to ensure the information I share is up-to-date and accurate. 

If you are an independent childminder and you can think of any other ways we can support you to remain independent, please let us know. Thank you. 

Here is the latest early years news... 

Inspection myths debunked
After attending an Ofsted Big Conversation North West meeting with Ofsted in Manchester recently where we talked about some of the silly things that people believe Ofsted are looking for during inspection, I started to think about all the messages I receive from colleagues and how to disseminate my replies to a wider audience.

I have written a new blog for the Childminding Forum (you don’t need to be a member to read it) and I will keep it updated as colleagues ask me more questions and give me feedback.
 
Learning journeys – online or paper
One of the myths I debunked in the blog above was that Ofsted have a preference over which type of learning journeys we do – online or paper. I have also written a new blog about online and paper learning and development record keeping to help colleagues think through the various options.
 
Emergency procedures
In light of the recent terror attack in Manchester I have received a lot of requests from colleagues to help them write or re-write their Emergency Procedures.
I thought rather than reply individually it might be more helpful to write a blog for everyone - you can find the blog here - it includes helpful advice about how to speak to parents and children about the recent atrocity. 
 
Are you looking for outdoor inspiration?
There is a new FREE webinar planned for Monday 26th June at 7.30pm – free from Childcare.co.uk.  Lots of childminders and other providers have contributed photos of their inspiring outside play spaces for the webinar and I have taken the opportunity to update my e-book 6 'Outside Play and the EYFS' in preparation for the training. 

You might also find inspiration from the new Scottish outdoor play strategy.
 
Phonics – to use or not to use?
During our recent Ofsted inspection last year, our inspector asked us to show her our Letters and Sounds information. I had a file of printed material from my Information Guides which I have written for Childcare.co.uk and showed her that – and she heard us playing a phonics game with the children over lunchtime which we often do – that or maths or chatting about our day or similar.

It got me thinking after the inspection – we teach phonics as one of many different ways children learn to sound out letters and ultimately read them and start blending them together – but is phonics the best thing to use? Knowing that educational ideas come and go in cycles, this report has been published recently which suggests it’s still the best way to teach reading for most children so the games in our Letters and Sounds file will remain in use for the foreseeable future!

You can find more information about the ongoing phonics debate in this Nursery World article. 

Child Safety Week 2017
The Child Accident Prevention Trust’s Child Safety Week is from 5th to 11th June and this year the theme is ‘Safe Children – sharing is caring’. The campaign blurb states that it ‘aims to remind participants that everyone carries a responsibility for preventing accidents among children.’
​
You can find more information and activity ideas on the website.

Healthy food and drink
If parents do not want to pay for their child’s food you cannot make it a condition of them accessing the 30 hours funded entitlement. However, what you will need to do – because healthy eating crops up time and time again in Ofsted inspection reports – is provide parents with information about the types of foods you expect to find in their child’s lunch boxes and what they need to provide for their child to eat at breakfast and tea (depending on hours attended).

This new blog and the linked series of Information Guides written for Childcare.co.uk will help you to do this.

The hundred review
Have you heard about this? It is an important piece of research from Early Excellence about reception year 4 and 5 year olds – we can use it to inform us about what Ofsted will be looking for in early years inspections because it talks about the struggles some 4 and 5 year olds have to reach a good level of development by the end of reception when they arrive in reception class with a low starting point (usually in the prime areas of learning).

We already know from speaking to Ofsted through the Ofsted Big Conversation that a focus of inspectors will be on how well we prepare children for transition to school: this report shows the importance of preparing children for starting school as well as possible in the early years.

The review concludes that ‘it was strongly believed that this (transition) was best viewed as a process that emphasised continuity rather than a single event.’ It also gives us an indication of what reception teachers want to read when they receive transition reports from early years providers: ‘Information provided for Reception staff needs to present an holistic picture of the individual child and it is important that assessments, or indications of a child’s level of development, are consistent and accurate’.

You can read a summary of the review here.
 
School readiness
We were told during a recent Ofsted Big Conversation North West regional meeting that ‘how well providers support children to be ready for school’ will be an inspection focus in the future. In response to this, I have -
- Updated my ‘Transitions’ e-book (e-book 70 on my Knutsford Childminding website - £3.99)  
- Written a ‘Transition to School’ webinar training course which I will present to Childcare.co.uk members during June.
- Written a blog about the importance of school readiness for colleagues which is available to read here.

If you would like any more information please ask me! 

Information for registering childminders
I have worked with Ofsted to write this guidance for childminders who are registering with Ofsted. It goes through the paperwork you will need in place before your registration visit and gives advice about timescales. Unfortunately, there is no specific guidance about how long it will cost to register as a childminder because it varies depending on how much you pay for your pre-registration training course and first aid and how much your doctor charges for the medical check.

Ofsted have also updated their pre-registration page (May 2017) and made it much more user-friendly.
 
Safeguarding policy writing
I have written a new Information Guide for Childcare.co.uk following on from my ‘Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and Procedures writing’ webinar. The Guide shares the most important information that needs to be on your policy and gives suggested wording and links for further guidance.

Childcare.co.uk have kindly made the handout / guide which I wrote to accompany the training free to all members of the site (you will need to log in).

If you have any feedback or information about different requirements in your LSCB requirements, please let me know.
 
Webinars
Talking of webinars, they have been very successful! I am trying to present a few every month and they are all sponsored by Childcare.co.uk who is making them available free to all members – free and gold. I have recently presented on subjects such as ‘Schemas’ and ‘Tracking children’s progress’ and there will be more subjects to follow, as requested by members of the Independent Childminders Facebook group.

If there are other areas of practice you would like me to deliver training on, please let me know.
 
Why are Ofsted inspecting after 2 years?
We are hearing a lot of feedback from group providers and childminders that Ofsted are inspecting only 2 years after previous inspections by Prospect and Tribal. We have spoken to Ofsted and asked if they have changed their inspection cycle and been told ‘no’ it’s the same as it always was. Since Ofsted took over they say they have inspected 85% of ‘inadequate’ and ‘requires improvement’ providers and they are now moving on to providers who have a ‘good’ grade. They suggest that providers should always be ready for inspection – they are not trying to catch anyone out – they want to see normal day-to-day practice. If you do get ‘the call’ you might find this ‘Ofsted are coming!’ blog useful.
 
 I hope you find this newsletter useful and informative. Please let me know if you want me to include any articles.

Thank you. Sarah
Knutsford Childminding

May 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

Ofsted inspections are now carried out by… Ofsted!

From 3rd April 2017 all inspections in England will be carried out by Ofsted - not Tribal or Prospect. 
Ofsted state: 'Inspectors will no longer show their blue inspector passports for identification purposes when they arrive for an inspection. All inspectors will have a photographic identity badge that clearly states their name, role and the Ofsted logo. This badge is the only ID inspectors will show from 3rd April.'
If you have any concerns that the person standing on your doorstep is not an Ofsted inspector you should contact them for clarification first. 

I have discussed how childminders can navigate the Ofsted phone system in this blog here.

…………………………………….

Updated early years inspection handbook

The Early Years Inspection handbook has been slightly updated to include reference to the fact that Ofsted now inspect all early years providers rather than Prospect or Tribal.

​You can find it here. 

…………………………………….

Early Years Inspection newsletter

Ofsted have sent out a new Early Years Inspection newsletter (March 2017) with latest updates to the EYFS 2017 detailed. It is useful because it tells us explicitly what inspectors are going to be looking for from 3rd April when inspections move in-house (as above).

It doesn't tell us anything we don't already know but it's good to have a few points clarified!

…………………………………….

Revised EYFS 2017

This is now law – and has been from the beginning of April. What this means is that Ofsted will now inspect providers using the information in the EYFS 2017 so it’s important to know the changes and reflect them in your policies and working practices. My video (linked above) should help you to make sure you haven’t missed anything…

You will also find a free ‘EYFS 2017 changes’ Information Guide and a free copy of the EYFS 2017 with changes highlighted on the Childcare.co.uk website – both free for all members.

…………………………………….

Ofsted myth busting document

I’m not sure what I expected when Ofsted said they were going to release an inspection myth busting document. I wish it was longer!

This new myth busting document works well alongside my series of 4 ‘Are you doing too much?’ blogs which I released over a period of time after recognising the huge amount of unnecessary paperwork some childminders produce. You can find the first blog here – and it links others at the bottom – I hope you find them useful.

…………………………………….

30 hours operational guidance

The Department for Education has published the Operational Guidance for the 30 hours funding. You can find it here.

There is more information in this Nursery World magazine article.

…………………………………….

Caring for older children

Do you care for older children in your provision? Do you have older children of your own?

If you do, this thread on the Childminding Forum might be useful.

…………………………………….

Sharing practice

I recently shared a series of blogs with colleagues on the Childminding Forum and Independent Childminders Facebook group. They said that the combination of documents was useful so here it is!

Observation prompts.

Next steps starter phrases – useful when recording how you will support a child’s learning.

Activity ideas for all areas of learning – useful for planning.

Characteristics of effective learning prompts.

Recently updated blog - children's concentration levels.

…………………………………….

​Updated e-book – safeguarding and child protection

Following on from my successful ‘Writing a Safeguarding Policy and Procedures’ webinar which I presented recently for Childcare.co.uk I have updated my Child Protection and Safeguarding e-book 57 to include lots of new information and to reflect the changes in the revised EYFS 2017.
​
New customers can purchase the e-book for £3.99 from my website here -- previous purchasers ask me for your free update. Thank you!

…………………………………….

Music licensing

Have you been contacted by the music licensing authority or your local authority, telling you that you need a licence to play music to childminded children? Childminders do not need a music licence – we had this confirmed many years ago and again more recently after a few local authorities gave out the wrong information to their childminders. If you are contacted about this please let me know.
…………………………………….

Boys and literacy

I was reading a very worrying article on Teachwire – and thought I would share it with you. it talks about the current ‘obsession’ with improving outcomes for boys which is leading to a situation where there are thousands of ‘lost girls’. While this article focuses on older children, it is just as relevant for the early years – if we spend all our time believing that boys are the ones we need to support and coach and engage we are at risk of ignoring the needs of girls in our settings who might also be struggling, partly because, as the article rightly says, girls who are struggling are harder to spot than girls.

The article is here if you want to read it with a cup of tea.

…………………………………….

Child safety week

Child Safety Week takes place from Monday 5th to Sunday 11th June 2017 - the theme for 2017 is ‘Safe children: sharing is caring’.  Planning ideas can be downloaded from here.

…………………………………….

Do you have staff?

The national living wage increased from 1st April 2017 and if you have staff you must pay them the new amount. The wage varies depending on the age and employment status of the employee. You can find the rates here - and information about who is entitled to what wage here.

…………………………………….

What’s new from Childcare.co.uk?

There are lots of ways of accessing continuous professional development – watch this video presentation on YouTube and learn more.

There are lots of new webinars booked for May 2017 including – schemas, tracking children’s progress and learning through play. You can book onto the webinars (and access them on the night) here. Don’t forget to set your alarm so you log in early on the night and check your connection and sound before the presentation starts.

New Information Guides are added to the Childcare.co.uk member area every month including monthly group activity planning. You can access them here.
 
 I hope you find this newsletter useful and informative. Please let me know if there is anything you want me to cover.

Sarah
Knutsford Childminding 

April 2017 newsletter for independent childminders 

Revised EYFS 2017
Have you seen it yet? You will find a copy here. DfE have given us a one page guide to some of the changes here.

I have written some guidance to the changes and an EYFS 2017 highlighted with the new information which is available for free and gold members of Childcare.co.uk here.

Did you see..?
Footnote 6 in the revised EYFS now refers to the Chief Medical Office’s guidance on physical activity. There has been an outcry from a number of organisations because the wording in the revised EYFS 2017 does not raise the issues of childhood obesity or highlight the importance of 3 hours of physical exercise for each early years child a day.
 
Tax free childcare
Have you signed up to receive parent payments through the new tax free childcare scheme yet? You need to be registered with it to receive payments – and the Government has stated that they are going to be signing up new families from April.

You will find more information about the ‘Childcare Choices’ website.

I think it will be important that we don’t give parents advice – it’s best to provide them with information and let them make their own decisions about whether to make changes based on their family financial situation. They will be able to find information and support on the website. 
 
Keeping children safe online
The UK Safer Internet Centre has recognised that online safety education needs to evolve rapidly to keep up with new challenges. Children do not always listen to safety messages so we need to come up with other ways to engage them and ensure they are staying safe online – this can link to very young children who use, for example, chat rooms as part of their games and might be exposed to radicalisation or extremist messages when talking to strangers.

It is important that each provider thinks about the children in their provision who access the internet and ensure supervision and support is available for them appropriate to their level of understanding and vulnerability. You can find more information from the Safer Internet Centre. 
 
New CBeebies programme
Watch out for a new interactive series of animated stories narrated by Sir David Attenborough on the CBeebies Storytime app. There will be 5 stories based on Sir David’s time at the BBC. The CBeebies Storytime app is free to download from the app store for your Apple or Android device. 
 
30 hours funded childcare – latest information
This link was sent out from Foundation Years during March – you might find it interesting.

All local authorities will be busy reading the new model agreement for the 30 hours and considering how it will work in their area.

This is new information for parents – it takes them through whether they will qualify for the 30 hours funding.

I have recently written a new blog for Childcare Expo '30 hours funding - where are we now?' which you might find interesting. It links the Facebook group 'Champagne Nurseries on Lemonade Funding' which also welcomes childminders - the group is campaigning for a better deal for all providers. 
 
Listening to young disabled children
A new leaflet has been published by NCB with good practice examples of how to listen to young disabled children. You might find it useful to note this new information in the 'vulnerable children' part of your safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures. 

The leaflet is free to download and useful to share with your families. It will also help you to show Ofsted evidence that you are aware of how to support vulnerable children in your provision.
 
Unintentional injuries in young children
We have received new guidance from Public Health England - 'Unintentional Injuries: prevention in children under 5 years'. The blurb says - This guidance, produced in association with the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), is for all staff working with children under 5 years and covers the 5 injury priorities:
- Choking, suffocation and strangulation
- Falls
- Burns and scalds
- Poisoning
- Drowning

The guidance also covers fire and roads. Each injury priority includes data for England, actions for health professionals and safety messages for parents and carers. It might be useful to read alongside updating first aid.
 
Decline in the number of childminders
Ofsted statistics have told us what we already know – there are less and less childminders each year. Why are they leaving? I have done a lot of research and spoken to a lot of childminders who have left the profession and I know exactly why – and I can tell Ofsted, the DfE and anyone who will listen why – they just need to ask me!

You can find more information in this Nursery World article.
 
Dental health statistics
Newly released statistics state that children as young as 1 or 2 are having teeth removed due to too much sugar in their diets. We are reminded that tooth decay is preventable – children need to be supervised to brush twice a day using a fluoride toothpaste and visit their local dentist regularly.
 
I am currently writing a new Information Guide to tooth brushing in early years provisions which will be released through Childcare.co.uk soon. In the meantime, I suggest you chat to parents of early years children about the importance of brushing their child’s teeth at least twice a day, provide them with details of their local dentist’s surgery and do some dental health activities with the children in the provision to teach them more about the importance of eating and drinking healthy foods which are kind to their teeth and gums.

You can find more information here. 

If you would like further information on any of the points I have raised in my newsletter, please ask me!

Thank you, Sarah
Knutsford Childminding

March 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

Coming soon..!

I will be working alongside Childcare.co.uk to offer FREE webinar training for all Childcare.co.uk members on a range of subjects relevant to early years practitioners over the coming weeks and months. The webinars will be scheduled for different days and times and will be repeated to give you the best opportunity to take part.
 
The webinars will be fully interactive – ask questions and have them answered in real time (presenter time permitting) – and you will receive a Participation Certificate and other handouts at the end.
 
The webinars will be advertised soon – so keep a close eye on your inbox for an invitation to participate from Childcare.co.uk.

You will find more information here. 
 
……………………………………….
 
Can we change the law?

The Childcare Act 2006 states that it is illegal for childminders to claim funding for relatives – this includes grandchildren and other related children as well as childminders’ own children… while nurseries can claim funding for related children. This is totally unfair in the opinion of many providers including Pre-school Learning Alliance.
 
We have been working closely with PLA recently to try and support those childminders who are looking after related children and want to claim funding from their LA. We have given PLA information about the scale of the problem and they have written to DfE on our behalf to try and resolve the issue. It will mean a change to the law… but now DfE are aware that thousands of childminders are struggling with capacity because they have related children taking up spaces and they will not, as a result, be able to offer the 30 hours to other children.
 
We have run a series of polls on the Independent Childminders Facebook group to give PLA the evidence they need to take this further with DfE on our behalf. If readers have any comments they would like to add or information they would like me to pass on please message me.
 
……………………………………….
 
30 funded hours guidance

More LAs are releasing their figures for the 30 funded hours from September. Remember that the funding figure does not include all those extras you do for parents such as collecting and dropping off children (charge time not petrol), meals and snacks (parents can bring their own or you charge), costs of outings and adventures etc. Don’t forget to read my guidance to the 30 funded hours and think about how you can make the scheme work!
 
We have information from PLA – who have pushed and pushed the Govt to release the results of the consultation on funding rates. Finally DfE have released them and as we can see when we read the information here, they are not exactly robust.
 
We also have clear guidance from the Govt to charge parents for extras – as long as they are not conditional on the parent taking the space for their child.
 
Are you in one of the new areas the Govt is using as guinea pigs for the 30 hours? Don’t forget to share how things are going and let your colleagues know what steps you are taking to ensure you are sustainable if the money you receive from the funding is less than your normal hourly rate.
 
……………………………………….
 
New reports

There were a bunch of new reports released towards the end of last month – too many to include in February’s newsletter so here’s the link for more information.

Key features of quality practice, according to a recent SEED report into Good Practice in Early Education include, ‘tailored curriculum, skilled staff and an open culture’.
 
……………………………………….
 
New hand washing guidance for early years

Grandmas and egg sucking springs to mind when I was reading this ‘new’ report into the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of infection from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). You can read more about the guidance here.
 
………………………………………
 
British values – democracy

The Early Years Apprenticeship Trailblazer group was put together to discuss qualifications for early years staff in settings with the Government. It comprised managers and owners of large settings, the Pre-school Learning Alliance and many others.

The Trailblazer group has been sacked by DfE because (basically - to paraphrase) they disagree with what DfE are saying … good to know we are all on the same page re British values isn’t it?!
 
You can read more information in this article from Nursery World magazine. 
 
……………………………………….
 
Speech and language the Montessori way

Sharing ideas for practice - I read this and thought it was an excellent article by Barbara Isaacs on the Teach Early Years website about how to nurture speech in the early years.

………………………………………
 
Safeguarding - child sexual exploitation – update!

You need to update your Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and Procedures to include the new information about Child Sexual Exploitation taken from the recently updated ‘definition and guide for practitioners’

You will find more information on the Childminding Forum here.

While you are updating your safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures, you might find it helpful to check your Non-Mobile Baby Protocol is worded to comply with latest LSCB guidance as well.
 
………………………………………
 
Disability – understanding the needs of disabled children

This new report from the Council for Disabled Children tackles the tricky subject of understanding the needs of disabled children with complex needs or life limiting conditions. It might be useful for childminders who provide end of life care for children or who look after children with complex medical needs.
 
………………………………………

Are you a newly registering childminder?

There are a number of places you can go for help and support including…

The Childminding Forum and the Independent Childminders Facebook group are owed and managed by Childcare.co.uk.

There is a wealth of free information on the Childcare.co.uk website for all childminders - new and experienced - free and gold members. 

Ofsted’s new Facebook page aims to support childminders too.
 
This guidance will walk you through the registration process including the pre-registration visit from Ofsted - page 15 onwards talks about the pre-registration visit when Ofsted come out and check you are ready to start work as a childminder. 
 
………………………………………
 
Risk assessment – liquitabs

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) would like to draw attention to the importance of storing chemical items such as laundry detergents in a lockable cupboard, out of the reach of children.

RoSPA has been made aware of cases involving young children who have been injured after biting into or placing colourful liquid laundry capsule detergents ‘liquitabs’ in their mouths, after mistaking them for sweets.

In addition to children swallowing detergent, doctors have also previously raised awareness of the risk of injury to young children who get liquid detergent in their eyes.

If you use liquitabs it is important to store them out of sight and reach of children; you should also know what to do if a child gets the liquid on their skin (rinse thoroughly), in their eyes (rinse with cool water for 20 minutes and take urgent medical advice) or ingests it (ring 999).
 
………………………………………
 
Free online baby first aid training

This free first aid course does not replace your 3 yearly paediatric first aid course but you might find it useful if you have recently taken on a new baby or want to update your skills between courses. You might also like to signpost it to parents.
 
I hope you find this newsletter informative. If you would like further support do not hesitate to ask!

Chat soon, Sarah 

Knutsford Childminding

February 2017 newsletter for independent childminders

Keeping children safe
The statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (2016) is for schools and colleges. However, we must be aware that Ofsted inspectors will have read the guidance and will be looking at early years providers to check they are compliant with all aspects of safeguarding and child protection. Ofsted cannot judge you against these school requirements – if an inspector challenges you against this document you should ask them where it states you have to comply with the requirement, referring them to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
 
New Facebook page from Ofsted
This is a new page for registering childminders, to help them through the minefield of regulations and help them on their way to becoming childminders. It has received support from a lot of early years organisations including Childcare.co.uk and the Independent Childminders Facebook group.
 
New – and free – from Childcare.co.uk
This FREE Childminder Organiser for 2017 provides childminders with paperwork to help them get organised and ready for the year ahead. It is over 100 pages long and takes you through each month of the year with reminders and spaces to add your own information.

Recent Ofsted inspection judgements
Please consider the following areas of your provision and make sure your evidence is robust –

• Allergy information – if you display it, make sure it’s on the inside of a cupboard door so other parents cannot see it;
• Bumped heads – your accident policy should say that you inform parents immediately if their child has bumped their head and let the parent decide whether to take further action eg get medical advice;
• Attendance register – however you record children’s times in and out (register, diary etc), make sure you write the exact time down as the child walks into / out of the house (it does not have to be signed by the parent);
• First aid – don’t let training expire – even if you are taking a break from childminding - Ofsted can shut you down for failing to comply with the EYFS;
• Radiator covers – there has been a recent case of a cover landing on a child – make sure radiator covers (and bookcases – cupboards etc) are fixed to the wall;
• Messy play with food – risk assess and ensure full supervision if children play with food. This is something Ofsted are very robust on at the moment - more information here;
• Circular food – any food that might be a choking hazard should be cut up. That includes cutting sausages lengthways and cutting grapes and other round food into quarters (see guidance for messy play with food above).

 
Safeguarding training updates
Your LA should inform you about frequency of courses – every LA has different rules. However, it is good practice to update yourself regularly as legislation changes and you might find it helpful to do an online refresher course every year – your LA might provide one or you can find courses online. Childcare.co.uk gold members have access to a range of different CPD courses.

It can be helpful to include a note in your diary to say ‘check LSCB website for for safeguarding updates’ so you have evidence of keeping up-to-date to show Ofsted.

20 hours – 30 hours – what is happening?
Currently, all 3 and 4 year old children receive 15 hours funded childcare – it is not free because typically it costs the provider money to offer the funded hours but it must be offered free to the parents. Providers can charge for extra services but the charge must not be conditional on parents taking the place for their child.

From September 2017, some 3 and 4 year olds will be eligible to receive 30 hours funded childcare instead of 15. This offer will not be for all 3 and 4 year olds – only a percentage – it is explained here for parents.

Depending on what funding rate is offered, some providers will need to carefully consider how they offer the funded sessions and whether to charge for meals (or parents bring food), outings and other extras. LAs should be providing guidance and you can find my support document here.

You will find a useful guide to the changes from PLA here.

A recent article from Nursery World magazine states what providers already know and have been saying for some time – there will be big problems with the 30 hours funding! First, if LAs get the funding formula wrong and providers are not paid enough money to stay sustainable, more and more settings will be forced to either close down or refuse to offer the funded sessions… second, it is likely that there will be a capacity crisis.
 
Car seat rules to change in 2017
By law, all children must use a car seat until they are 12 years old or 135 cm tall, whichever comes first. From March 2017, it will be illegal to buy ‘backless’ booster seats for children shorter than 125 cm and weighing less than 22 kg.

The rules will only apply to new purchases, so drivers won’t be fined for using a booster seat bought before March. You can find the new rules here.

Story bags article – sharing good practice
Do you use story bags or baskets in your provision to help bring stories to life? We used to have some but they weren’t used regularly so we now have a basket full of props which we dive into with the children when we are reading. However, our childminder friend has over 20 story bags and uses them all the time with her children, sending them home at the weekends to support home learning as well – so they are clearly very popular!

Here is a good article on story bags and how props can ‘supercharge’ your story time - useful for your CPD file.
 
Childcare vouchers vs tax free childcare scheme
Which is better for parents – childcare vouchers or the new tax free childcare scheme? It depends on the parents and their circumstances! Some parents who currently cannot claim childcare vouchers such as the self-employed and parents who work for companies which do not offer the scheme will be able to claim for the first time … other parents who are already in a voucher scheme might be better staying where they are for now but they will need to do their own calculations which will depend on how much they spend on childcare and how many children they have in childcare provisions.

There is a useful calculator here from one of the voucher companies.

Childminders need to sign up here to receive the new tax free childcare payments – if you have not received a letter with a code on it to allow you to sign up, please chase it because they will be taking parent applications soon!
 
Frequently asked question – what document should I use to track children’s progress: Development Matters or Early Years Outcomes?

Ofsted have stated in various places that their tracker of choice is Early Years Outcomes and when teamed with the new ‘What to expect, when?’ document for parents, it is a guidance document (not a tick list) just a guide to typical progress.

However, Early Years Outcomes and Development Matters are both guidance – not statutory – and an inspector cannot insist you use them if you can show that you track children’s progress effectively.

You will find a sample progress tracker on the Independent Childminders Facebook group.
 
Supporting childminders who want to stay independent of agencies
This is a passion of mine – as anyone who knows me will tell you! I work tirelessly to offer support to childminders through this website and our Independent Childminders Facebook group, the Childminding Forum and many other places where childminders can turn to for advice… and Childcare.co.uk help me with this aim. I was asked recently by a newly registered agency whether I have changed my mind about agencies since they were first introduced – this is my reply.
 
Online safety
There is a requirement linked to the Prevent Duty and dangers of children being radicalised or exposed to extremism online to share information with parents about online safety at home – and childminders need to be aware of the importance of keeping children safe online in the setting. This especially applies to older children who might bring their own internet enabled devices to the provision for use after school. The NSPCC are working together with O2 to launch a new campaign to illustrate how innocent searches can lead to inappropriate results and highlights the importance of setting up parental controls to block or filter content.

You can find more information on the NSPCC website here.

How do you plan?
I notice a lot of childminders saying they plan ‘in the moment’ (© Anna Ephgrave) or don’t do any planning and follow the children’s lead all the time. This article from Nick Gibb MP (Dept for Education) is interesting and worrying at the same time – he concludes by saying ‘The most effective, teacher-led practices should be twinned with a knowledge-rich curriculum. That is how evidence can and should be turned into policy, action and change.’ I wonder how long it will take for this philosophy to filter down to the early years – especially as we are due an updated EYFS at some point?
 
Latest statutory and guidance documents for childminders
Looking for latest documents from Ofsted, DfE and other agencies? You will find them all in the pinned post on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and on the Childminding Forum here.
 
Admin aim to keep the lists as up-to-date as possible – please let us know if a new document comes out that we might have missed!
 
Frequently asked question – how can I improve observations?
Childminders regularly ask me about observation – are they writing the right things? Are they doing enough or maybe too many? How long should observations be? What can they do to improve observations and make them more parent friendly? Etc.

To complement my observation prompts – here on the Childminding Forum – I will shortly be presenting an online, interactive webinar on behalf of Childcare.co.uk which will focus on observation… if you are interested in taking part please message me and I will pop you on my participant list and get back to you when I have more details.

Top tips for communicating with parents
My new blog on the Independent Childminders website talks about the ways in which parent partnerships can be enhanced to support children’s learning in the provision and to evidence partnership working during your next Ofsted inspection.
 
Teaching children how to resolve conflict – sharing good practice
It’s always tough when you have 2 x 2 year olds and they fight over toys, floor space, sitting on your knee, the colour of the sky... you can only have so many toys before your house bursts and duplicates simply aren’t an option for everything! This is a good blog from First Discoverers which gets to the heart of the matter and gives some interesting ideas for resolving conflicts.

I hope you find this newsletter interesting and informative. If you have any ideas for articles please let me know.

Thank you, Sarah | Knutsford Childminding

January 2017 newsletter for independent childminders 

Happy New Year to all independent childminders! Here are some updates we all need to be aware of... I hope you find them useful.  
 
30 hours funding
Following on from my recent blog about the funding rates and problems childminders face offering the 30 hours, I decided we need a positive attitude to the 30 hours!
 
We know that we have to keep our businesses sustainable and this will not happen if we lose our 3 and 4 year old children to other settings for 30 hours a week so I have written some **NEW** guidance which Childcare.co.uk are offering FREE to all members (free and gold members). The guidance might change as we receive new information from DfE and Childcare Works – I will keep you updated
 
Talking to children about terrorism
The NSPCC highlights children’s fears about terrorism and offers tips for talking to children worried about terrorism: listen and ask them what they know and how they feel about it; reassure them that adults are doing everything they can to keep them safe; avoid complicated explanations that could leave a child confused and frightened. There is a useful YouTube presentation here to watch (useful for your CPD).
 
Female Genital Mutilation – updated information
The Home Office has made updates to its documents about female genital mutilation (FGM) – 1st December 2016. These include: the statement opposing FGM; the procedural information for mandatory reporting of female genital mutilation; the factsheet on FGM protection orders. You need to be aware of these documents because you might be asked about them during inspection.
 
Children’s Centre closures
Nursery World magazine reports on the increasing number of Children’s Centres closures across the country. We were asked to leave our Children’s Centre a few years ago and I know many colleagues have had the same problem.

It is really important that independent childminders come together and support each other – there are less and less childminders as noted in previous newsletters and Ofsted figures and we need to pull together! In our local area a few of us still meet once a week in a church hall: we invited nannies as well to bring some different ideas to the mix and we plan an activity for the children most weeks as well as free play and a snack. There are some really inspiring childminder groups across the country too…

Ofsted inspection focus for 2017
There will be a NEW inspection focus for 2017 – children’s behaviour. You can read more about it in this blog.
 
Early Years Pupil Premium
I have written a recent blog about how providers might use EYPP to support children’s learning and I have examined the effectiveness of EYPP in a blog for Childcare Expo here.

Ofsted have stated that they are focussing on how effectively providers spend the money they receive from the EYPP funding to improve children’s outcomes. They will look at progress the child has made from their starting points and ask providers to justify how money has been spent, what area of learning they has focused on and what improvements children have made. You can download practical tips for spending EYPP from Early Education here.

We are doing well!
Despite everything – lack of support, lack of training, lack of places such as Children’s Centres which allow us to join together and help each other, worries about funding, concerns about future sustainability, threats from agencies, more childminders than ever leaving the profession etc – Ofsted registered independent childminders are doing really well! Sir Michael Wilshaw took the opportunity in his final Annual Report (Dec 2016) to praise the sector for having the highest percentage of good and outstanding providers than ever before. 
 
Red tape consultation
Did you respond to the Govt’s recent ‘red tape’ consultation? I did… and I got on my soapbox! It appears the Government have listened to the sector as a whole and. according to their response document, they are going to provide us with better guidance in 2017 to save providers doing excess paperwork. Fingers crossed!

Online grooming
Information from Barnardos here to share with parents of older children about the dangers of online grooming. 
 
Dangers of children playing with food
DfE have released new guidance reminding providers of the dangers of allowing children to play with raw jelly cubes and other food without constant adult supervision.
 
Tooth brushing
Do you brush children’s teeth during the day? We used to in our childminding provision many years ago – and we received free resources to do it – but then we were advised to stop (for reasons I cannot fully remember). Now it seems there is evidence showing tooth brushing in the provision has a positive impact on oral hygiene and Foundation Years have released guidance for providers to use.

Ofsted paid for inspections
Do you remember when Ofsted were talking about the possibility of introducing the option for providers to pay for inspections? It was actually set in law but never taken forward. Apparently, according to this information from Pre-School Learning Alliance, they are to revisit it in the new year… watch this space!
 
If you want me to include any information or articles in my newsletter please contact me.

Thank you, Sarah
Knutsford Childminding

 
 
 
 

December 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Ofsted Big Conversation North West
The next North West open meeting is on 18th March 2017. OBC have booked an early years keynote speaker and we will have all the latest information from Ofsted – tickets usually sell out!

You can buy your tickets here.

Tax free childcare
Don’t forget to sign up for the tax free childcare scheme when the letter arrives inviting you to participate. The scheme will be rolled out to parents next year – some of your parents will benefit from the new arrangements including self-employed parents and those who cannot currently sign up to an employer scheme such as Busy Bees or Computershare - and some parents might not benefit so it is important to get them to do their own maths.

You can find more information for parents here.
 
30 hours funding consultation outcome
The DfE has published the outcome of the recent 30 hours funding consultation. One thing that surprised me was the lack of interest in responding – only 177 childminders replied to the funding yet I read thread after thread on the childminder Facebook groups saying the 30 hours is going to be unsustainable…!

PLA have launched a Fair Future Funding campaign to support providers who need to be funded properly before the 30 hours cripples us all financially. You can read more about it here and sign up to support the campaign here (you do not need to be a PLA member).
 
More about the 30 hours funding…
The Govt has announced they are spending £3m on a support programme called Childcare Works to ensure there are enough childcare places available for the 30 hours. Many in the early years feel they’d be better putting the £3m in the funding pot since that’s the reason most childminders I have spoken to won’t be offering the ‘free’ places when their businesses are at risk of closing if they are force to make a financial loss!
 
Early Years Pupil Premium
I have written a blog about EYPP for Childcare Expo recently … and an earlier one here with ideas for spending the EYPP money. Ofsted have now published an ‘Inspecting the Early Years Pupil Premium’ presentation by Gill Jones (deputy director, early years) on Slide Share which might be of interest if you receive EYPP for a child.
 
Early Years Provider non-compliance handbook
This handbook details what Ofsted does when a childminder or childcare provider does not comply with regulations. It has recently been updated – October 2016 - here. There is also a 1 page summary of changes here.
 
Themed planning
While writing my monthly themed planning article for ChildCare magazine earlier this month I thought about those childminders who tell me ‘I don’t plan’. Ofsted have said they will not judge providers on the types of planning they do or do not use – but they do want to see the effectiveness of planning and the impact of planning on learning outcomes for the children.

Individual planning will always be the most important – linked to children’s interests and learning styles and helping them to make the best possible progress from their starting points, using observations to inform what you do next with them. However, it is also important to teach children about the local community and the wider world in which they live and we have a lovely photo album which shows our children finding out about special days (for example) which we were able to show our inspector when she asked us about this aspect of our provision planning.

If you really do not like writing planning – and I know a lot of childminders who agree with you on this one – then let others do it for you!  You can dip in and out of the activity ideas, adapting them to suit the children in your provision at the time and find out together about world festivals and celebrations at the same time.

Gold childcare.co.uk members will find lots of free planning for the year here.
 
Toddler portion sizes
Are you – and children’s parents – routinely giving young children too much to eat? Are you unwittingly contributing to childhood obesity? There is a new ‘re-think toddler portion sizes’ campaign which provides information and advice about appropriate portion sizes for different ages of children.

The Infant and Toddler Forum’s advice includes photos of plates and information about how much food should be put onto a toddler’s plate and contains advice which might surprise many providers such as – a standard bag of crisps is nearly twice the weekly portion size that a toddler should be eating and a small pack of jelly sweets contains 3 x the recommended amount of sugar for a one-to-four-year old.

Research published earlier this year by Aston University has also shown what I think we all know – that using food or drink as a reward, to comfort or distract encourages young children to rely on food to deal with emotions, which will lead to eating problems in later life.

Tips to share with parents include –
- Offer children planned healthy snacks such as fruit and oatcakes rather than allowing grazing between meals
- Do not give food or sweets as a distraction or reward
- Say ‘no’ if a child asks for food between meals and planned snacks
- Sweets and crisps might be offered, at the most, once a week and given in a little pot or bowl rather than handing children the packet
- Offer water rather than juice or squash and limit milk for toddlers to 3 – 4oz a day.
You will find further advice from the Infant and Toddler Forum here which you can share with parents here.
 
Fire safety
Share fire safety information with parents and use the activity ideas from Child Safety Week to improve fire safety in the provision. Make a note in your diary when you need to change the batteries in your smoke alarm and make sure you record when they are due to be replaced next.
 
Screen time guidance
With claims from Ofcom that young children are spending more time online than ever before, the Council on Communications and Media has released new guidelines for children from birth to 5, designed to ‘limit the adverse effects of excess exposure to digital media’ – the guidelines are reported in this Nursery World magazine article. The recommendation is to limit time on digital media for children aged 2 to 5 years to ‘no more than 1 hour per day’ – no screen time at all for babies and children under 2.
 
Ofsted grading overturned by court
In a landmark judgement, a court overturned an Ofsted inspector’s decision that a previously outstanding setting should be graded ‘inadequate’ after a complaint driven inspection. The court also forced Ofsted to remove the inspection report from the Ofsted website. You can find more information in this article. 

DBS checks for visitors
Ofsted have confirmed that visitors to childminding settings such as cleaners do not need a DBS check as they will be fully supervised by the childminder. If the visitor is another professional who has come to work with a child, such as speech and language services, then they will already have a DBS check and the childminder must supervise them with the children at all times. I have the full wording of Ofsted’s reply if you need it for evidence.
 
Baby car seat dangers
New studies from the Lullaby Trust strongly suggest that babies should not be put to sleep in car seats. The studies reveal that, ‘Full term and preterm infants showed significant signs of potentially adverse cardio-respiratory effects in the upright position at 40 degrees, particularly with simulated motion.’ 

Make sure your risk assessment (which does not need to be in writing if it can be explained to parents and Ofsted) states that you will keep a watchful eye on babies when they are in car seats and to remove them from car seats as soon as the journey is finished.
 
Provider grades and numbers
Figures just released in this report from Ofsted relating to inspection outcomes to the end of August 2016 show that 91% of settings including childminders have been graded either good or outstanding.

Ofsted also state that the number of childminders has fallen 22% since August 2012, to 44,700, including a 3% fall since end-March 2016. The reports states ‘we don’t know all of the reasons for this and it is likely to be due to a combination of factors’ … I am sure childminders could cite many reasons including inspection inconsistencies and the threat of agencies! In fact, they only have to read my March 2016 newsletter to find out lots of reasons why childminders are leaving – as told to me by childminders who are leaving… 
 
I hope you find these newsletters interesting and informative. If you would like to share information with me to include in future newsletters please let me know. Thank you.

Sarah. 
​

November 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Tax free childcare
Have you signed up for tax free childcare yet? All providers will be receiving letters over the next few weeks with a unique reference number and link to sign up – once providers have signed up parents will be invited to join the scheme. You can find out more information here.
 
Contacting Ofsted
At a recent Early Years Reference Group meeting I attended with Ofsted they were talking about their reduced budgets and said that they are not going to 'spoon feed' and 'hand hold' providers any more - their words: this includes nurseries, schools etc as well as childminders. They will tell us to read the EYFS and any other guidance and make our own decisions and they will check whether we've done the right thing during inspection or later on during the process if it's something like the registration process...

They also have more online reporting for early years providers in place to cut down on calls to the helpline.

Ofsted Big Conversation open meeting – 15.10.16
I attended an open meeting with Ofsted and over 400 providers in the North West during October. It was a very good meeting with lots of useful information for providers which I have written up. You can read feedback from the meeting here.
 
Before the meeting, the Ofsted Big Conversation asked Ofsted for clarification about the new ‘Inspecting Safeguarding in early years’ handbook changes. Gill Jones kindly gave an interview to Nursery World magazine to clarify the requirements.
 
Ofsted talk about…
Bringing inspections in-house (no more inspections from Prospect or Tribal) from April 2016 in this Nursery World article. Note the focus on disadvantaged children (inspectors are required by the Early Years Inspection handbook to ask if you have any children in receipt of 2 year funding, EYPP, SEND support etc and to track them during inspection) ... the comment about regional responsibility (I'm not sure what changes that will bring) ... and that they seek to reassure us they will inspect to the requirements of the EYFS. 
 
Medication clarification
Foundation Years has clarified in this guidance that:

1. Childminders cannot make decisions about what medication is given to children – parents must have given their permission in advance in usual circumstances
2. Parents should not be asked to get prescribed medication if it can be bought from a chemist – this has been a common misconception for some time and it’s good to see it confirmed in writing so we can debunk it as soon as a childminder says ‘My LA advised me I can’t give non-prescribed medication’ – yes you can!  

Infection control guidance
Updated ‘Guidance on infection control in schools and other childcare settings’ (May 2016) here. Note that quite a few common childhood illnesses are not excludable – however, you will need to make a judgement with parents based on how the child is and whether they can cope with the normal daily routine of outings, outside play etc.
 
Childhood immunisation flu program
Public Health England are keen for providers to share this information with parents.
http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/2016/09/childhood-flu-immunisation-programme-letter-from-cmo/
 
Some new blogs for early years providers including childminders
New blogs from me for Childcare Expo including –
My thoughts on the new menu ideas from Children’s Food Trust.

Concerns about the delays to DBS checks for early years providers.
 
Supporting children who are exposed to or make racist comments.
 
The value of the Ofsted Big Conversation and the ways in which members of the Ofsted Big Conversation steering groups around the country are making a difference for all providers.

More blogs to follow..!
 
Socket covers – to use or not to use – that is the question
We have received this guidance from DfE. You can find Ofsted’s comments on the use or otherwise of socket covers here.

Are you doing too much?
Blog 3 – part 1 talks about some of the paperwork childminders across the country are still doing which is unnecessary and burdensome. When we are losing thousands of childminders every year and many are citing paperwork as the reason I feel it’s time to say ‘enough’!!
 
​Blog 3 - part 2 is just finished! 

Blog 4 is waiting for the revised Eyfs when I will cover what we DO need in writing! 

Giving immediate notice to a child / family
I am often asked ‘can I give immediate notice for non-payment?’ or ‘can I give immediate notice for a child’s behaviour?’ and my first response is for the childminder to contact their insurance company and make sure they have support. I have talked about some of the different ways I answer this question in this blog - please note that these are my personal thoughts on the subject.
 
30 hours funding crisis
Please take a few minutes to sign up to the PLA campaign which aims to end the funding crisis – it will affect us all from September when the 30 hours funding comes in. Providers can sign up to support the campaign here.
 
Making it better for boys…
I read this article from Community Playthings as part of my personal CPD last week and found it interesting and thought provoking – so I thought I’d share with colleagues.

Nursery milk scheme
Do you receive money back for early years milk from the Nursery Milk Scheme? There is a new system to sign up for to claim money from the September payment … I have to say I am not impressed and have stopped claiming. More information here.
 
Developing fine motor skills
There is no point giving children pencils until they have developed the fine motor skills to use them – according to this article in Teachwire, an online magazine full of useful early years advice. I have shared information with our parents about how we promote fine motor skills in this blog.

I hope you find this newsletter interesting and informative. Thank you to those providers who suggest articles and information to be included ... please keep the ideas coming! 

Chat soon, Sarah.

October 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Safeguarding changes – updated information
Have you read the new handbook ‘Inspecting Safeguarding in early years’ yet? It is part of the Common Inspection Framework raft of inspection paperwork and will be helpful when preparing safeguarding documentation ready for Ofsted inspection.

You will find Ofsted's guide to the changes here - it is important all providers familiarise themselves with the new information 

Tips for newly registered childminders
Colleagues who have been registered for some time have also fed back to let me know they have found the tips useful as well! You can find the tips here.

Keeping children safe online
As well as the requirement to protect children online it is important that practitioners share information with parents about children’s online safety – i read this in an action in a childminder’s report recently so it is something Ofsted inspectors are looking at during inspection. It is also important to be aware of the dangers of child grooming online – sexual predators use entrapment strategies during games and in chatrooms and children need to be advised about what to look out for as it can happen ‘alarmingly fast’ according to this well researched Guardian report.

What are Ofsted looking for? 2 year olds…
This YouTube video talks a lot about 2 year olds in group provision but it is worth childminders listening to it as well because it gives us a lot of information about what Ofsted inspectors are looking for when we care for funded 2 year olds.

Talking about 2 year olds, this is an excellent article by Sue Cowley in Teachwire magazine (online), again for nurseries but relevant for childminders as well.

Nurseries are suffering closures like childminders
Latest reports show that the number of childcare providers closing down has almost doubled in the last year. Group providers are putting the closures down to, among other things, soaring costs and low funding rates from Local Authorities. Pre-School Learning Alliance (and others) are campaigning against these low funding rates and we should all support them (in my opinion) – free childcare cannot be free if it is costing providers valuable money. You can find out more information in this PLA magazine article (online).

New advice about vitamin D supplements
The latest advice from Public Health England is that everyone should take vitamin D supplements in autumn and winter to protect their bone and muscle health. It is apparently difficult for everyone to get the recommended 10mg a day amount of vitamin D through food alone which is why a daily supplement is being advised.
 
Every child a talker
Have you been involved with the ECAT project to support young children’s speech and language development? I went on a course ages ago and we use ECAT games in the setting, using ECAT monitoring if we have concerns about a child’s language development. I read this article by Michael Jones in the latest Teachwire update about how we can teach children to talk about what they are doing (an essential school ready skill) with interest.
 
Communication Trust – CPD
Communication Trust have released a series of short DVDs on YouTube including ideas for scaffolding children’s learning, communication for different ages of children and planning appropriate environments for early years. You can find them all here.
 
Online safety advice for parents from UK Safer Internet Centre
A childminder recently received the post-Ofsted inspection action to better inform parents about the dangers their children face online. The UK Safer Internet Centre shares tips for parents on talking to their children about online safety. These include: encourage the child to share their online experiences with you by talking about your own experiences and asking for their opinions; if a child does come to you with a problem, stay calm and listen then find a solution together. You can find more information here (reported in NSPCC (CASPAR) weekly update (09.2016))

Parents worried about radicalisation
The NSPCC have produced a short film for parents who are concerned their child might be radicalised or exposed to extremism. You can view the film on YouTube here and pass the link on to parents.

Problems with maternity pay
Childminders are reporting problems accessing their full entitlement of maternity pay. The issues start because self-employed national insurance class 2 contributions are not paid monthly or termly any more, leading to a shortfall when they claim benefits. It is reported in this newspaper article.

Funding formula online calculator
PLA have released an online calculator which gives providers an indication of the funding rate for the new early years national funding formula. It’s easy to use – just choose your Local Authority from the drop down list to see your projected hourly rate including average supplements for your area. It is a guide – things might still change – there is a lot of unrest including a recent report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which advises the Government to use the money set aside for the 30 hours funding to offer extra childcare free to low-income parents instead.

Pilot areas start 30 hours funding
We need to keep an eye on what is happening with the 30 hours – it will affect us all. For some childminders, the funding will be a bonus because they will be more likely to retain children – for others, sustainability is a serious concern.

It appears from this Nursery World article that some of the trial settings are introducing new policies such as charging and limiting flexibility for parents as well.

School packed lunches – sharing information with parents
New research from Leeds University suggests ‘less than 2% of primary school children’s packed lunches meet standards for school meals’ set out in the School Food Plan (2014). The Children’s Food Trust is calling for schools to have a ‘packed lunch policy’ – childminders can help parents with this as part of the EYFS requirement to share ideas with parents: they might find it helpful if you give them information about the types of healthy food their children enjoy for lunch to make packing school lunch boxes easier.

I have written a blog for Childcare Expo about the new menu ideas for early years providers including childminders developed by Children’s Food Trust. You might find it interesting.

SEND in the early years
This briefing summarises SEN and disability responsibilities in the early years and can be used by settings to review their progress in implementing the reforms.

The case for outdoor learning
Teachwire is a useful website to add to your favourites – there are good articles and the newsletter is useful and informative. A recent article by Kathy Brodie makes a compelling case for more outdoor play-based learning in the early years and this article gives ideas for messy play resources.

Childminding in Australia
Australian childminders are called Family Daycare Providers and they do a very similar job to us with the same sort of observation, assessment and planning expectations. I am signed up to receive weekly emails from an Australian family daycare provider who calls herself an ‘Empowered Educator’. She shares useful activity ideas which are great for children of all ages – it’s good to try something new!

Staying updated with LSCB procedures
Your Ofsted inspector might ask you - how do you keep yourself updated with Local Safeguarding Children Board procedures? How would you answer? ... I have a reminder in my diary to check our LSCB website for updates every month and I receive updates in emails from my LA. As we have a child lives in another LA I check their website too… it is important to have details of other LSCBs if children live over the border in a different LA because, depending on your LSCB procedures, you might need to report concerns to the child’s own local safeguarding board (which might not be yours).
 
Illness / change of health reminder
If your health changes significantly or you are put on new medication by your doctor you must inform Ofsted. I am not talking about a winter cough or antibiotics for a short-term infection – I am talking about a significant change of health since you were registered. The best way to inform them is by email – enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk – include your name, email address and Ofsted registration number.
There is a process Ofsted follow – they will confirm receipt of your email and then probably speak to your doctor to ask for more details. Depending on what your doctor tells them they often require a visit to their health management team (it will be a local appointment). Health management make the final decision about your suitability to continue childminding with the new medical condition or medication and inform Ofsted who will then let you know whether you are ‘suitable’ to work.
The worst possible time to inform Ofsted about a new medical condition or medication is during your inspection! Keep them updated – let them know – don’t hide things from them. It will be worse if they find out from your doctor or someone else…
 
Music licences
A reminder to childminders that we DO NOT need a music licence to play music to the children in a childminding provision if the music is used for educational purposes or if the music is used by ourselves or our own family. You can read confirmation of this policy from PPL here.  
 
Disqualification by association reminder
If something changes in your home or family life – for example, you or a member of your family are convicted of a crime – then you might be disqualified from working with children or disqualified by association with your family member. It is very important that all concerns about disqualification and disqualification by association are reported to Ofsted quickly after the incident occurred – the wrong time to ask for advice from Ofsted is during an inspection! There is a process by which early years practitioners can apply for a waiver which allows them to continue working with children after they have informed Ofsted they might be either disqualified or disqualified by association but it is usual that the provider is closed down while the waiver application is going through the system. You can find more information in this recently updated (06.16) DfE guidance document.
 
Signs and labels
Have you received an Ofsted action to put signs and labels up in your house and outside in the garden? Do you feel this is the wrong thing to do because you already have a print rich indoor environment and outside labels have no place in nature? We still see this action coming through inspection reports despite challenging Ofsted about its validity – although to be honest it’s less of a problem nowadays than it used to be. This article entitled ‘step away from the laminator’ is useful background reading and my blog about print rich environments has been widely quoted by childminders when they argue why their ways of doing things are the best for early years children.

I hope you have found this newsletter useful. Please let me know if you would like me to include information or articles which might be of interest to colleagues.

Together we are stronger! Sarah | Knutsford Childminding

September 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

**TIME LIMITED INFORMATION** Early years funding consultation
There is a new early years funding consultation here. It closes on 22nd September so there is still plenty of time to respond.

DfE introduce it here. This is an interesting summary of some of the main points from Family and Childcare Trust. There is further information in this Nursery World article and I believe PLA are trying to put some guidance together. 

I have to admit I tried to complete it and was bamboozled by the language DfE used to ask the questions - I commented on this in my responses.  
…………………………………
 
Radicalisation helpline
The NSPCC has launched a helpline to support adults who have concerns about children and young people being radicalised or who need advice on how to talk to their children about issues related to radicalisation, extremism and terrorism.

Updated Ofsted document
Inspecting safeguarding in early years, education and skills settings – the handbook has been updated 09.2016 to reflect changes in legislation. You will find guidance to the changes here.

I have written further guidance which is available on the Independent Childminders Facebook group in files and a sample Staff Behaviour Policy (required by the handbook) here.
 
Separation anxiety
Starting nursery / school is always a tricky time for young children who suffer from separation anxiety. It’s important to be sensitive to the child’s worries and provide parents with the reassurance they need to go off to work confident their child will be fine. Preparation is the key and the more work on developing independence and self-confidence we can do with the child in the run-up to starting another setting the better.
This is a useful blog from teaching 2 and 3 year olds with lots of separation anxiety tips from parents who have ‘been there’.

There is a new series of ‘starting school’ information guides for gold Childcare.co.uk members here.
 
Tax free childcare – what do we know so far..?
I have written a quick guide to the new tax free childcare rules for childminders and nannies here on the Childminding Forum. I imagine some things will change – arrangements are not finalised yet – but we do know that childminders and nannies will receive a log in which they must use to register to receive the payments and parents will be contacted to sign up to the scheme next year.
 
Warning about email scams from Ofsted
Ofsted warns providers about text message scam here.
 
Early Years Outcomes is not a tick list
I was inspired to write this 2nd blog in my ‘are you doing too much?’ series after reading information from the writers of Development Matters (Early Years Outcomes is the first column of Development Matters). Far too many childminders are spending too long looking for wording in Early Years Outcomes to link to children’s observations … and incorrectly using Early Years Outcomes as a checklist.

Ofsted want to see the children making good progress: it is up to us to find a quick and efficient way of doing that without resorting to ticking a list of ‘typical behaviours’ that specifically state they are not a checklist!
 
Maths in the early years
Maths has been a focus in early years inspections for some time and I have discussed it regularly in this newsletter. You can find feedback from Ofsted’s maths training at a recent Ofsted Big Conversation north west meeting on the Childminding Forum here.

We now have some top 10 lists from Foundation Years here.

Information sharing between agencies
Time and time again safeguarding serious case reviews point to lack of timely and appropriate information sharing between agencies contributing to the death or serious injury of children. This report ‘identifies 3 factors crucial to the successful sharing of information between professionals: understanding vulnerability and risk, providing strategic leadership and communication, and developing professional capability.’
 
The current EYFS (2014) states that, ‘The lead practitioner must attend a child protection training course’ and for childminders the course should take ‘account of any advice from the LSCB or local authority on appropriate training courses.’ We must also stay updated with new information relating to safeguarding, such as reading the recently updated guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (Sept 2016).
 
New minister at the DfE
Childminders welcome the new DfE minister with responsibility for early years and childcare – Caroline Dineage. We note that she has little early years experience - according to this TES article, she was a junior minister at the Department for Education for a month before her appointment.

We look forward to working with her and hope she will consult us on all things early years – we are, after all, the experts in what we do and more than happy to share our views with her.
 
Racial abuse increasing
I was talking in my newsletter last month about the increased racial abuse reported in the media. We now learn in this TES article that up to 20 children a day are currently being excluded for racial abuse in schools with around 1 in 10 of the cases taking place in primary schools. We in the early years are ideally placed to support children’s learning about the diversity of our world, teaching children about different religions, cultures and races as we actively promote the British values of ‘tolerance of others’ and ‘respect’.
 
Ripped, torn and crumpled Ofsted certificates
Childminders have been expressing their concern on social media about the way Ofsted are dispatching certificates in flimsy A4 envelopes. Many of the certificates are being damaged in the postal system and are arriving ripped, torn and crumpled. Back in the day, Ofsted used to use hard-backed envelopes – we can only assume they are cutting back financially (we know there are budget cuts). However, childminders are asking for them to re-consider – we work incredibly hard to achieve registration and / or to achieve our outstanding letter and would like it to arrive in good condition.
 
I have tweeted @Ofstednews with a photo of a ripped certificate – I suggest colleagues show them what is happening too. They are unlikely to act if they think it’s an isolated incident.
 
Physical development – moving
After writing about the Govt aim to ensure all children are given the opportunity to engage in 3 hours physical activity a day in my last newsletter (August 2016), I have (as promised last month) written a parent blog which I am sharing with colleagues.
 
Sex offences in schools
A report in the Guardian newspaper by children’s charity Plan International reports that the number of sex offences in schools reported to police has almost trebled in four years. The report states that ‘Girls were the victims in two-thirds of cases, and children as young as five were recorded carrying out assaults.’ It is important that children in the early years are kept safe – safeguarding is a huge part of the new Common Inspection Framework and all providers must have a written safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures. Updated safeguarding training should include information about what to do if providers are concerned about sexual abuse including how to respond and who to notify.
 
9 types of play and why they matter
This poster details different types of children’s play, giving examples of each and bullet-pointed benefits. It might be useful to share with parents to explain why their child/ren are playing in different ways and how they are learning through their play.

2 year integrated review – further information
Has your LA started to implement the 2 year integrated review yet? I wrote about it in detail in this blog for Independent Childminders.

The DfE have now produced a useful video guide to how the integrated review might work in practice. It features a nursery but it’s the same process for childminders.
 
Food hygiene and safety
There is no requirement in the EYFS for childminders to do a food hygiene training course, but some LAs require it … and it remains good practice to be trained and renew training every 3 years. The childminder friendly ‘Safer Food Better Business for Childminders’ which all childminders should be using can be found here.

Childcare.co.uk gold members can access free ‘Food Hygiene and Safety’ training on the website.
 
Exemptions from the EYFS
This webpage popped up on my newsfeed earlier in the month – it isn’t saying anything new about exemption from the EYFS but it does seem to be reinforcing something that didn’t seem to happen first time it was published.
 
I hope you have found this newsletter interesting and informative.Please contact me if you want to submit an article or if there's anything new I have missed.
 
Thank you. Sarah

August 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

It’s summer! I hope you are enjoying the school holidays! Depending on the mix of children in a childminding provision, school holidays can be either a pleasure or a countdown to schools going back in September.
 
Here at Knutsford Childminding we are visiting a different country every week with the children – we will explore food, clothes, music, dance, traditions and cultures with the help of our Usborne child-friendly atlas and books and postcards we have collected over the years. To support children’s home learning we are asking parents to send in a photo of themselves on holiday and to chat to their children about family holidays they remember when they were young.
 
Here is the latest childminding news…
 
Keeping up-to-date
My latest blog ‘Recent Ofsted actions – July 2016’ looks in detail at some of the actions that I am reading time and time again on recent Ofsted inspection reports. I hope you find it useful.
 
Email from Foundation Years
Did you receive an email last week from Foundation Years about the coming changes re. Tax Free Childcare?

You know the £243 parents can currently claim tax free if their company uses a voucher scheme? It’s changing from 2017 and they will be able to claim a maximum of £2000 a year with the Government contributing some of the money. Early years providers will be asked to sign up for the scheme first… and then it will be introduced to parents.
 
Physical activity in the early years
Recent information from the Department for Health suggests that as many as 9 out of 10 early years children are not getting the 3 hours of physical activity a day that they need to stay healthy. Sharing activity ideas for getting children up and moving and developing their gross motor skills is one of the ways we can support children’s physical development at home.

I will be blogging about it for our parents very soon – here is a recent parent blog about our commitment to get children outside and active every day.
 
Changes to first aid requirements for group providers
From 1st September all newly qualified group providers will be required to have undertaken first aid training within a certain time-frame. This does not affect childminders who must already have first aid training to comply with the EYFS.
 
Conjunctivitis – new advice for nurseries
What happens in nurseries generally filters across to the world of childminding eventually – and according to this Nursery World article a nursery has recently been advised to relax its exclusion for children with conjunctivitis

It is worth noting that conjunctivitis is not on the current Public Health England exclusion list either – however, childminders are advised that if a child is too ill to play and take part in normal daily activities they are best staying at home.
 
How safe are our children?
You can read a report from NSPCC here.
 
Preparing children for school
I am writing a new series of Information Guides for Childcare.co.uk gold members – all about starting school ready for next September’s intake because, of course, school preparation is a slow crawl through the year, not a dash to the finish line in August. You will find the ‘Preparing for School’ Information Guides on the Childcare.co.uk website here – a new one will be published every month.
 
New Ofsted chief appointed
Many early years practitioners expressed concern on social media about the appointment of a new Ofsted chief who has, by her own admission, little understanding or experience of the early years. Recent news statements suggest her appointment is not a popular choice among a committee of MPs either but it’s happened… in view of all the Govt changes I suggest we watch this space!
 
Changes to the Nursery Milk Scheme
All childminders are eligible to claim free a third of a pint of milk for every early years child through the Nursery Milk Scheme. If you claim online, the company which handles your claim is changing from September this year – it will be managed by Wider Plan, the company which also operates KiddiVouchers. The intention is to improve the claim process and make it faster and more efficient. I am sure we will receive more information about the changes from Nursery Milk and Wider Plan nearer the time.
 
Non-mobile baby protocol
Does your Local Safeguarding Children Board have a non-mobile baby protocol which you can print and follow? It is important to be aware of the signs and symptoms of abuse on babies and very young children. The Cheshire East non-mobile baby protocol is here.

There is a useful ‘one minute guide’ which aims to help practitioners make judgements about whether bruising on non-mobile babies is a cause for concern here.
 
Information sharing to protect vulnerable children and families
The Department for Education has published a report by the Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing, exploring information sharing challenges that exist around vulnerable children and families. Findings include: to support partnerships to promote and deliver earlier intervention, there is a pressing need to ensure that information sharing is seen as an integral part of professional practice. You can find out more in this guidance document.

Information from the Caspar weekly news update service (NSPCC) email.
 
Parent blogs
One of the ways we support children’s home learning and keep in touch with parents about the things we do here in our provision is by writing a regular parent blog. I use WordPress for this blog because it is free and I find it easy to add new blogs and little pictures.

My latest blog is about storytelling: I hope you find it interesting.

HMRC annual accounts submissions
How are you getting on with your 2015-16 accounts? We submitted ours the other day – for the first time electronically which was a bit scary but not as bad as we thought it was going to be once we managed to get logins that worked!

Submission dates are –
- October – the deadline to submit a paper return is 31st October.
- January – the deadline to submit an online self-assessment tax return is 31 January 2016.

I recommend if you submit electronically that you work in advance of these dates – if there are problems with your logins or the HRMC website and you leave it to the last minute it’s likely you will be fined.  

You can find more information about self-employed HMRC records here.

Retention of accounts - HMRC states, ‘You must keep your records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year.’

The Childminder guidance – ‘care providers: childminders: expenses’ has also been updated here.

 
Men in childcare
Do you know any men in childcare? My husband works with me – and my son works in a nursery – so I am (as you can imagine) a big supporter of men working with children. I think they bring a different perspective to early years which is really refreshing. My husband Nige did a recent phone interview with Kathy Brodie about his experiences as a man in childcare – you can listen to it here.

Alistair Bryce Clegg is another man in childcare who I respect – I went to his training recently and came away inspired. You can see a clip of him talking about some of his experiences here. He also has an awesome ABCDoes blog.
 
What will Brexit mean for the early years?
The short answer is – ‘we don’t really know yet’. Pre-school Learning Alliance CEO Neil Leitch usually talks sense I’ve found – his thoughts about Brexit are here.
 
Racist attacks are increasing in England
Following the recent Brexit vote, news reports talk about a rise in racist attacks against both adults and children.

The Early Years Inspection handbook states that providers must record concerns and be ready show inspectors ‘all logs of incidents of discrimination including racist incidents’ at inspection. It is also important to support children and their families if they have been subjected to a racist attack – while ensuring we educate all children to be accepting of all as part of the requirement to actively promote British values, one of which is ‘tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs’. This requirement is already embedded in the 2014 Early Years Foundation Stage.
 
Emailing daily diaries
After approximately 20 years of sitting for half an hour towards the end of every working day and scribbling some thoughts as quickly as possible in children’s daily diaries, I have finally embraced technology and recently did a weeks’ trial of emailing diaries to parents… and they love it! I reassured them that if they weren’t happy with emails I would go back to writing, but explained the benefits – less time writing and more time for playing with their child.

I have written an Information Guide about my new email diaries for Childcare.co.uk gold members here.
 
Safeguarding – reporting child abuse
All early years providers should have a whistleblowing procedure as part of their safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures. The whistleblowing procedure should detail how you will inform relevant agencies including the police, medical professionals, Local Safeguarding Children Board and Ofsted if you are concerned about a child’s welfare. According to this Nursery World magazine article the Government are considering taking this one step further and making it a criminal offence if providers fail to report suspected child abuse.
 
Teaching and learning - boys and girls
Boys are falling behind girls in the early years according to a recent survey reported in the PLA Early Years magazine here.
Most practitioners recognise that ‘typically’ boys are stronger in certain areas of learning such as physical development (moving and handling) and might need more support, encouragement and appropriate resources to access others. For example, there is lots of information available from Foundation Years about how to engage boys in mark making and writing
 
NSPCC warns parents about PokemonGo
It is a requirement of the new Ofsted inspection framework (link above) to keep children safe online. We might also provide parents with information about keeping children safe at home to further support their safety as part of our compliance with the the Prevent Duty (online radicalisation and extremism). This information from NSPCC advises parents to take care if their children play the new PokemonGo game. 
 
Hot weather advice
Information from the Government about heatwave plans here and more advice from Public Health England here - you might find it useful to share this information with parents.
 
Socket covers
Do you still use socket covers to prevent children from putting things in your electrical sockets? There have been many debates about the use of socket covers over the years and we know from Ofsted that they do not legislate on whether socket covers should or should not be used – they comment instead on whether children are kept safe as you can read in this blog.

According to the NDNA (National Day Nurseries Association) ‘the NHS has recently advised that plastic 13A electrical socket inserts should not be used in health or social care premises, nor supplied for use in a home or residence. Any socket inserts currently in use should be withdrawn and responsibly disposed of.’ You can find more information and advice here.

Car seat law
There is updated information about car seat laws – how they have changed and what the changes will mean to childminders and nannies in the future – in the latest Home Childcarer magazine from Morton Michel. You can find the magazine (free) here and it might be useful to print the article (pages 20 and 21) to share with parents.

I hope you find the information useful. If you would like to submit articles for the newsletter or independent childminders blog please let me know.

Sarah

Knutsford Childminding

July 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to summer! Well... it's supposed to be summer but I have yet to see much sun! Dodging raindrops is great for teaching children about the British weather but not so good when it always seems to rain at school run time - what's that about?? 

Here at Knutsford Childminding we have been taking some new photos of our provision to update our website - we try and keep on top of our advertising even though we are as full as we want to be just now - you never know when a family's needs will change. 

I have collected together some news from the early years sector - I hope you find it useful. 

Serious case reviews – safeguarding changes
Serious case reviews have become an integral part of safeguarding training in recent years. Early years providers can learn a lot by reading about what has gone wrong – but sadly we often hear the same messages: lack of communication between agencies, failure to take concerns seriously etc. DfE have announced that they will no longer be commissioning serious case reviews for safeguarding.

According to this article in Community Care, they will be replaced with a new ‘learning framework’ based on mix of local and national inquiries into child protection incidents.

Childcare.co.uk free Public Liability Insurance

The free Public Liability Insurance for all gold childminder and nanny members from Childcare.co.uk is about to get better!! It will soon be offering even more member benefits - keep an eye on the website for more details!  

Keeping children safe in education
The statutory child protection guidance for schools in England (published by DfE) is being updated from September. It will include information about the statutory reporting of FGM, further advice about whistleblowing, online safety is highlighted – and more. You can find a useful precis of the changes on the NSPCC website here.

Sleep training study
Childminders have been discussing the results of the latest study into sleep training on the Independent Childminders Facebook group. Sleep training is a method of training babies and young children to sleep through the night and helping them learn to self-settle. While many early years providers and parents believe this method of sleep training is dangerous to baby’s wellbeing, a recent study reported in this Nursery world article has shown the opposite. It’s an interesting debate and one I am sure will run and run…

After school clubs
The new ‘Wrap around and holiday childcare: responding to requests’ guidance has been published by DfE (26th May 2016) here.

According to this report in Nursery World magazine ‘After-school service representatives have slammed the quality of the Government’s attempt to improve wraparound and holiday provision as ‘incorrect, ill-informed and wishy-washy’.

This is important news for childminders who were recently given the right to work half the week off premises – a law which allows them to run wrap-around clubs on school premises while retaining their childminder registration as part of the changes in the Small Business and Enterprise Act 2015 here.

You can find more information about childminder rights in the Small Business and Enterprise Act 2015 in this article.

Quality of food vs Ofsted inspection outcome
‘Parents value food quality as much as Ofsted rating’ according to this recent Nursery World article!

A recent survey by the Soil Association shows parents look at a setting’s healthy eating policy as carefully as they do at their Ofsted report, expecting to see a focus on teaching children appropriate dining skills and healthy food on the menu. Activities to teach children about healthy eating might include composting, growing their own fruit and vegetables, learning about the fish and animals we eat etc.

Childcare Register requirements
If you are a childminder registered on the Early Years Register (EYFS) and Childcare Register (looking after children from birth up to the age of 16 years) then you must comply with the requirements of both registers. All information on the DfE website relating to the Childcare Register requirements has moved into this new document ‘Become and early years or childcare provider in England’ (Dec 2015).

Early years compliance handbook
This is a very useful document to bookmark - the Early Years Compliance handbook (updated May 2016). Pages 15-21 are helpful because they clarify when we need to make notifications to Ofsted and what they consider to be serious injuries (I am often asked for guidance on this question).

30 funded hours
There have been some conflicting reports in the news recently about the 30 funded hours - I refuse to call them ‘free’ hours when they are costing my business money to deliver. One story reported by PLA states that a recent study suggests the funded childcare has ‘little lasting impact’ while another suggests higher income families will be the main beneficiaries of the funded sessions – which raises the question of how it will raise outcomes for the most disadvantaged children… with the current changes within Govt one has to wonder how this policy will unfold in the coming months.
Information sharing between Ofsted & Dept of Health

All early years providers including childminders are legally entitled to claim back 189 ml (1/3 pint) of milk for each day for under 5s from Nursery Milk. This ‘memorandum of understanding’ states that Ofsted updates the Department of Health about which childminders are currently active (working) 4 times a year – the information is then used to ensure DoH are not funding fraudulent Nursery Milk claims.

Literacy apps
What are the best literacy apps for parents and providers? The Literacy Trust has put together a list of the top 100 apps sorted by age and by learning with tips for choosing apps and ensuring apps reflect diversity such as ‘stories and characters that represent the cultural diversity we see in our classrooms and communities, including differences in ethnicity, income, families, gender, class, mental and physical ability, and education levels.’

Childminder numbers continue to fall…
...according to the latest Govt ‘childcare providers and inspections’ report. We are doing all we can through the Childminding Forum and Independent Childminders Facebook group to support our colleagues and help them to continue providing a much-needed service to parents. If you think we can do more, please let us know.


Red tape review
Did you get involved in the recent Government ‘red tape review’? The feedback has now been published looking at the responses as reported in this Nursery World article.
If you have any information you would like me to include in these newsletters please let me know!

Sarah | Knutsford Childminding

June 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Hello and welcome to our June newsletter! Thank you to colleagues who have helped me stay updated by giving me links to news stories and information which others will find useful. All contributions gratefully received.

Let's look at some of the new stories that have been making the headlines in the early years... 
 
New tax free childcare scheme
HMRC are introducing a new Tax-Free Childcare Scheme for eligible families from early 2017. It will replace the existing voucher scheme and cover 20% of childcare costs (up to £2000 per child, per year) for children aged 12 or under. Providers will receive a letter from HMRC giving more information about the scheme and asking you to sign up. The new scheme is intended to replace the existing Childcare Voucher Scheme by April 2018.
You can find more information on this website and pass details on to parents.

Child Safety Week (6 – 12 June)
The theme for Child Safety Week 2016 is ‘turn off technology’ to remind adults of the dangers of being distracted by technology when children are playing. You can find free resources on the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) website here.

Childcare.co.uk has a number of useful resources on its website to support gold members who want to update their risk assessments and health and safety procedures including an Information Guide to risk assessments.
 
30 hour funding pilot
It’s not going well in York – a big group of providers have pulled out until the Government sorts out fair and sustainable funding according to this Nursery World magazine article. Further information in this article from Pre-school learning alliance (PLA) here states that the Government are unable to confirm the release date of the pilot results!
Latest news is that the DfE is launching a tender process for a two-year contract to support the 30 hours free childcare scheme worth £3m! Pity they can’t put that into the providers pockets… say many colleagues!
 
Disqualification by association
The Government is consulting on the current the disqualification by association rules – closing date 1st July 2016 - consultation here BUT they have excluded childminders from the consultation - PLA are lobbying on behalf of childminders... here.

DBS check problems
A lot of childminders are complaining that the new DBS check arrangements are causing them problems.  I have taken this issue to the Ofsted Big Conversation north west regional meeting and I know it has been raised at local level by other OBC groups. There appear to be a number of problems – delays getting DBS disclosures and issues with renewals. It is important to let Ofsted know if your renewal has failed to go through because they can shut you down if you don’t deal with it by starting a new DBS as quickly as possible. However, as many renewals are failing because of bank card problems this also clearly needs to be urgently addressed.

This Nursery World article explains what is being done to raise awareness of the problems.

Integrated 2 year review
Has your LA implemented the integrated review yet? I have written a blog recently which talks about the review and how it will probably be organised. There is an interesting short film from West Sussex Council here which explains how they have set it up – it includes comments from early years practitioners.

To help you stay updated, you can read old Foundation Years newsletters here and there are some updated SEND resources from DfE here
 
Alongside the 2 year progress check – which all providers must complete when a child is between the age of 2 and 3 years, the Health Visitor uses a check called ASQ-3. This factsheet explains how the ASQ-3 tool will be used to collect data to monitor child development across England.
 
Teeth cleaning during the day
Do you ever wish the ‘powers that be’ would make up their minds? Many years ago we used to routinely clean children’s teeth with them after lunch – we were even given free toothbrushes and toothpaste! Then it all stopped – we were told that we must not do it because children should clean teeth at home, morning and evening and brushing 3 times a day was not good for them…

Now a new pilot scheme has been launched by 4Children and Public Health England to explore the best ways of getting children to brush their teeth during the nursery day because of rising levels of tooth decay among young children. Nursery World magazine report here. 
 
Allergy awareness
Last year there was a big advertising campaign to inform all early years providers about the new EU requirements regarding allergens in food – but I still have colleagues message me and ask what they need to do. This new legislation has nothing to do with Ofsted – it is an EU directive which says that we must be able to inform parents, if asked, what allergens were in the food their child has eaten during their time with us. For example, a child is admitted to hospital because of a reaction to food and parents ring to ask which of the 14 most common allergens their child has eaten over the last few days – can you tell them?

Allergy Awareness Week was 25th April this year and we took the opportunity to update and review our record keeping to make sure it remains fit for purpose – we also reminded our parents about how we record allergens in their child’s meals. There is some information for practitioners here on the Childminding Forum.
 
We also need to be aware of the manslaughter charge (BBC news report) that has recently been brought against a restaurant owner who gave a customer food containing peanuts when told he had an allergy. I understand from press reports that the restaurant owner had bought cheap mixed nuts which ‘may contain peanuts’ as a filler. We need to be very careful when preparing food for children who have allergies, keeping utensils and boards separate and ensuring we read packaging carefully.
 
Preparing children for school
A big part of an early years provider’s job is to work with parents and help prepare children for school. We are not talking about teaching them to read or write – teachers want them to have skills like getting changed for PE, putting on coats and shoes, going to the toilet and washing hands unsupervised etc. A new survey from ‘The State of Education’ suggests that nearly a third of children are not arriving ‘school-ready' for their first days at reception class and some are not even toilet trained while others do not have basic social skills.

A number of early years providers are asking for better information from DfE to detail what skills they expect – you can leave your comments on the Nursery World website. 
 
Car seat legislation
There has been a recent update to UK car seat laws - from December 2016 if a child measures under 125cm or weighs under 22kg, they will not be allowed to travel in a backless booster car seat. The new legislation only affects new booster car seats coming onto the market and purchased this year but it is highly recommended that providers and parents replace backless booster seats to make sure children have the best protection possible in the event of an accident. Experts recommend that the safest booster car seats available are high back boosters with a backrest as they allow children to sit more securely whilst reducing the chance of the seatbelt being incorrectly fitted.

You can find more information on this Govt website.

2 year progress checks
I have had a few messages from childminders who are asking if they still need to do a 2 year progress check for children – maybe the child goes to another setting more than they are with the childminder … or the child lives in an area where the Health Visitor has already done the progress check early in the year. The answer is – yes - it is a statutory requirement of the EYFS that every child has a written 2 year progress check between the ages of 2 and 3 years – regardless of whether they go to a different provider or are part-time with their childminder / nursery etc. The progress check must note the child’s progress in the prime areas and highlight any concerns. The check must be written with parents and they must sign a copy which should be placed in the child’s file for inspection. It is suggested that parents share their child’s progress child with the Health Visitor.
 
Free or low cost training courses for childminders!
This list was put together by a number of colleagues on the Independent Childminders Facebook page. I hope you find it useful.
 
If you are a Childcare.co.uk gold member there are lots of free training courses on the website here.
 
FGM free e-learning course.  https://www.fgmelearning.co.uk/
 
ICO website – training for data handlers. Note that Ofsted have recently clarified that all childminders must be registered with ICO as data handlers – you can find more information here on the Childminding Forum. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/sme/
http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/ofsted-information-ofsted-inspections/138417-ofsted-big-conversation-nw-mtg-12-6-16-a.html
 
Prevent Duty free Govt course. http://course.ncalt.com/Channel_General_Awareness/01/index.html
 
Awareness of forced marriage free course. http://www.safeguardingchildrenea.co.uk/resources/awareness-of-forced-marriage-register-for-training/
 
Introduction to Child Psychology (and others) from the Open University. http://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/childhood-youth/introduction-child-psychology/content-section-0
 
Disability Matters free training.  https://www.disabilitymatters.org.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=3
 
Autism Awareness free training.  http://elearning.autism-connect.org.uk/store
 
Protect children from sexual exploitation from the Safeguarding Children network. http://www.safeguardingchildrenea.co.uk/resources/keep-them-safe/
 
Virtual college has a number of online courses and e-learning guides including food hygiene for very little money. http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/
 
Anti-bullying free course here. https://antibullyingalliance.learnupon.com/users/sign_in
 
Food Standards Agency – free allergen training to help you comply with the new EU directive to be able to inform parents, if asked what allergens their child has eaten during their time with you.  http://allergytraining.food.gov.uk/english/
 
Various childcare & young people courses from Alison.com.  https://alison.com/learn/childcare-studies
 
Asthma awareness module.  https://www.supportingchildrenshealth.org/asthma-module/
 
Future Learn – the courses are free you just pay for the certificate if you want one. https://www.futurelearn.com/
 
 
I hope you find these newsletters informative and helpful. Please keep me updated if you spot anything new! 

Chat soon, Sarah. 

May 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Hello! Welcome to May! Our children are loving the warmer weather – we don’t have to coax them outside as much in the spring! We have been doing lots of planting – during our inspection the children planted some herbs which we use in cooking and seeds in pots. They confidently told the inspector that plants need sunshine, rain and soil to grow … and went to get their own watering cans and water from the back of the garden.

During May we will be thinking about birds in the garden and making lots of bird food – excellent for developing those fine and gross motor skills as children mix the food together and form it into balls.
 
Whatever you are planning it is important to make it FUN! Children learn at a much deeper level when they are engaged and motivated – as I was saying the other night to a group of childminders and pre-school practitioners during characteristics of effective learning training.
 
Time sensitive things to do –
 
30 hours childcare consultation – the Govt are, apparently, keen to hear our views. One of the proposals you will be asked to comment on is that they intend extending the period that parents can access this free entitlement from 7am - 7pm to 6am - 8pm … this consultation closes 6th June 2016. 

The consultation is here.

You can read information from Nursery World magazine here.
 
Red tape consultation
This consultation is worth answering if you have a few spare minutes – childminders and other early years providers often tell me that paperwork is one of the main reasons for them struggling to provide the best service to parents and children so why not give them your views!
 
And in other news…

Childminders in Scotland
There are now a series of Information Guides written especially for gold Childcare.co.uk members uploaded on the website including –

• Working with parents
• Preparing for inspection
• SHANARRI
• Supporting children’s learning

You can download them from here after logging into your Childcare.co.uk gold member account.  


ABC Does training
Alistair Bryce Clegg is a trainer who lives near me so I was lucky to be able to go and hear him speak recently. I talked about how his training had changed my way of thinking about continuous provision during my recent Ofsted inspection – the inspector was keen to hear how we use training in the provision to raise outcomes for children, rather than just attend and put the certificate in our file! If you want to hear a few of Mr Bryce Clegg’s thoughts on teaching and learning in the early years you can watch him here.

 
Employed assistants - changes
Employed assistants must be paid the National Living Wage from 1st April 2016. All employees aged 25 or over must be paid at least £7.20 per hour - an increase from £6.70.  If you employ assistants you also need to be aware of the new requirement to set up pensions for them.

You will find more information on the assistants page of this website here.


Changes to milk guidelines
The new Eatwell Guide from Public Health England, has almost halved the previous recommended proportion of milk and dairy products in the daily diet of children aged five and over and adults, in favour of greater carbohydrate intake. However, Nursery World magazine reports that Public Health England have confirmed that advice on dairy and fats for under-fives has not changed.

You can find a copy of the new Eatwell Plate here to share with parents.


Debt management advice
Written by an outstanding childminder with over 20 years’ experience of managing a small business, this debt management guide has already received positive feedback from a number of Childcare.co.uk gold members. It has been written to be used alongside the free Childcare.co.uk gold member insurance which is now available to cover £5 million.

​The guidance is here - I hope you find it useful.

 
Cohort tracking and childminders
I talked about cohort tracking in the March newsletter, noting then that it was popping up in inspection reports and advising childminders that, if they look after groups of similar aged children, they might find it helpful to track them and see whether they can spot any gaps in learning.
I have been in contact with Gill Jones, deputy director of Ofsted, about this because it is clearly not appropriate for most childminders – we simply do not have cohorts (groups of similar aged children) to track! Gill agrees and has confirmed publically (at the Ofsted Big Conversation north west regional meeting) that they are not a requirement for childminders. If you get any comments about this from your inspector please challenge them and let me know.
 
You will find more feedback from the OBC north west meeting on the Childminding Forum here.
 
​
Notifying Ofsted about changes
We can now notify Ofsted about changes using an online form. I have linked to this page because it confirms some of the changes you need to notify Ofsted about, gives advice about how to complete the form through the Govt Gateway and provides a link to the form ‘Ofsted online’.


It’s always a little bit quieter for news in early years this time of year! Not that we are complaining… it’s a good time to do the annual accounts and spend days in the garden giving it a spring clean and planting some fruit and vegetables.

Please come along and share activity ideas and good practice with colleagues on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and the Childminding Forum – you will be made very welcome!  

Chat soon! Sarah
Knutsford Childminding
 
 
 

April 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to your newsletter – and welcome to spring!  

This newsletter has been written for childminders in England who want to stay independent of agencies. In this newsletter you will find a round-up of the latest information, advice and good practice guidance from Ofsted, DfE and other agencies.

If you want further information or advice you can ask on the Childminding Forum or join the Independent Childminders Facebook group - you will be made very welcome. 
 
Maths is a focus of current inspections

A packed room at the last Ofsted Big Conversation north west meeting listened to Jane Jones, Maths Lead at Ofsted talking about the importance of including maths in everything we do and in all areas of the children’s days. We are noting a lot of references to ‘missed opportunities’ to support children’s mathematical development in Ofsted inspection reports and this training from Ofsted definitely showed us that inspectors are listening very closely to how well we include maths in children’s daily experiences.
 
You will find more OBC North West feedback and information about how maths is being inspected here.
http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/ofsted-information-ofsted-inspections/138085-obc-north-west-meeting-12-3-16-a.html
 
The next Ofsted Big Conversation north west open meeting is on Saturday 15th October at the Last Drop Village hotel, Bolton – the speaker will focus on literacy in the early years. Tickets are available here - they are already selling quickly!
 
……………………………..

DfE value childminders

I read this response from DfE with interest - it goes some way to showing how they value childminders… but I find it worrying that we are expected to ‘mop up’ what other providers cannot do! Reported in the Early Childhood Unit (ECU) bulletin from 3rd March 2016 -
 
‘On 10 February 2016 in the House of Commons, Ian Austin MP (Dudley North) asked what assessment the government has made of the financial effect of the provision of the Childcare Bill on primary schools with nursery provision. Sam Gyimah’s answer pointed out that the government “acknowledges that not all schools will be able to offer the full 30 hours entitlement themselves” … and that “partnerships between schools and other providers, such as childminders, will allow parents to access their entitlement through their school’.
 
Will you be able to offer the 30 hours funding – or 15 of the 30 hours alongside other providers such as local nurseries and pre-schools? It is a worrying time for many childminders who are unsure whether the funding rate will cover their normal hourly rate or leave them with even more of a shortfall.
 
PLA are currently campaigning for more transparency and detail about how the funding rate was worked out, having recently discovered DfE used old figures and does not have the data they collected from providers – which, if you remember, they said they didn’t understand in the first place! You can read more about the PLA campaign and the way PLA are supporting us here.

 
……………………………..

Ofsted inspections coming back in-house

Ofsted will directly manage early years inspections and regulatory work from April 2017. At the moment Prospect and Tribal do most of the early years inspections – but Ofsted are not continuing with their current contract when it is due for renewal.
 
This is, we think, good news for early years providers because we should, if Ofsted are managing everything, see more consistency from inspectors. We are already pleased with the way the post-inspection complaints process has been changed and we feel this is another way that Ofsted have shown they are listening to the sector through the Ofsted Big Conversation.
 
You can read more about the announcement on the Foundation Years website here.

……………………………..

New information and guidance from Ofsted

Inspectors must adhere to their code of conduct during inspections. If they don’t follow their code of conduct providers are strongly advised to make a complaint. 

​You can find a copy of the inspector's code of conduct here.
 
……………………………..

Child Safety Week

Date: 6th – 12th June
Theme for 2016: ‘Turn off Technology’
Website to register for free resources / activity ideas here.

……………………………..

Childcare Expo is coming to Manchester!

While I realise that a lot of my readership are based in the south of England, this news is important for those of us within spitting distance of Manchester who have, until now, had to travel to visit the Expo. The exhibition will be at Event City (next to the Trafford Centre) on 17th and 18th June 2016 and you can get your FREE tickets here.

……………………………..

Sharing learning with home

Do you share books with your little ones, allowing them to take chosen books home to read with their parents? New research from the HELLO (Helping Early Language and Literacy Outcomes) programme (part of the re National Literacy Trust) reported in Nursery World magazine aims to improve the communication of children from birth to three, and support parents with developing this at home.

You can read more about the success of the Hello project here.

... and then there was this! 

It is a requirement of the EYFS to share ideas for home learning with parents. this is not ‘homework for babies’ – it is a way of letting parents know what their child loves doing in the setting and sensitively supporting parents so they can continue activities and games at home.
 
This report into early literacy at home is interesting to read because it tells us where the gaps are – areas where we might further support families to engage them in their child’s home learning. For example, the report states that ‘Dads are less likely than mums to report that they have the most influence on their child’s literacy’… so we clearly need to offer more activity ideas which are aimed at getting dads and their children reading and writing together.
 
Ofsted did share a short clip about literacy in the early years towards the beginning of this month but it disappeared from their YouTube channel – however, it says to me that literacy might become an inspection focus (as maths is now) in the near future!
 
……………………………..

Working with staff

Do you employ staff? If so, the National Minimum Wage rates are changing from October 2016. You can find details about the changes on the PLA website here. I have also talked about it - and how it is likely to affect childminders - on the assistants page of this website here. 

These changes are in addition to the introduction of the new ‘national living wage’ of £7.20 an hour for over-25s due to come into effect in April, rising to £9 by 2020.

You also need to be aware of the new workplace pensions – a new law means that every employer must automatically enrol workers into a workplace pension scheme if they are aged between 22 and pension age; earn more than £10,000 a year and work in the UK.
 
……………………………..

Guide to the Common Inspection Framework

The latest Ofsted presentation to the Nursery World show 2016 (5th Feb) is online here.

Those childminders who have not yet accessed Common Inspection Framework training might find it useful.

……………………………..

What to expect when? A parents guide to the EYFS

Do you use this parents guide? Do you give a copy to parents and ask them to share information about their child’s home learning? Do you regularly provide parents with ideas for learning at home?

You can buy or download a free copy of the guidance from the 4Children website and you can read a series of case studies which talk about how providers are using the guidance effectively to build partnerships with parents here.

……………………………..

New DfE consultation

The DfE are starting a consultation about how information is shared between childcare providers and schools – it is linked to the new 30 hours funding for 3 and 4 year olds which rolls out from September this year. You can find out more in this Nursery World article.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of the consultation – as childminders across the country know, schools rarely communicate with us (we struggle with nurseries in many areas)… I wonder whether they will be told they have to talk to us to support children’s transitions…
 
……………………………..

Useful link to share with parents

The Government have put together a list of places parents can go for more support with childcare options and costs here.

……………………………..
​
CASPAR emails – safeguarding

Do you subscribe to CASPAR weekly emails? They are from NSPCC and linked to safeguarding and child protection.

The emails will help to keep you up-to-date with all the latest news, policy and research. You can sign up to receive them here.
 
If there are any areas of provision you would like me to research or cover for you in my newsletters or blogs please let me know! Thank you.

Sarah Neville
Knutsford Childminding
Knutsford Training and Consultancy
 
 
 

March 2016 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to my latest newsletter for childminders in England who want to stay independent of agencies. My newsletters contain latest good practice information, advice for early years providers, links to legislation and much more... 

I hope that you find them interesting and informative and that they give you the confidence to know you are supported as a childminder who wants to stay Ofsted registered and independent of agencies. 

If there are any subjects you want me to research for you please let me know. Thank you, Sarah. 

Early Years Pupil Premium

Do you receive this extra funding for any of the children in your provision? This blog explains what EYPP is and gives examples of how it might be spent to raise outcomes for children. When Ofsted visit during inspection they will be looking at the impact of the money on the child/ren for whom it is provided. If you have any feedback on how Ofsted have inspected your spending of the EYPP please let me know.

………………………………………..

Integrated review at age 2

Has your Local Authority implemented the Integrated Review yet? Some LAs are working faster than others to provide children and their parents with a more holistic experience during the progress check. The rules for childminders remain the same – you must write a 2 year progress check for every child between the ages of 2 and 3 years (we do ours at 26 months) and you must involve parents, giving them a copy when it is finished. You must be able to show each child’s 2 year progress check to Ofsted during inspection – you will find more advice on this Childminding Forum thread. I have written a blog about the Integrated Review here.

If you would like to read more about the new integrated review, you will also find some ‘experiences of practice’ reports on the NCB website here.

 ………………………………………..

NEW - end of Feb 2016 - Ofsted updates

Ofsted have released a number of updated documents - and new ones about how they inspect and their inspectors' code of conduct. They are listed on the PLA website here. 

 ………………………………………..

Whistleblowing to keep children safe

The NSPCC has launched a new government funded Whistleblowing Advice Line. It will take calls from professionals from any sector including childminders and nursery practitioners who are worried about the way their, or another, organisation is dealing with child protection issues. Employees who don’t feel able to escalate these issues internally can contact the service, as well as those who have been unsuccessful in doing so. It can be reached for free on 0800 028 0285 and can be contacted anonymously.

More information on the NSPCC website here. 

………………………………………..

30 hours funded childcare

8 Local Authorities have now been chosen to trial the 30 hours funding. The government has confirmed that Wigan, Staffordshire, Swindon, Portsmouth, Northumberland, York, Newham and Hertfordshire will roll out the offer. Let’s hope their feedback tell the Government what we already know –

• We cannot work for less money that it takes for us to be sustainable.
• We cannot work for less money per hour over 30 hours a week – we have no way of making up the extra hours
• We cannot work for 32 weeks a year over 30 hours at a lower rate and then have nothing in the school holidays – it is not sustainable.

Neil Leitch from the Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA) - who always talks sense in my opinion - said of the plans, ‘“Given how little research has been done into the potential impact of the 30-hours offer to date, it’s important that these pilots are used effectively to gain a better understanding of how the scheme is likely to work in practice. This means making an honest assessment of any challenges around, for example, funding, capacity and impact on quality, and taking the necessary steps to address them - including further investment into the scheme.’

Early indications are that it is a mess – LAs are not clear how to implement the 30 hours and providers including nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are very concerned about the impact of the 30 hours on their continued sustainability. You can read more in this Nursery World article. 

………………………………………..

Bullying – ECU bulletin (Feb 2016)

In a recent study published in Early Child Development and Care, parents and preschool workers completed a survey regarding their perspectives towards the existence of bullying in preschool, interpretations of bullying, the roles of bullies and victims, and gender differences. Findings suggest that both groups largely believe that bullying occurs in preschool. Excluding others from play, conditional threats, and the victim's perception of being bullied were the three conditions most likely to be associated with bullying.

The report states that parents were significantly more likely than workers to hold a negative view of bullies and believe that bullying differs with regard to gender. Whereas most participants felt that bullying could occur in a single incident, only one in four agreed with the notion that children's actions must be intentional to be considered bullying. The study raises questions about whether current interpretations of bullying in the literature are suitable for children in the context of preschool.

You can find more information from the study here.

 ………………………………………..

Childcare numbers fall again

A report published earlier this month show that childminder numbers have fallen again.

Do they really not know why childminder numbers are falling month on month? Can DfE and Ofsted not see what they are doing to us?

There will always be natural wastage – childminders who leave because they are retiring or have taken the opportunity to re-train and move into another profession. Similarly, there will always be those childminders who find it is not for them – their families are unsupportive or they want their homes back. However, there are more worrying reasons why thousands more are leaving the profession…

We asked on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and the following reasons were given –

• Paperwork which often takes over evenings and weekends
• Loneliness - especially now LA support has been removed
• Ofsted inconsistencies
• Lack of free Local Authority support
• Lack of free local training
• The requirement to be a teacher – when often earning significantly less than minimum wage
• Funded hours which do not cover hourly rate and only pay term time
• Malicious complaints – often from non-paying parents - we are very vulnerable
• Being perceived as the second class childcare solution – the babysitter – by many parents, the media and other professionals such as health visitors and nursery staff.
• Lack of support from other providers who refuse to work with us - and then we are downgraded for not trying hard enough to engage them! 
• Being battered by all the different Govt departments - HMRC are withdrawing Working Tax Credits from thousands of childminders, the Information Commissioners Office expect us to pay for nothing, Ofsted are reviewing their fees and we expect them to increase, DfE change documents without letting us know…

The cost of setting up as a childminder is increasing and there are less and less Local Authority courses available. This means that less new childminders are joining the profession. We recognise this is a deliberate Government ploy to register new childminders through agencies which established childminders have already said are not needed – and are definitely not affordable.

We had hoped the DfE was side-lining agencies – but there have been a series of meetings organised by 4Children recently across the country to promote them. Apparently 4Children have received Government money to do this – it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

………………………………………..

Are your children active enough?

A recent report by The British Heart Foundation National Centre claims that 91% of two-to-four year olds in the UK are not active enough to be healthy. In our provision we are committed to getting children outside and moving around every day – we are lucky to have a covered area and set up under there if the weather is bad. We also encourage children to move during music and movement sessions and at other parts of the day. I have written this blog about our music and movement sessions to share information with our parents.

During ‘working with babies’ training I always ask – how much of the day are your babies restrained? We must not forget the times they are in buggies, car seats, high and low chairs, bouncers etc and unable to move around freely. You might find my ‘outside play every day’ blog for parents interesting here.

………………………………………..

Using mobile phones and cameras

Nursery World magazine reported that a nursery was recently graded ‘inadequate’ – one of the reasons was because staff were using personal mobile phones to take photos of children. We only have to think about the child abuse case where Vanessa George from Little Ted’s Nursery in Plymouth was taking photos of children she was abusing on her mobile phone and sharing them with others to understand why Ofsted are taking this so seriously.

Childminders are fine using their mobile phones to take photos of children as long as they have a policy on mobile phone and camera use and share it with parents. Parents should also sign to confirm they are happy with photos being taken and used by the childminder – you will find more information and tips for writing your policy in this blog.

………………………………………..

Employing an assistant

Do you employ staff? If so, from April 2016 the National Living Wage will be introduced and it will be a legal requirement to pay your assistant £7.20 per hour (for workers aged 25+). You can find more advice about childminders and assistants / staff in this blog.

………………………………………..

Save the Children – Den Day

Peppa Pig will be inviting children to transform their settings into dens as part of Save the Children’s ‘Den Day’. You can sign up for a free Den Day kit ahead of the official day of den-building on Friday 17 June here.

………………………………………..

What is coming up in recent inspection reports?

Here is an overview of the recommendations and actions in recent childminder inspection reports –

• Quality of teaching needs to be improved. Areas of focus include enhancing children’s critical thinking and problem solving skills through open questions and adult led activities, making better use of outdoor spaces, developing children’s understanding of the local community, developing independence and the quality of staff-child interactions. A lot of inspection reports talk about maths teaching – this will be inspected with renewed focus is 2016 as we understand all Ofsted inspectors are attending maths training.
• 2 year progress checks – some childminders still aren’t doing them for part-time children but they are a statutory requirement of the EYFS – for all 2 – 3 year olds regardless of how often they are with you or whether another setting has written one already.
• Children’s progress is a focus of inspections – how well are children doing – especially they most disadvantaged – are they catching up quickly? Ofsted are looking at the impact of funding – the funded 15 hours and Early Years Pupil Premium – is it being used effectively to support children’s learning? See my new blog for more information about EYPP.
• If you work with staff Ofsted will want to see that you have carried out initial vetting and ongoing to ensure they are not disqualified by association. You must also train them and reviewing their progress regularly. Every staff member should have a ‘staff development’ file including training to be attended or taken in the future. Staff induction training is a requirement of the EYFS and must include safeguarding and child protection which needs to be regularly updated as legislation changes eg to include the Prevent duty and British values. Recent inspection audits have shown that better trained staff are responsible for better outcomes for children and want to see regular staff supervision.
• Partnerships with parents – and other providers – are coming up regularly in reports. Ofsted will ask parents – how are you involved in your child’s time with the provider? When were you last given quality information about your child’s progress? Who is your child’s key person – do you talk to them regularly? When were you last asked about your child’s learning at home? How often are you asked to contribute to the setting’s self-evaluation?
• Cohort tracking - if you care for a few children of the same age you might find it helpful to track their progress – and the progress of boys and girls – to make sure your teaching and learning is appropriate for all the children’s needs. You might notice, for example, that one area of learning is consistently lower than others for all children - this might be an area on which you need to focus in the future by taking training, doing an online course, reading literature etc.
• Keeping children safe and healthy is always part of the inspection process. Health and safety legislation must be included in induction and ongoing staff training. While childminders no longer need written risk assessments it is important that some are in writing to ensure children are safe. Safeguarding is always a focus of inspections – do you and staff know that you must report concerns about radicalisation and extremism to Channel and FGM to the police?
• The Early Years Inspection handbook introduced some new areas of practice for consideration including recording ‘poor’ behaviour, attendance monitoring and recording of racist comments. There is also a new requirement to keep children safe online – have you given parents information to use at home? How do you monitor children’s online use? Does your parental controls filter work – have you tested it? You must ensure you and any staff who work with you are up-to-date with all current legislation and guidance and keeping records are required.

 
I find information for my newsletters from all sorts of sources including Nursery World magazine, PLA magazine, ChildCare magazine, ECU bulletins, safeguarding boards across the country, the Morton Michel newsletter, Facebook and the Childminding Forum and many other publications. 

​Where possible I acknowledge my sources in the text and provide links to further advice or information. 
​
If you have any articles or information you would like me to include in these newsletters please contact me and let me know.

Thank you.

February 2016 - newsletter for independent childminders

Hello to all childminders who want to stay independent of agencies and welcome to February! I hope the weather is kind to us all - don't forget to remind parents to send their children in lots of layers,  warm coats, gloves, scarves, hats etc because we are required to go outside with them every day. We know that some of our colleagues have suffered terribly in the floods and hope you are getting local support to help you back on your feet again. If you need help please do ask for it ... I am sure everyone will pitch in if they can.

Here is some news for February to keep you updated and informed...

DBS problems – advice from a childminder
If you have one of the new DBS disclosures which is linked to the update service, it is very important that you do not miss your DBS update service payment. If you do miss the payment, your DBS will be cancelled and you will have to apply for a new one. During this period you are classed as an ‘unsuitable person’ by Ofsted and you need to inform them what has happened and keep them updated as you go through the process of applying for a new DBS disclosure. Ofsted will normally allow you to continue working while your application is going through but you will need to keep them updated on progress and let them know when it has arrived.

We are also hearing from childminders who thought the DBS update service was automatic and didn't realise that they needed to do something until it was too late. When you receive your DBS you only have 19 days from date of printing to register it with the update service or it will be cancelled and you will have to start the process again and pay for a new DBS! Once registered wiht he update service the person who has applied for the DBS then needs their own Government Gateway log in so they can inform Ofsted using the online EY2 form. 

You will find more information and the steps to completing a DBS disclosure for Ofsted here. 
 
Racism in the early years
The Early Years Inspection handbook made it a requirement to share information with Ofsted about ‘racist incidents’ in the provision. This might include incidents where children have used racist language or bullied others / been bullied and the bullying is linked to racism. I have written guidance for gold Childcare.co.uk members - you will find a new Information Guide ‘Childminders and Racism’ in your member log in area.

I was concerned to read a recent article in the Daily Mail about the amount of young children currently being excluded from school for racism or being labelled racist by teachers. It is important to teach children about the wider world and how to speak to friends of different colour, religion, culture etc. If they learn this when they are young they are more likely to be accepting of difference in later life. This teaching links to the British values of ‘tolerance’ and ‘respect’ which must be embedded in early years practice.
 
Do you have a cuddle policy?
There was an outcry on Facebook and Twitter when a blog on the Day Nurseries website suggested in a recent article that practitioners draw up a ‘cuddle policy’. Those who read the article will have noted that the title was a little misleading and Day Nurseries Association were responding to member requests for advice on this often sensitive subject.

Childminders are reminded that it is not a requirement of the EYFS to have a ‘cuddle policy’ and that if they note staff giving ‘excessive one-to-one attention beyond the requirements of their usual role and responsibilities’ (EYFS, 2014 – requirement 3.6) concerns must be reported to the Local Safeguarding Children Board.
 
Supporting children’s behaviour
We have always taken a very positive stance when supporting children’s behaviour – we rarely say ‘no’ (explaining why instead) and aim to involve children in all aspects of their care, responding positively and showing respect for their views. We thought these ‘classroom rules’ from the blog ‘Learning and Teaching with Pre-schoolers’ might be easily translated for a childminding provision, with photos of the children illustrating the words for non-readers.
 
Prevent duty
I note when I am delivering training sessions that many providers have still not accessed Prevent duty free training and have yet to include information about Prevent and British values in their safeguarding policy or understand what it means in practice. This Childminding Forum thread details what I have done to comply with the new requirements. There is a link to the free training at the end.

All childminders and early years colleagues have a duty of care to report concerns about children who might be being radicalised or exposed to extremism – indicators, according to the Govt, might be the child engaging in gun or war play or talking about leaving their home with their family to go and fight abroad.
A recent article in the Morton Michel newsletter states that, ‘Although the initiative is intended to be conducted in partnership with communities and to promote cohesion with society, recent weeks have seen PREVENT criticised as divisive.’

Childminders are reminded that reporting concerns is statutory and they are strongly recommended to do the free online training course and add information about prevent into their safeguarding policy.
 
Ofsted fees set to rise
We read the Nursery World article about the future rise of Ofsted fees with interest. Ofsted fees are currently very subsidised by Government and, while they did say fees would go up every year, they have been held at the same £35 for many years – so we think an increase is probably fair enough.

Sam Gyimah at the Department for Education sought to reassure providers by saying, ‘any increases will be phased in with plenty of advance notice and still retain a significant element of central government support’ – which is good – but many providers are concerned that they will be forced to pass this fee increase onto parents who are already being told by DfE that we are too expensive!
There will apparently be a ‘consultation’ later in the year.
 
Changes to Working Tax Credits worry
HMRC are currently writing to a number of childminders who receive Working Tax Credits and asking for evidence of how they intend to grow their businesses and become self-sustaining so they no longer need the benefit. If childminders have no intention of growing their businesses or cannot provide the evidence HMRC require, their benefit is being stopped.

This is causing financial hardship for many childminders who have said they might need to leave childminding and find paid employment or claim other benefits themselves – some are concerned they might lose their homes or have to stop doing degrees (which means they are temporarily working part time) as a result of their WTC being stopped.

It will, of course, have a negative effect on the DfE’s future childcare plans if swathes of childminders leave the profession because they won’t have enough providers to deliver the 30 hours funding which is due to come online next year. There is also the irony that if childminders lose their benefits they will have to put up their fees… and the funding review and funded payments rise will have been in vain because the hourly rate we need to receive for the funded sessions will increase!

Childcare.co.uk have written to Sam Gyimah’s office at the DfE on behalf of members who are affected by these WTC changes – and childminders are writing to their MPs, early years magazines and provider organisations to ask for their support.

I contributed to this Nursery World article on behalf of childminders who are worried about the changes and I am encouraging colleagues who are affected by the Working Tax Credits cuts to write to their MPs and speak out about their sustainability concerns for the future.

Safeguarding and older children
It is very important that a childminder’s older children are protected from allegations of abuse against childminded children. This might mean, for example, reminding an older child not to pick up babies and ensuring they do not take responsibility, even in passing, for toileting or nappy changing.

If a safeguarding allegation is made against an older child the childminder must report it to their LSCB and Ofsted and could potentially have their business shut down pending investigation. If the investigation finds that the older child’s actions were inappropriate it is likely that the provider would be closed down permanently.

It is important to remind older children of their responsibilities to the little ones and to ensure they are not left unsupervised with childminded children. For this reason, it is strongly advised that childminded children of any age  do not play out of sight or hearing of the childminder eg in a child’s bedroom with the door shut.
 
Be sugar smart
There is a big awareness campaign from the Govt to advise parents and childcare providers about the amount of ‘safe’ sugar a child should have each day. This is linked closely to childhood and adult obesity concerns. There is a new app on the Change4Life website which will help you to calculate how much sugar you are giving children – it might help allay parents concerns about what their child is eating and drinking.

Alongside this new sugar guidance, there is a big push to ensure young children are getting enough exercise. The British Heart Foundation has expressed concerns that most 2 – 4 year olds in the UK are not active enough to be healthy. You will find lots of activity tips which can be shared with parents on the BHF website here.

Fake fire blankets
A recent article in the Minding Kids newsletter highlighted an investigation by the BBC programme ‘Fake Britain’ into the dangers of buying and using fake fire blankets. As childminders it is important that we take children’s safety seriously and the EYFS has reintroduced the advice that we have a fire blanket – which should be fixed to a wall, not behind a heat source such as a cooker.

When buying a new fire blanket it is important to look for the British Standards kite mark which should be on the label attached to the blanket.  You will find more information and purchasing advice, including what to look out for, on the Pacey website.

New Morton Michel magazine
Morton Michel have relaunched their early years magazine – now called ‘Early Years Childcarer’. It is a free magazine when accessed online and has lots of useful information for childminders including articles in the current issue on how to reassure children who are concerned about current world events, information about the next I Can Chatterbox Challenge (8th – 14th Feb 2016) and road safety advice.

I hope you find this newsletter interesting and informative. It takes me a while to collate the information and write everything up so I really want to make sure I am keeping it relevant and helpful. A colleague recently commented that it was too long  and I directed her to the précis copies which are on the Childcare.co.uk news page and in files on the Independent Childminders Facebook group here.

Please contact me if you would like to submit any articles or if you have any comments. Thank you.

Sarah Neville
Knutsford Childminding

January 2016 - newsletter for independent childminders

Happy New Year to all childminders who want to stay independent of agencies! We are doing an amazing job supporting each other on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and Childminding Forum.

If you want to stay independent of agencies in the future these newsletters will help you to stay up-to-date with the latest information and good practice advice... we are also being supported by Childcare.co.uk, the biggest and most proactive parent - childminder matching company in the country.  Childcare.co.uk have been named the sole winner in a Department of Education (DfE) competition to find new innovative solutions to help parents seeking childcare connect with local childcare providers... and they have launched a new television advertising campaign to attract more parents.

Stay updated with new developments on the Childcare news page. 

Here is the latest news for childminders... 

Breaking news! 01.2016
We are hearing about childminders who have received letters from HMRC asking for evidence that they are ‘growing’ their businesses and threatening to withdraw the Working Tax Credits element of tax credits if they are not actively seeking to fill their spaces. If this is happening to you please let us know – we are looking at how we can support you.

Ofsted budget to be cut
As I read this article in the Children and Young People Now online magazine I found myself becoming increasingly worried about what the cuts might mean to children and providers. As an active member of the Ofsted Big Conversation North West steering group it’s something we will be asking Ofsted to comment on and we will be looking for assurances that the cuts will not impact on children’s safety.

In other news... Ofsted have recently released a new document 'become registered as a childcare provider in England' here which has replaced a lot of their previous guidance. You can keep an eye on new Ofsted publications here. 
 
Maths, maths and more maths
I have it on good authority that all Ofsted inspectors (including Tribal and Prospect) are going to be receiving maths training in January. We have already seen an increasing number of references to maths teaching in Ofsted inspection reports since the new Common Inspection Framework was introduced in September 2015 and I think this is only going to become more of a focus in the future…

Maths is in everything we do with children – both inside and in the garden – and it is important that we use maths language and showcase the times when we do include maths in their daily activities and adventures. We will be sharing some information about how we teach maths in our parent blog next month and I have written a series of new maths activity guides for Childcare.co.uk gold members which will be released one a month, starting January 2016, on the website.

I am also cascading information to my co-childminder, ensuring he makes use of spontaneous as well as planned opportunities to include maths in children’s day-to-day activities here. We will be using the internet to find ideas for ‘maths in winter’ – this Childminding Forum link is our starting point and we have a Pinterest maths page which contains lots of activity ideas. There is a useful download on this Independent Childminders Facebook group thread – maths outside – which was written by members contributing various suggestions for enhancing the garden with maths prompts for learning and play.

Note - we must be careful that we are not ‘preparing for inspection’ by suddenly introducing new things to our provisions – the prime areas of learning must be embedded in everything we do every day!
 
Childhood obesity
It appears from recent news reports that childhood obesity is back on the early years agenda. We have reports of Ofsted inspectors questioning the contents of children’s lunch boxes which they brought from home - so make sure you share healthy eating information with parents and discuss what will happen if their child arrives with unhealthy contents in their lunch boxes.

Little People’s Plates is a useful website for sharing information with parents about appropriate portion sizes and we need to be able to talk about how we ensure children get 3 hours a physical activity a day through our planned activities. There is talk of a new sugar tax to help combat obesity – do you and children’s parents know how much sugar is in children’s popular drinks – it’s scary?!  
 
Safeguarding questions during inspection
A recent Independent Childminders Facebook group question about safeguarding questions Ofsted inspectors are currently asking during inspection led me to write this prompt list for colleagues – and myself! You can use it for your CPD and to inform your practice, making sure you have all the latest links and documents in your computer files and reviewing your safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures. The prompt is here. 

After I had written the blog another colleague said that she was asked about injuries to non-mobile babies. There is a document in the files section of the IC Facebook group here which covers how to write what some LSCBs call a ‘non mobile baby protocol’.
 
Professional love
Did you respond to the recent professional love study from the University of Sheffield? The study has been completed and the results are here if you want a read. It was mostly positive - which is good news – ‘of those that took part in the survey, 95 per cent said they feel showing affection to the children in their care is an important part of early years practice’.

There is a new toolkit which is available for free download if you want to explore this further.

Numbers of childminders and nurseries falling
Ofsted statistics show that the numbers of childminders and nurseries has fallen in the last few months. We lost 1,514 childminders and only 55 new childminders replaced them. Many childminders who are newly registered cite lack of training courses, lack of support and high initial start-up costs as a barrier to registering.

If you would like support  setting up as a childminder we have a number of options including the Childminding Forum and Independent Childminders Facebook group.  Please come and talk to us – we are here to help.

Child safety
How safe do the children feel in your house? Have you ever asked them? It can be a tricky question to ask 2 and 3 year olds… but the older children should understand what you are talking about and give some interesting answers. Ours say they feel safe because we do fire practices when we cook the sausages! Another says he feels safe because we cuddle him… why not try asking and see what your children think!

Child safety is an important part of childminding provision. It is important to keep up-to-date with reports and guidance so you can ensure your house and garden are as safe as possible.
 
Keeping children safe – CAPT
Recently published information on the Child Accident Prevention Trust relates to choking (a child died after choking on a grape – and another on a blackberry recently), button batteries which are in everything from novelty jumpers to games in Christmas stockings and liquitabs (washing liquid) which children might think are sweets. We always send our parents links to new research and information and there is a useful email newsletter you can sign up for on the CAPT website.

Child Safety Week is planned for June 2016 – there are usually good (free) resources on the CAPT website.

Working with other professionals
How well do you show evidence of working with other professionals in your self-evaluation and day-to-day working practice? It is important to make local and, where relevant, national links with other professionals and to reflect on how well they support you to do your job.

For example –

• You might link with other early years providers on websites and forums to share good practice and information;
• The local Children’s Centre might be a useful source of updated information and a place to go to meet other childminders;
• Your local Health Visitors might offer you support if you are concerned about a child’s eating or sleep patterns and you should know who to advise parents to speak with if they are worried about their child;
• The SENCO at your local school will be able to provide information if you are concerned about a child’s progress. There will also be contacts within your local child services team which you can share with parents when you advise them to ask for further support;
• Your local Family Information Service will be able to signpost support networks to provide support for you or a child / child’s family. You can find them through this link.

You might find it useful to put together a list of local contacts which you can share with parents as and when they ask you for advice. Don’t forget to include the chemist, dentist and doctor’s surgery etc.
 
Benefits of regular training and CPD
Do you attend local training courses – or do CPD online? It is important that you access training regularly to update your skills and knowledge and give yourself the best chance of being up-to-date and being the best practitioner you can possibly be.

Childcare.co.uk, for whom I write regular articles and information guides have lots of free training for gold members and the Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA), my member organisation has a range of training courses and webinars which you can read through or listen to and which will enhance your CPD. You will also find free Prevent duty training and FGM training online to support your learning. 

Attending training with other childminders raises morale and motivates as you share information and support others – there are lots of opportunities for independent childminders to get together with colleagues and buy in a trainer, find a room (or a conservatory with a table) and join each other for training… I offer training in in my local area including Stockport, Trafford and Cheshire and there are lots of trainers across the country offering a similar service.
When you have attended training it is important to reflect on what it has taught you and how you will be able to use it to raise outcomes for the children. Ofsted want to see the impact of training on how you work – you should always be thinking about how to improve your service in the future.
 
Group planning
We are using children’s books to plan for our early years children this year – we are linking them to the seasons and time of year, national and multicultural events, children’s interests and current learning styles, information parents tell us about what their children enjoy doing at home etc. We are finding books work very well – the children in our provision love reading and we love bringing stories alive with puppets and small world toys. We observe children’s interests and link into them, extending learning through a range of activities – always focussing on the children’s individual learning needs first. We often leave the books and props out and it’s great to watch how the children use them in their self-directed play – we have observed lots of little puppet theatres from our 2 and 3 year olds and the children are generally telling each other stories and including stories more often in their spontaneous play since we changed our focus.

You will find the 2016 monthly Group Planning Information Guides from Childcare.co.uk for gold members also link children’s learning through books… and includes planning for under 2s this year  (after requests from members). I hope they help you to plan for the children in your care through the year.  You can find the planning here. 

Please let me know if you have any articles you would like me to consider for submission in future newsletters.

Thank you! Sarah Neville. 

December newsletter for independent childminders

Funding review for ‘free’ places
The Government intends to offer 30 hours free funding for 2, 3 and 4 year olds from Sept 2017. What will this mean to childminders? I hope my maths is right (it’s not my strongest subject) – I am sure someone will correct me if it’s wrong!

Last week it was announced that the hourly rate for 3 and 4 year olds would go up to £4.88 per child per hour, including EYPP (Early Years Pupil Premium) – but of course not every child receives EYPP. Mr Osborne promises that it will be ‘fairly allocated’ so…
570 hours at the moment x 2 because it is going to double from Sept 2017 = 1140 hours funded care
1140 hours @ £4.88 per child per hour (assuming LA passes it all on) = £5563
£5563 - £300 EYPP = £5263
£5263 / 1140 hours = £4.61 per child per hour.

Remembering this will be less tax and NI ... and I am assuming that LAs will pass it on which we know does not happen at the moment ... and we don’t know how the extra money will be distributed across different local authorities … and we haven’t been told whether rates will increase evenly across all provider types … there is still a lot we don’t know! Personally I am keeping an eye on the PLA website because Neil Leitch speaks my language and is very vocal with his support.

Sue Robb from 4Children recently hosted a webinar about what the 30 hours would mean for childminders. You can watch it on YouTube here.

………………………………………………………….
 
Re-inspection of childminders who are ‘satisfactory’ or ‘requires improvement’
We have been lobbying for quite a while through the Ofsted Big Conversation to bring re-inspection of childminders up to ‘within a year’ which would be the same timescale as nurseries and other group providers. We are concerned about the disparity between group and childminder re-inspections – another element of the new inspection framework which weighted against childminders, many of whom feel they lost their grade unfairly and were ignored when they complained. The knock on effects can be devastating for a sole provider – they lose their funded children, have to wait a very long time for re-inspection and often lose work.

Ofsted have responded to concerns with the following statement from Gill Jones, Ofsted’s deputy director for early education – ‘Limited resources and the need to prioritise the re-inspection of settings that provide the most number of places are the main reasons behind the decision’.
However, Gill did say that the policy team are currently discussing this issue – so let’s hope they recognise the unfairness of their decision.
 
………………………………………………………….

Incident reporting
The type of incidents early years providers now have to record have increased. The Early Years Inspection handbook requires us to show Ofsted evidence that we have recorded and are dealing with incidents of racism and ‘poor’ behaviour. The Prevent duty makes it a requirement to record and report incidents of extremism or evidence that children are being radicalised.

Now we read in Nursery World magazine that children as young as 7 with ‘low achievement in primary school, hyperactivity and growing up in ‘troubled’ families with a history of family violence and long-term unemployment’ can show early signs of gang violence… I feel this is something we need to record if we see evidence of it in our provisions.
 
………………………………………………………….

Keeping children safe online
It is a requirement of the Prevent duty to keep children safe online – very young children are being radicalised and exposed to extremism when they go into chat rooms or play games on the internet. These excellent resources from NSPCC can be used in your provisions and shared with parents. 
 
………………………………………………………….

Early years leaders honoured
I am proud to call Laura Henry a friend – congratulations to you!
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1154663/early-years-leaders-honoured
 
………………………………………………………….

Are your children ‘bright’? Are they excelling?
We were discussing this issue recently at some training I was delivering - a childminder had been told by her Ofsted inspector that she couldn't get an outstanding grade because her children weren't excelling in their learning.

We MUST challenge unfair and unjust judgements by Ofsted inspectors - we MUST have the confidence to say ‘that's unfair, our children are all amazing and doing their very best’ - we MUST be able to show from their tracking that they are learning and developing well. Otherwise what will happen to the unique and individual child? Should we give notice to any children who are not ‘bright’ – I am sure the law states we have to be inclusive?!

​You can read the article from TES here.
 
………………………………………………………….

Ofsted are not the enemy!
Childminders and nursery practitioners tell me that their stress levels rise to very high levels when Ofsted are due to visit. The half day notice nurseries now get is causing issues with staff saying they are feeling sick and don’t want to come in inspection day… the ‘up to 5 days’ notice received by childminders often sends them into a flat spin. Ofsted really are not the enemy – when an inspection is done well it should showcase everything that is good about your provision and give you a few ideas for improvement in the future.

Sadly, however, many inspections do go wrong – although Ofsted state that only 3% lead to complaints so things are definitely getting better out here! This recent article in Guardian Education made me desperately sad.
 
Mandatory Reporting of Female Genital MutilationFrom October 31st 2015 onwards we have been required to report cases of FGM in children under the age of 18 to the police. There is a free training course here which all childminders and early years providers might find useful.
 
………………………………………………………….

Inspection focus – maths!
I am reading more and more Ofsted inspection reports which state that providers are not focussing enough on maths in early years provisions. It is important that you consider how well you include maths in your day-to-day activities such as –

• Comparing the height of the children
• Talking about the size or shape of your sandwich at lunch
• Cutting things in ‘half’ and ‘quarter’
• Discussing ‘how much’ and using quantity words during sand or water play
• Noting a cup is ‘full’ or ‘empty’ when getting drinking water

Record children’s use of maths in their observations and make sure you track children’s achievements in maths, both in the provision and at home.
 
………………………………………………………….

Your qualifications and training make a difference
What is your reward for all those nights and weekends at training courses or doing qualifications? According to the latest statistics from Ofsted, completed after analysing over 16,000 settings, inspection outcomes are raised when staff qualifications are high.

Make the most of local training opportunities - join in with professional discussions online - talk to your colleagues and share ideas and information - tear out articles from professional magazines and use them to improve your business - think about your action plan for the future and reflect what you are doing in your self-evaluation - or the Ofsted SEF if you use it. 

Most of all - show your Ofsted inspector how amazing you are through your continued professional development. 
 
………………………………………………………….

Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)
Do you receive EYPP for any of your childminded children? If so, you will be asked during inspection how it has been spent and what difference it has made to the child. You will be expected to show the child’s tracking and how outcomes for the child have been raised. There are lots of ways the money can be spent – on training, extra support, resources, equipment etc. Early Education have released some guidance here and there is an interesting blog from Julian Grenier here which is worth reading.

………………………………………………………….

Ofsted inspection reports
Have you read any of the new inspection reports? They are very short – all the judgements are squashed onto one page! Ofsted state that this will make it easier for parents to compare reports from different providers. You can find more information about the new style reports here.

………………………………………………………….​

Inspection focus - sharing learning with parents… and supporting learning at home
There are lots of ways of sharing learning / information with children’s families. Some ideas include –

• Type up rhymes and give parents a YouTube link so they can sing them with their child
• Let them borrow a book their child enjoys reading
• Send home links to websites which might help with, for example, handling behaviour, dietary needs of toddlers or toilet training timing
• Let children borrow a teddy and diary at the weekend to record their home interests
• Ask parents for information about what they are doing / celebrating at home and plan activities to complement – give parents some ideas for things you have found they might enjoy doing at home
• Include ‘ask me about…’ in the child’s diary to encourage parents to chat to their child about things they have been doing with you
• Tell parents when their child can do things eg putting on shoes and give out ‘well done’ awards to encourage them to try it at home
• Take photos of food children have really enjoyed
• Send home recipes so children can make them with parents
• Inform parents about their child’s individual planning / next steps and ask them for feedback – what has their child been doing at home? How are they getting on?
• Loan books, a book bag, some coloured pencils and a notepad each week so children can borrow a book, read it with parents and draw a picture. Encourage parents to write adding things they have enjoyed or conversations they have had
• If you are learning about, for example, maths in the environment, ask parents to take some photos when they are out with their child and send them to you so you can talk about them with the group
• If children are starting school in the next year share ideas for helping prepare them with parents every month and ask for feedback
• Include a ‘this month we are learning about’ section on your newsletter and add an activity idea for parents to try at home
• Borrow library books and talk to parents about their child’s favourites – encourage them to sign up to the library so you can read the same sort of books linked to their current interests
• Loan a few spare resources for the child to make and do – a necklace, some playdough, a mask etc. Don’t expect to get them back – but do ask for a photo
• Ask parents what their child can do at home and update their Early Years Outcomes tracker together – then agree some next steps and provide activity ideas
• Email parents a copy of ‘what to expect, when?’ (from 4Children) and refer to the pages when you suggest activities they might like to try at home.
• If a child is struggling with an area of learning focus on it in the provision and provide parents with a list of ways they can support their child at home
• If you notice a child has a new schema send home an email with some activity ideas
• For older children share information about handwriting and number formation so parents can practice what their child is going to be doing at school with them.

I hope you find this newsletter interesting and informative - please pass it on to your independent childminder colleagues so we can all stay updated and informed. Thank you.

Sarah Neville.
Proud to be an independent childminder
Knutsford Childminding

Independent Childminders - why are we here? 

A reminder of why we are supporting independent childminders...

This website - the blog, advice pages and newsletter - the Independent Childminders Facebook page - the section for independent childminders on the Childminding Forum are all here for one reason...

We are here to support childminders who want to stay independent of agencies in England.

Childminder agencies were the brainchild of Ms Truss, formerly in the Education Department. She had this vision of all childminders being regulated by agencies - partly to save Ofsted money. Childminders (as a group) pretty much all disagreed with her but she ignored us and pushed on with setting them up.

Then she moved on in a reshuffle and went to annoy the bee keepers instead - and the new chap, Sam Gyimah, has said that he supports agencies too, but very little has happened without Truss driving them forward.

I understand there are now some agencies set up across the country actively recruiting childminders - and I know that some childminders want to join them and that's fine - it was always a choice - we lobbied very hard at the time to ensure everyone has a choice!! 

However, the support I offer on this website and the support offered by the Independent Childminders Facebook group is for childminders who want to stay Ofsted registered and independent of agencies. We have Childcare.co.uk behind us ... and over 17,400 members to date on the Facebook group ... 30,000 members on the Childminding Forum ... new members very welcome! 

I hope that clarifies. Thank you. 

November 2015 newsletter for independent childminders

Remember, remember the 5th November, gunpowder treason and plot...
What are you planning for Bonfire Night with the children? We have lots of activity ideas including making big fireworks - we will also have a little party. I hope whatever you do you have fun and stay safe.  If you are planning some fireworks you will find safety information here.
 
Time limited survey

Food in childcare survey – closes 30th November 2015
Take a moment to complete this national survey organised by the Food Trust into food in early years settings – including childminder provisions. There is a link at the bottom of this Nursery World article which explains a bit about the survey and why it is important to get involved.
 ………………………………………………………….
Inspection feedback
We are hearing feedback from lots of childminders who have had inspections under the new Common Inspection Framework. There appear to be a few teething problems which we are tackling with Ofsted but in the main reports are positive! The focus of the CIF and Early Years Inspection handbook is very much on teaching and learning – and of course inspectors will always ask questions about safeguarding procedures.  Some inspectors are asking whether childminders have taken training courses in the Prevent duty – and others are checking understanding of British values (which have nothing to do with cups of tea or London buses). Please do the free Prevent course  and download a certificate for your file if you haven’t already.  
They are sticking very closely to the new inspection framework in the Early Years Inspection handbook – if you haven’t read it now is a good time!
………………………………………………………….
Funded sessions
Great news from the House of Lords – they have stopped progress of the 30 hours ‘free’ childcare bill until funding has been properly sorted out for providers. As many of you know I have been one of the providers actively opposing the 30 hours without proper funding in place on behalf of childminders and contributed to a recent Nursery World magazine article in which I questioned the appropriateness of 30 hours without proper funding… we are delighted that the Lords have listened to us.
………………………………………………………….
Childminders working away from home
Do you want to open an after-school or holiday club using the new rules (discussed in last month’s newsletter) that will be available for all childminders from 1st January 2016 in the Small Business Enterprise and Employment bill? If so, this is a cautionary tale about how many out of school providers are being badly treated by schools from the Nursery World news desk.
………………………………………………………….
Assessing children’s motor skills
I was reading an article last week which reported that there is growing evidence between children’s gross motor skills such as balance and coordination and how well they do at school. We monitor children’s progress in balance and coordination as part of our assessment of their physical development – moving skills. We watch as they wobble on a piece of string (skipping rope) while dancing to ‘1 little elephant balancing, step by step on a piece of string’ and we see how coordinated they are when we plan ‘wake up shake up’ dance routines. 
This research is linked closely to another study which says that ‘Children who spend their childhood with no access to a garden are more likely to be obese by the age of seven’. Reported in the Morton Michel newsletter, the study by Annemarie Schalkwijk from VU University Medical Centre links lack of outside play opportunities to both obesity and type 2 diabetes.
………………………………………………………….
Changes to car seat legislation
Are you aware that car seat legislation is changing? The law requires all children to be restrained ‘appropriately’ in cars until they are 135cm tall or have their 12th birthday – whichever happens first – and this will stay the same. It is now and will still be the driver’s responsibility to make sure children are safe in the car – the driver could be fined if they do not provide appropriate car seats.
New rules about i-size car seats are being phased in over the next few years for isofix car seats only. When i-size becomes law, parents will have to keep their baby in a rear-facing seat until they are around 15 months – the timing for moving them into front facing car seats will be based on their length and height not weight (as it is at the moment). This Which guide will give you the latest information.
………………………………………………………….
Self-evaluation
Childminders in England need to be aware that the Ofsted SEF has been updated (10.2015) to follow the layout of the new inspection framework. You will be expected to be working on changing your SEF, moving information into the new sections as you go along. Ofsted will have changed most of the information around for you so it shouldn’t be too big a job. I have updated my SEF prompt for the new SEF sections – it is on the Childminding Help website here.
………………………………………………………….
Great news for all Childcare.co.uk members!
Childcare.co.uk have recently been advertising on the television – have you seen the advert? The advertising has led to a huge take-up from parents and practitioners who are now advertising on the site. Childcare.co.uk has also won a contract from the Department for Education to develop new features on its parent / provider matching site. Congratulations to all at Childcare.co.uk!  
………………………………………………………….
Paperwork update - safeguarding policy changes
You need to update your safeguarding policy to note that you are aware of the Prevent duty which aims to protect children from being drawn into terrorism or extremism and you actively promote British values. It doesn’t need a new policy – just a few words to share with parents how you are complying with the new Prevent duty. DfE have published guidance to the new requirements here.
………………………………………………………….
Newly registering childminders!
Are you are newly registering childminder? The Ofsted briefing for new childminders has been updated from October 2015. You can find the new guidance here.
……………………………………………………….
Teaching and learning
I asked Ofsted how they define 'outstanding' teaching and learning - what are they looking for during childminder inspections? Teaching and learning = the activities you plan for children, times when you sit with them and play, asking questions, providing resources to extend learning, supporting independence, extending interests etc. Ofsted say when looking for outstanding teaching they ask whether it is ‘worthy of dissemination to others’.
Ofsted advise that we all read their new good practice report ‘Teaching and play in the early years, a balancing act’ and watch the videos on their YouTube channel here which are linked to the report.
………………………………………………………….
Paperwork update - incident reporting
You need to update your incident report to cover ‘poor’ behaviour and racism as required by the new Early Years Inspection handbook (linked to the Common Inspection Framework). You will need to record what has happened and show that you are dealing with it, involving parents and other agencies / professionals as appropriate. I have updated my incident record form and it is available in free resources on Childcare.co.uk here.
………………………………………………………….
PAT testing
There is a company ringing childminders at the moment telling them they need to have electrical equipment PAT tested! This is a CON - we do NOT need to waste our money on this - see the myths here! If you are contacted by this company I suggest you tell them to stop bothering you… more information from HSE here and here – which states – ‘The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition. However, the Regulations do not specify what needs to be done, by whom or how frequently (ie they don't make inspection or testing of electrical appliances a legal requirement, nor do they make it a legal requirement to undertake this annually).’
………………………………………………………….
Paperwork update - behaviour management policy changes
I have updated my behaviour policy and procedures to include information from the new EY inspection handbook about new behaviour reporting requirements -
UPDATE – 09.2015 – 'We are aware of the new requirement in the Early Years Inspection handbook (09.2015) to record children’s ‘poor behaviour’. We will do this on our incident record form, alongside working closely with the child’s parents and other settings the child attends to support their behaviour through targeted interventions.'
Our targeted interventions include - allowing children time to calm and reflect, providing cosy spaces, listening to children, talking respectfully to children, offering choices, working closely with parents, PSED sessions to talk about sharing / turn taking / being kind / being helpful, positive behaviour strategies etc.
There is a free incident record form here - log in with a free account to download it

I hope you find this newsletter informative. Please contact me if you want me to include articles. Thank you. 

October 2015 newsletter for independent childminders

Happy autumn! 
​
The children are excitedly collecting leaves and conkers and it seems the spiders are out in force this autumn! We are very much appreciating the milder weather though! Long may it last...

Time limited survey…

Tell DfE what you think about the accessibility of documents and information on their website - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J72ZQ5K. I had a good chat with one of the survey people the other day and told him how hard we find it to source information, especially after working full-on 10 hour days... it would be great if they put everything in one place for us! I also mentioned how we would appreciate changes being highlighted in documents so we don't have to search through them every time they release something new. 

Please tell them what you think - they won't make changes if we don't speak up!

 ………………………………………………………

30 hours ‘free’ childcare

It’s certainly a big discussion point among pre-school providers including childminders at the moment! Will it be sustainable to offer the 30 hours funded places, especially if parents do not want to buy extra hours? We know that Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw wants all 2 year olds in school for their 30 hours – but according to this Nursery World report schools are not sure they can provide enough spaces because while at the moment they can slot 2 children in for 15 hours each, a 30 hour offer pretty much fills up the week for 1 child - Nursery World article. 

I contributed to this article in Nursery World magazine – the full version can be found in the magazine itself – thank you to Nursery World for highlighting childminder issues!

This election ‘vote winner’ promise has definitely not been thought through very well! Perhaps more worrying - they cannot understand our responses as to why we need more money to deliver the 'free' education - see this cypnow article. 

………………………………………………………
And in other news…

All change at Ofsted

Goodbye to Nick Hudson at Ofsted early years… he’s been a support to childminders who work alongside Ofsted in the Ofsted Big Conversation over the years. Hello… Sean Harford who will be supported by Gill Jones, deputy director of early education. I have met Gill and she seems like a good, no-nonsense advocate of all things early years. We will have to see what the change brings … Sean Harford says that he is keen to engage with the sector and has shared his twitter account name.

He has already written a blog for providers introducing himself. He has also give us some information about the new inspection framework.

DfE are keen to engage with us as well – they are now writing a blog.

………………………………………………………

Healthy eating resource

According to this new healthy eating resource for parents from the Infant and Toddler Forum, children’s food choices are decided in the womb! The guide talks about developmental stages related to food and drink and has a section on portion sizes which parents might find interesting.

I have also shared this ‘toddler portion sizes’ link from Netmums with our parents.

………………………………………………………

Supervising babies when dropping / collecting from schools and nurseries

A childminder asked me – can I leave sleeping cm children in a double buggy outside nursery while I go in to take and collect older children? The nursery staff have said they will ‘watch’ the children from the door / a childminder friend will stand with the buggy. She says she has permission from parents to do this…

The answer is – no, you cannot do this. You are responsible for the cm children who must be in your sight and / or hearing at all times. If you go into the building leaving the cm children unsupervised by you then you risk an action from Ofsted – and you are not insured because you are failing to comply with the requirements of the EYFS which are statutory.

The best thing to do is – to speak to the nursery staff (the manager is the best person to approach) and explain your problem. State that you cannot leave children unsupervised by you and you won’t be able to carry them inside because they are too heavy / you won’t have any hands free / it’s too busy / it won’t be safe. Ask the manager if a staff member can bring the child/ren to you at the end of the session. This is part of partnership working and is something you will be able to discuss as a ‘problem solved’ in your self-evaluation.

………………………………………………………

New Ofsted Self-Evaluation Form (SEF) 

I was talking to Ofsted yesterday, wearing my Ofsted Big Conversation North West group hat ... and asked about the updated SEF and Ofsted's expectations - do we need to rush to update? What will inspectors be looking for during inspection?

The senior HMI who was advising us said that inspectors won't expect a fully completed new SEF immediately - what they will expect to see is that we are aware of the new SEF document and ready to make changes as we continue our normal continuous professional development plan.

There is feedback from the latest North West Ofsted Big Conversation meeting (#NWOBC for anyone on Twitter who wants to check out the meeting) here.

My new SEF guidance is in files at the top of the Childminding Forum here.

You can access the new online SEF here. The guidance is attached to each of the sections and I have included it in my document.

You can print a word version of the SEF once you are logged in - and Sonia Wright has put one into files on the Independent Childminders facebook group here. I always suggest doing the SEF on your own computer so you are in charge of it and don't lose it - upload it into the Ofsted system when you have some free time and it's not a rush.

Don't forget to keep coming back to your SEF and updating it as things change and your business grows. Where possible add parent comments... focus on the impact of changes on the children... it's your boasting book so remember to update it often! 

………………………………………………………

Pre-school Learning Alliance news

Have you signed to show your support for the PLA early years manifesto yet? I signed the other day… PLA work hard on our behalf, to improve conditions for all early years providers including childminders and they welcome childminder members. More information about the ‘manifesto for change’ here.

………………………………………………………

British values

Ofsted have been made aware that some childminders / nurseries are buying 'British values' packs full of flags, banners, pictures of the royal family etc... this is OK for teaching children about life in Britain if this is your current theme BUT please understand that it has nothing to do with British values. We need to be clear about British values which are already embedded in practice if you are following the EYFS.

Ofsted have stated that their inspectors have been trained on British values using this guidance from 4Children, on the Foundation years website here.

………………………………………………………

Key messages from Gill Jones and practitioners on #EYTalking / Twitter 15.9.2015

• Effective leadership will only be judged outstanding if it is inspirational. Ofsted are looking for evidence of how leaders have improved the setting and raised outcomes for the children.

Note – this will be part of your SEF – you will show that you are constantly enhancing your provision, listening to your families and children and using their feedback to improve, checking your action plan and seeing how changes you make are impacting on the children.

• The EYFS may be updated in the future – Ofsted are talking to DfE about it at the moment and will inform us when there is news.

Note – keep an eye on the IC Facebook group and this newsletter for more information.

• When providers are judged inadequate they need to inform their LA and ask for support.

Note – good and outstanding providers are no longer automatically entitled to support from their LA.

• Ineffective safeguarding = automatic inadequate judgement at inspection with enforcement action.

Note – it is really important that you read the new safeguarding handbook which comes with the CIF and Early Years inspection framework.

• When inspecting the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) Ofsted are looking for how plans relating to the child/ren who receive EYPP show the impact of the money on their future learning.

Note – more information on the Foundation Years website about claiming EYPP here.

• Attendance monitoring is mostly aimed at funded children. Irregular attendance might indicate a problem that needs supporting at home.

Note – this is a requirement in the new Early Years inspection handbook. Do you need to change your ways of working to show that you are monitoring children’s attendance? Have you read the requirement to record names and dates of birth of all children either on your register or on a separate sheet to show your inspector?

• Keep an eye on the Watchsted website for post-CIF inspection reports (inspections dated from 1st Sept 2015).

………………………………………………………

Whistle blowing

There was a long thread on the Independent Childminders Facebook group recently about whistle blowing that has caused some confusion.

The thread was started because a childminder colleague ‘sat on’ a concern about another provider's interactions with the children in her care before reporting it to Ofsted. Our colleague  wasn’t sure what to do for the best and wanted to take advice first. The outcome - Ofsted have actioned our colleague for not reporting it (whistle blowing the concern) straight away.

As a result I suggested all childminders check your safeguarding procedures – make sure you have a section about whistle blowing that states if you have a concern about a child you will inform Ofsted and the other notifying authorities (Social Services, the Police etc) immediately. Then, if there is a problem eg you see bad practice at pre-school or you are worried about children in their home life, all you need to do is follow your procedures.

This led to a lot of childminders getting annoyed because it is not a requirement of the Eyfs to have a whistle blowing policy or procedures!! No, you are right - it's not! However, your safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures is there to support you in an emergency situation and should state how you protect a child... surely this is what 'whistle blowing' is all about? 

………………………………………………………

Changes to childminder registration

From 1st January 2016 childminders in England will be able to work on non-domestic premises ‘for up to half their time using their childminder registration’ because they will no longer be required to register each of our premises separately. This change is meant to give childminders more flexibility about the premises from which we can operate.

Reference - Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 here.  

The Small Business Enterprise & Employment Act 2015 states -
‘The current definition of childminding only allows registered childminders to operate from domestic premises (usually their own home). Childminders will have additional flexibility in future to work from non-domestic premises for up to half their time* using their childminder registration. For example, they could run a small after school club working on school premises.’

*Note – I advise that if you are intending to do this you keep a register to show evidence to an inspector that you are not operating at the new premises for more than half a week.

Before working from other premises, childminders must ask permission from Ofsted (or their childminder agency) and the premises must be approved by Ofsted. There might also be local conditions such as applying for planning permission and food hygiene registration - LA clarification should be requested. The change is meant to encourage childminders to expand or open up new provision without having to make multiple applications every time.

Childminders must still comply with the EYFS while operating on non-domestic premises – for example, they must calculate floor space requirements and the adult – child ratios will be the same as stated in the EYFS. The law states that childminders might choose to work together if they want to run a larger group provision. See the Small Business Enterprise & Employment Act here for more information.

………………………………………………………

Keeping children safe online

It is a requirement of the new Early Years Inspection handbook that we keep children safe online and this is an area of provision Ofsted will be inspecting and might ask you about, so you need your answers ready. There is a useful guide to share with parents from Internet Matters here and the NSPCC have released information for younger children here.

 ………………………………………………………

Childminders provide quality care – it’s official!

A new report from the Study of Early Education and Development (SEED) study has been published which highlights the key factors distinguishing the quality of care provided by childminders.

………………………………………………………

‘What to expect, when?’ parents guide updated

The guide has been updated with some additional resources to support children’s early literacy.

………………………………………………………

SEND – CPD for early years providers

A SEND early years toolkit has been published by 4Children and the Council for Disabled Children. It can be downloaded and printed from here, to work through as you have time.

I intend doing it alongside the free training course for Childcare.co.uk gold members ‘Equality and Inclusion in Early Years Settings’ here.

………………………………………………………

Knutsford Childminding news

I have updated all my e-books which link to the new Common Inspection Framework including –

E-book 18 – SEF guide and CPD advice - £5.99

E-book 63 – Pre-inspection checklist for childminders in England - £3.99

E-book 67 – Ofsted inspections – a comprehensive guide to new inspection framework - £4.99

If you have bought these e-books from Knutsford Childminding please message me with your purchase details and I will send you your free updates. Thank you.
 
I hope you find these newsletters interesting and informative. If you have any news you would like me to share please message me.

Chat soon, Sarah. 

September 2015 newsletter for independent childminders

It's nearly autumn and cooler days are coming - if they haven't arrived already! 

We are changing our planning from September because we have older children going up to school and we want to meet the learning needs of 3 younger children. Our current children love helping us to plan our themes ... but we don't think they are relevant for 1.5 year olds so we will, instead, be focussing on children's books (they all love reading time) and thinking about how we can extend them into activities to support learning and have fun at the same time. 

For September our books will focus on 'all about me' as they say goodbye to older friends and think about themselves and how they have grown and will grow over the coming years ... Harvest Festival with the story of 'The Little Red Hen' and bread making ... and scarecrows because there is a scarecrow festival towards the end of September in one of the local villages ... this will take us nicely into autumn at the end of September.

We will be recording what we do and how things go so we can write new Information Guides for Childcare.co.uk - exciting times! 


Time sensitive information

Childcare Expo 2015 – Ricoh Arena, Coventry

Childcare Expo is 25th and 26th September – we will be there on the Saturday. It’s usually a great day out with lots of stalls and other practitioners sharing good practice information and activity ideas. 

You can get your free tickets here. Hopefully we will meet up with lots of lovely childminders!

 ………………………………………………..

Childminder Hub – Trafford

The 1st Childminder Hub for Trafford childminders is on Sept 15th 2015 – 630 – 9pm at the Village Nursery, Trafford. This is a new support group for childminders in the Trafford area and I will be delivering training on…

·       What does ‘early education’ mean to childminders?

·       How do we promote British values in childminding provisions?

·       Unpicking the Common Inspection Framework…

There will be plenty of opportunities for questions and answers. 


For tickets or more information please contact – enquiries@health-safetysolutions.net.

………………………………………………..

Ofsted Big Conversation North West open meeting

The next OBC North West open meeting is on 19th Sept 2015 – 9.30 – 1pm at the Best Western Park Hall Hotel, Preston. 


The meeting will be attended by Ofsted who are going to talk about, among other things, the new inspection framework and British values.

You can buy tickets here and join over 500 practitioners (so far...) who want to engage with Ofsted and listen to what they have to say about the new Common Inspection Framework, British values and much more.

………………………………………………..

In other news…

The Common Inspection Framework is nearly here!

Are you ready? This blog has been written to support childminders who have inspections from September 1st 2015.

…………………………………….

Childminder agency watch...

According to this Nursery World article, none of the childminder agencies have any childminders on their books yet! This is great news for childminders who are working hard to stay independent of agencies – it shows what a good job we are doing supporting each other.

Support groups for childminders who want to stay independent of agencies and share good practice information and advice with colleagues so everyone feels supported and helped include the Independent Childminders Facebook group and the Childminding Forum.

…………………………………….

Childminders and funded sessions

Did you take part in the Nursery World survey into childminders and funded places? Morton Michel were running a similar survey and PLA provided a tool to help calculate how much an early years space costs in real terms.

I contributed to the Nursery World survey and hopefully it will be published shortly. I was given a sneak preview of some of the results when I chatted to a Nursery World journalist about the problems childminders face when delivering the 3 and 4 year funding… half of those who responded were unsure about offering the funding when it changes to 30 hours a week!

That cannot be good news for the children or their families … hopefully the Govt will resolve the funding crisis promptly.

…………………………………….

Early intervention funding – worrying news

Early intervention funding has, according to this Morton Michel newsletter article, been cut by 55%. The funding is supposed to ensure the youngest children receive support if they are failing to make good progress in their learning and is part of the Govt’s flagship programme of improvements in the early years. 

Is it affecting you? Do you need support that you are not getting locally? If the answer is 'yes' you need to let the Govt know - changes will not happen if we do not lobby for them...

…………………………………….

Safeguarding - whistleblowing

All childminders – including colleagues who work with staff – should have a whistleblowing procedure as part of their safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures. The whistleblowing procedure should state that if they have any concerns about a child’s safety they will contact the relevant notifying authorities without delay. It does not need to be a big procedure – just a line or 2 to show that you are aware of the importance of acting on concerns to keep children safe.

The important message is not to have a procedure – that’s not what this reminder is about – because you should have one already. What we want to remind childminders to do is ensure you follow up concerns immediately because colleagues have been actioned by Ofsted for waiting / sitting on concerns or taking advice elsewhere before making reports.

You can find more information and a lively discussion about what might be reported on this thread in the Independent Childminders Facebook group.

If you are not a member of the Facebook group you can find the information on the Childminding Forum here.

…………………………………….

British values

From Sept 1st and the introduction of the new Common Assessment framework (here), Ofsted inspectors will be inspecting how well childminders and other early years providers actively promote British values.

Whether you agree with the terminology or not, British values are here to stay! You can find a quick reminder about how childminders might show evidence of actively promoting British values on the Childminding Forum here.

This Childminding Forum thread contains information about how I have tackled the Prevent duty in our provision including sample wording to add to your safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures.

…………………………………….

The observation, assessment and planning cycle


Observations

I have received quite a few questions recently from practitioners about observations – so I wrote a quick blog. I hope you find it useful.

Next steps / individual planning

It is always useful to share ideas with colleagues – we learn so much from each other! This thread contains a list of useful phrases to start off your ‘next steps’…

There is guidance on how to write developmentally appropriate next steps here.

Other types of planning

I wrote this guidance for colleagues a while ago but it is still relevant… the most important planning is individual, linked to children’s likes, interests, things they are learning at home and elsewhere. You can also, if you wish, write group planning and a lot of childminders find it very useful to teach children new things about, for example, the seasons, the weather, festivals and celebrations in the local community and further afield. Linking planning to the new Common Inspection Framework – from 1st Sept Ofsted will not comment on the types of planning you use or inspect how you plan… they will focus on how your planning makes a difference to outcomes for children.  

Summary assessment

There is no requirement in the Eyfs to write summary assessments apart from the 2 year progress check. However, most practitioners do plot termly assessment information to make sure they are looking at each child's progress regularly, sharing information with parents and spotting any concerns. 

Note that Early Years Outcomes is Ofsted's assessment document of choice - you can still use Development Matters if you find it helpful for your planning and to support you when you are noting children's learning characteristics but EYO is the document Ofsted inspectors will be looking for you using in each child's learning and development file. 

Paperwork 

It is important that you do not overwhelm yourself with paperwork to record children's learning and development. There is nothing in the EYFS to suggest you must record observations or write lots of information about a child every month... your paperwork should reflect what the child can do now, what you are working on next and comments from home and other settings about what they are learning elsewhere. You should give parents ideas to try at home and where possible ask for and record brief feedback. Keep it simple - don't stress over it - do a little every so often rather than getting behind. You might find this time management blog helpful.   

…………………………………….

Preparing children for school

Do you have any school starters next September? Now is the time to start your planning and help parents to prepare them so they are confident, independent and excited about their new adventure.

You will find lots of tips in this blog - and in this blog I shared information with our parents here at Knutsford Childminding about how we intend helping them to prepare their child for school.

I am currently writing a new series of Information Guides for Childcare.co.uk gold members about transitions which you might find helpful. 

…………………………………….

Contacting Ofsted

It is very important that you keep Ofsted updated with any changes to your provision including new people moving in, teenagers or older children moving out, new medication or illnesses, change of address … the list can be found in the EYFS. We have also been informed by childminders that Ofsted are stretching ‘significant events’ as stated in the EYFS to include things that happen at the weekend!!

The best way to inform Ofsted is by email – enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk – then you have written confirmation that you have shared the information with them and there is less chance of confusion during inspection. When you email Ofsted you need to provide them with your Unique Reference Numbers (URN) and two of the following pieces of information for each childminder you are contacting them about:

• Home address (including postcode)
• Date of birth
• A previous surname, for example, maiden name
• Personal telephone number known to Ofsted
• Email address known to Ofsted.

If something happens and you wonder to yourself ‘should I inform Ofsted’ … the best advice is to let them know. The absolute worst time to tell them about changes is during an inspection!!

…………………………………….

Integrated review

From Sept 2015 childminders throughout England will be involved in the new integrated review at age 2. I cannot imagine all LAs will be ready to roll with it from 1st Sept but that is the intention. You can find more information about the integrated review here.

Childminders are having problems with the new system already – many are being told they cannot use Children’s Centres for their group meetings and some Children’s Centres are advertising the review to parents and just talking about input from nurseries, not childminders. When asked if the ASQ-3 support materials might be reviewed and updated to include mention of childminders, those who are providing training materials for the integrated review stated that ‘There are no plans to revise the current ASQ-3 e-learning materials’… which means that the current materials are, in the view of many childminders, not fit for purpose because they do not involve us or note the valuable contribution we can make to a child’s 2 year progress check.

Note that childminders must still complete a 2 year progress check for every 2 year old in their provision regardless of whether the check is read by the child’s health visitor.

…………………………………….

Keeping children safe and healthy - hand sanitiser – be aware of the dangers

A child has recently been hospitalised after ingesting hand sanitiser - article on the CAPT website here.

I know a lot of childminders leave tissues, a lidded bin and hand sanitiser where children can reach it to encourage independence and help prepare children for school where they will not be helped to wipe their noses and clean their hands afterwards. Note that many hand sanitisers contain a large proportion of alcohol – the non-alcohol versions are safer as well as ensuring they are inclusive for children of all religions.

…………………………………….

Common Inspection framework - Ofsted good practice videos

Ofsted have released 4 new good practice videos which will help childminders prepare for the new Common Inspection Framework which will be used by Ofsted from 1st September 2015. The videos are on YouTube here.

You can find information from Ofsted about the new inspection framework here.

This is my latest blog about the Common Inspection Framework and Early Years Inspection handbook here.

…………………………………….

What to expect, when?

‘What to expect, when?’ is a new guidance document for parents from 4Children. It has been evaluated by 3 different settings and the results have been published. I found it very interesting to read the evaluations and to pull out different ways of using ‘What to expect, when?’ so it doesn’t end up a dusty book on the shelf.

As a result of my reading, I have scanned the guidance into the computer so I can send age-relevant pages to parents … I will use it in my assessments of children’s play and to inform ideas for ‘sharing learning with home’ and ‘promoting home learning’ … both focus areas in the new Common Inspection Framework. You can read the evaluation case studies here.

You can download the parents guide here.

You can buy copies for your parents (and yourself) from 4Children here.

…………………………………….

Assistants and pensions

Do you have employed assistants working for you? Do you know that the pension rules are changing soon? You can find more information here. 

You can find more assistant information on the assistant page of this website here.

…………………………………….

Staying updated

It is very important that all childminders who want to stay independent of agencies work closely together to stay up-to-date and informed about changes in the world of early years. These newsletters are published in a number of places which are hopefully accessible to all childminders and early years professionals who find them useful.

Childcare.co.uk host our newsletters on their ‘news’ page for free as well as gold members here.

A précis of our newsletter will be added to the files section of the Independent Childminders Facebook page here.

We always share information with our colleagues on the Childminding Forum here.

August 2015 newsletter for independent childminders

We are in the middle of the summer holidays here at Knutsford Childminding and loving every minute! The children are playing beautifully – old ones and younger all together like a proper home-from-home family. They all went to a child’s birthday party recently and a parent said how good they are looking out for each other and playing together – we are very lucky.

Sadly the weather has not been kind to us. It hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm though – we are simply planning activities that mean we can ignore it! For our summer planning we are visiting a different country every week with the children and exploring music, history, culture, clothes, houses, language and food. Everyone is having a fab time and learning so much!

Time sensitive information

Govt funding review

The Govt are consulting with early years providers about the amount of funding needed to provide childcare and education for 3 and 4 year olds. Providers currently say that the funding is not enough for 15 hours and this situation will be much worse when the hours rise to 30 next year. I have written some information for childminders which is here on the Childminding Forum but I was unable to work out an ‘actual cost per hour’ because of the way childminder income vs expenses works (I don’t do complicated sums).

PLA have produced a calculator which you might find helpful here - I contributed a few ideas for it but it was put together by a clever accountant.

The review closes on 10th August so you only have a couple of weeks left to reply.

……………………………………………

Ofsted big conversation North West – reminder!

The next Ofsted Big Conversation open meeting for the North West will be held in Preston on 19th September 2015. It will include a presentation from Ofsted about the new Common Inspection Framework, British values and much more. Tickets are only £9.50 per delegate - you can buy them here.

……………………………………………

Childcare Expo 2015

Registration is now open for Childcare Expo 2015 – it is in Coventry Arena on 25 & 26th September. We have been going every year since it opened and we really enjoy the day. There are hundreds of stands which have inspiring displays and we get lots of ideas to improve our future practice.
You can get your free tickets and buy seminars here. 

……………………………………………

Early Years Hub

All childminders who live in the north (Trafford, Greater Manchester, Cheshire etc) will be welcome to the NEW Childminder Hub meeting in Trafford on 15th September. More information here. 









……………………………………………

And in other news…

Early Years Pupil Premium

Do you receive EYPP for any of your funded children? If you do, you will have to show your Ofsted inspector (from September 2015) how you have spent the money and how it has made a difference for the funded child. For example, if the child is tracked at an age / stage that is ‘lower than expected’ in speech and language you should use the EYPP to buy resources and attend training which will allow you to better support their learning … if the child is learning English as an additional language you might spend the EYPP on dual language resources to help them make links between their home language and English.

Early Education have provided support for practitioners who are claiming EYPP here.

There is a new document from DfE (updated July 2015) here which will help you identify which children are eligible for the early years pupil premium and share information about EYPP with parents.

……………………………………………

Early Years Agenda – a manifesto for change from PLA

PLA are very pro-childminders and do a lot of excellent work to support us. They have recently launched their Early Years Agenda manifesto which is free on request – you can download a copy or order a free printed copy here.

……………………………………………

Children and fizzy / sugary drinks

Do you give fizzy drinks to your own children? Do parents give them to childminded children? This article from Nursery World magazine might be interesting.

It is worrying to note the amount of hidden sugar in children’s drinks – this article in The Times newspaper gives us a stark reminder that even drinks we might think of as ‘healthy’ contain worrying amounts of sugar.

……………………………………………

New help for families of children with SEN

The charity for disabled children ‘Contact a Family’ has been granted money by the Big Lottery Fund to provide information to families about the way the new SEN system works. You might find it useful to share this information with any of your families who have children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). You can find more information here.

……………………………………………

FREE updated information guide

Updated (07.2015) 'Essential Ofsted paperwork checklist' from Childcare.co.uk - free for everyone - just log in with your free account to download a copy. Hope you find it useful.

……………………………………………

Shadow Childcare Minister

We are happy to read in a recent Nursery World magazine article that Sharon Hodgson has returned to her previous role as Shadow Childcare Minister. Sharon is a great supporter of childminders (I believe she was a childminder previously) … we hope that she makes a positive impact on our behalf.

……………………………………………

Ofsted early years annual report

There is some good news in the report – childminder grades are up and we received praise for this from Sir Michael Wilshaw at the conference to launch the report. Sadly, he then went on to repeat his belief that 2 year olds will receive a better education in schools…  he really is a man on a solo mission pushing this agenda even though every early years professional he speaks to must tell him he is wrong! 

You can read the report here. 

……………………………………………

Ofsted – new information and guidance

To promote excellence, Ofsted have released some new provider case studies including this childminder good practice example here.

This is another of the good practice examples showing how a nursery uses assessment to close the literacy gap, especially engaging boys.

There are more case studies new for 2015 at the bottom of this list.

There is another new document from Ofsted which all early years providers need to read because it provides an overview of how Ofsted are going to be inspecting childminders, nurseries, pre-schools etc from September 2015. It is called ‘Teaching and Play in the early years – a balancing act’ and you can download it from here.

……………………………………………

Making the transition to school

To support practitioners with preparing children for starting school, Childcare.co.uk have added a new Activity Guide to the resources page for gold members here.

There is further free advice about how to write a transition document on the Childminding Forum in free resources here.

Look out for a new Childcare.co.uk transition Information Guide coming soon to the Childminder Plus page!

……………………………………………

Updating for the revised EYFS

We are expecting a new version of the EYFS – we could do with it sooner rather than later please DfE so we can prepare our documentation ready for September and the introduction of the Common Inspection Framework - more information about the CIF here.

If it’s anything like last time the inspection framework changed, inspectors hit the ground running on 1st September and a lot of colleagues were caught out not ready for the new legislation.

……………………………………………

Safeguarding – a new tool for practitioners

Nursery World magazine reports there is a new tool for practitioners to help spot the first signs of abuse and neglect in children. The article might be added to your safeguarding file (if you have one – it is not a requirement of the EYFS to have a file of safeguarding information).

……………………………………………

Self-evaluation – the Ofsted SEF

We are also expecting a new Self Evaluation Form to reflect the changes to the outcome areas in the Common Inspection Framework. Ofsted have said they will move current responses around on our online forms … this caused a lot of confusion last time so we do need to be prepared! As soon as we have new documents from DfE and Ofsted we will ensure members of the Childminding Forum and Independent Childminders Facebook group and Childcare.co.uk gold members are updated.

Meanwhile, don’t let the changes put you off updating your self-evaluation and action planning. It is good practice to keep your action plan updated regardless of whether you use the Ofsted SEF or not!! You might be reviewing your garden provision or planning to start some planting with the children or making changes for Sept to accommodate new starters - you can write it up on paper or on a document in your computer so that when the new SEF is released you can simply add it into the relevant section smile emoticon

As far as we are aware the Ofsted guidance 'Are you ready for your inspection?' has been removed from the Ofsted website and it will not be updated because Ofsted have said they are not going to replace any of the old guidance documents. We will of course be keeping an eye on updates and will let everyone know if it is replaced.

……………………………………………

New Ofsted blog

Ofsted have started a new blog for all providers including early years. It will talk about inspections and the Common Inspection Framework. It is worth putting in your favourites and checking regularly for updates.

……………………………………………

Love my Books

We love reading with children at Knutsford Childminding – and we often take a child’s favourite book and extend their learning by planning some activities linked to the story. For example, we made a messy tray to follow the journey taken by the children in ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ and we sing a train song after reading ‘That’s not my train’. Love my Books is a free website which provides activity ideas and resources for those days when, for whatever reason, inspiration is lacking… you can find more information here. 


Well I think that's it for August so far! I am sure I will be updating this newsletter when we get new information from DfE and / or Ofsted prior to September.

Chat soon, Sarah x
 

---

July 2015 newsletter for independent childminders

Summer has finally arrived! The children are loving our new water wall and spend most of their days knee deep in sand. We offer opportunities to go outside every day throughout the year but I think we will all admit it’s much easier to get everyone motivated when the sun shines… until we have to come back in because it’s too hot of course! I wish the weather in this country would find a happy medium.

Here’s some updated news for childminder colleagues who want to stay independent of agencies…

Time sensitive news…

Funded childcare cost consultation - providers have been invited to give evidence on the cost of the ‘free’ funded childcare places – if you don’t comment you will not be able to complain if the amount of funding you receive is less than you need to stay sustainable. This is my response – please feel free to use it to write your own – the consultation is open until 10th August 2015. There is some information about the consultation from Nursery World magazine here.

Ofsted Big Conversation - the next Ofsted Big Conversation open meeting for the North West will be held in Preston on 19th September 2015. It will include a presentation from Ofsted about the new Common Inspection Framework, British values and much more. Tickets are only £9.50 per delegate - you can buy them here.

Training opportunity for childminders in Manchester / Stockport / Cheshire – you might be interested in this training session set up by Kids Allowed for childminders who want to learn more about the ‘Kids Allowed Way’ of documenting children’s learning and development. The training is on Sat 8th August and tickets are £40 - the training will be held at the KA centre in Cheadle. You can buy tickets here. 

………………………

And in other news…

NEW Common Inspection framework – I have been reading through the framework and picking out some key points from the Common Inspection Framework documents ready for training sessions I am going to be delivering locally. The emphasis is definitely on the curriculum (what you are teaching and how children are learning) – but safeguarding will always be important and there is an extra little booklet that talks in detail about how safeguarding will be inspected from September 2015. You can find all the new documents here and some information about the Common Inspection Framework for childminders here. 

Prevent duty – this is now law (from 1st July 2015) and we must comply with it, including protecting children from radicalisation and extremism and promoting British values. You will find more information, links and ideas for compliance in this Childminding Forum thread.

Free nursery milk – don’t forget you can claim back 1/3 pint of milk a day for early years children from Nursery Milk. You buy the milk from the supermarket and submit a monthly claim to Nursery Milk who then refund you. The website to register is here.

Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) - if you receive this extra funding for 3 and 4 year olds you will have to justify to Ofsted, during inspection, how it has been spent and how the money has raised outcomes for the child/ren. You will find more information in this series of website pages from Early Education.

Early Years inspectors – Ofsted have announced that Prospects and Tribal will continue to have contracts with them to inspect early years providers (Nursery World magazine article here). This is not a surprise – Ofsted have spent a lot of time and money re-training all Prospects and Tribal inspectors recently and are putting new systems in place to monitor their effectiveness. They are also updating the complaints process to (hopefully) make it more robust – this is something we have been pushing for as part of the Ofsted Big Conversation, recognising that at the moment the complaints process is not fit for purpose.

Heatwave advice – prepare yourself, write your risk assessments and promote information sharing with parents by reading and sending out this useful guide from the Health Protection Agency.

Story time with dad … tips on father-child engagement to share with your parents and support your CPD here.  Thank you to Laura Henry from Neytco, a company for early years trainers, for sharing the link

Inclusion - there is a new free ‘Guide to Inclusive Childcare’ for early years providers from the Family and Childcare Trust. It is a pdf which you can download and share with parents - here. There is also a free ‘SEN and Disability in the early years’ toolkit from 4Children. It is written a bit like a training course and will be useful for all early years providers here.  

Class 2 National Insurance – the way self-employed people pay class 2 NI is changing. There is more information on this website including advice about how to set up monthly payments if you prefer to pay this way – your current payments will stop soon and you will have to set them up again.

Healthy food in schools – we have been told recently that schools can take items out of children’s lunch boxes if they are not considered ‘healthy eating’ … and we know from colleagues that some childminders have been actioned at inspection because parents have not sent their children to the provision with healthy lunch box contents so this is definitely something we need to be aware of in our day-to-day conversations with parents. A lot of childminders who ask parents to send lunch boxes for their children provide a list of healthy options and send home inappropriate food and drink while teaching children about healthy eating through planned and spontaneous opportunities during the day.

I think this is worth monitoring because if it’s happening in schools, it is generally only a matter of time before it filters down to early years. More information here. 

Childminder ratios clarified – after a lot of lobbying by the Ofsted Big Conversation and childminders across the country, we have received some useful clarification about variations from 4Children. You can find it here.

If you have any other early years news you would like me to share, please email me and let me know.

Thank you! Sarah Neville
Knutsford Childminding

June 2015 newsletter for independent childminders

Welcome to June! Is it sunny where you are today? We are gearing up for the summer here at Knutsford Childminding - we have the sand and water play set up in the garden and lots of exciting invitations to play under the awning. 


We have been focussing on fiddly fingers activities and stimulating the senses every day recently – the children love finding new and exciting play invitations during daily outside play. 

If you want to know more about some of our activities, please click the highlighted links to go to our parent / colleague blog and read more. 


Underfunding of ‘free’ spaces for 3 and 4 year olds

Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA) are on a mission to ensure the Govt tackles the underfunding before they introduce the 30 hours promised at the last election. Childminders and other early years providers receive very different amounts for 3 and 4 year old ‘free’ places depending on how much their Local Authority pays them – and many say it is not enough to ensure continued sustainability. I have been a PLA member for some years now and I am very grateful to them for fighting this issue on our behalf.

A flurry of press releases suggest PLA have a lot of backing from across the sector including this article in Nursery World magazine.

NEWS - we have just heard (June 2015) that there is a ‘call for evidence’ from DfE to find out more about the cost of childcare – the link is here if you want to respond. I will be writing some guidance to the main issues in the next few weeks for colleagues on the Independent Childminders Facebook page and Childminding Forum. 


NEW documents from Ofsted

Ofsted have been busy releasing lots of NEW documents. The first was a new early years handbook (May 2015)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inspecting-early-years-handbook-for-inspectors

PLA have written a document which contains the changes in the handbook here.

https://www.pre-school.org.uk/whats-new/policy-updates/ofsted-updates

This was closely followed by the NEW Common Inspection Framework (CIF) and early years guidance (June 2015).

https://www.gov.uk/changes-to-education-inspection-from-september-2015

Ofsted released further information about the CIF (May 2015) which is worth reading.  
http://www.slideshare.net/Ofstednews/how-will-the-common-inspection-framework-affect-early-years.

What will inspection look like from September 2015? I wrote this guidance a while ago when we were first introduced to the Common Inspection Framework and it is still up-to-date information. 


Note for Knutsford Childminding customers - I will be updating all my e-books in due course – updates are always free you just need to message or email me and I will send them to you.  

 
Ofsted inspection tips

I have written further guidance for childminders who are due an Ofsted inspection. You will find pre-inspection tips in this Childminding Forum thread - relevant for inspections before Sept 1st 2015.


Ofsted complaints procedure

I have been a member of the NW Ofsted Big Conversation group for some time and one of the things we have been lobbying Ofsted for is greater fairness during the complaints process. We are aware of many childminders, nurseries, pre-schools etc who have made genuine complaints to Ofsted about inspections, inspectors, reports etc and have not been dealt with fairly. We are delighted that this is being tackled by Ofsted with the setting up of a new ‘scrutiny committee’ – you can read more about it here.

You can keep up-to-date with all the latest information by clicking ‘like’ on the Facebook page for the Ofsted Big Conversation here.

There are still a few tickets left for the next North West regional Open Meeting with Ofsted on 19th September in Preston when we will be talking about the Common Inspection Framework and how it will impact childminders and other providers. This is the link for more information. 


Ofsted good practice examples

Ofsted have put together a page of links which give good practice examples across a range of settings including childminders and nurseries. It is worth reading to find out the type of things inspectors might be looking for when they arrive to inspect. Here... 


Childcare Expo 2015

Are you going to the Childcare Expo this year? It’s at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry – 25th – 26th October. We have already booked our hotel! We really enjoy this opportunity to network with colleagues and find out new ways of doing things from the many exhibitors at the exhibition. You can find out more about the Expo here. 

We are also really pleased that Childcare Expo is coming to Manchester next year – about time too!


There is lots of support for childminders who want to stay independent of agencies on our Independent Childminders Facebook group, managed by Childcare.co.uk. You can also find answers to questions and colleagues on the Childminding Forum. We don’t want any childminders saying they had to join an agency because there was nobody to help them… we are here if you want to come and find us. Together we are strong. 

Childminding Forum - http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/

Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/independentchildminders

PS - I apologise that this newsletter is not as professionally set out as usual - I will tidy it up when I get home from my holiday. I thought it was more important to get the information out to everyone than to worry about a few fonts and colours that aren't displaying properly. Sarah x


---

May 2015 newsletter for independent childminders

How is your May going? Ours has been very wet recently! 

I was driving back from training late last night and the sky was an impressive battleship grey colour! We will talk about the weather with the children and collect some rainfall from the garden later today - it's a pity they missed the huge white hailstones last night - the roads on some parts of my journey looked like they were covered in snow!

I completed my training to be a trainer recently (yay me!) and was attending some safeguarding training delivered by Health and Safety Solutions in Trafford (I live in Cheshire east) to see how it's done. It's interesting how the training in neighbouring boroughs is so different. Regular readers of this newsletter should know that we have quite a few new safeguarding documents including...

Working together to safeguard children - March 2015 - here

What to do if you are worried a child is being abused - March 2015 - here

Information sharing guidance - March 2015 - here

Female genital mutilation guidance - July 2014 - here

Prevent strategy guidance (England & Wales) - 2015 - here 

British values guidance - March 2015 - here

Disqualification by association - NDNA factsheet and sample suitability questionnaire - here

Childminders do not need to print all these documents - but we should have them in our computer files and be able to talk about them confidently during our Ofsted inspections. Some childminders print the front page (as evidence they are aware of the document) and add details of where it is stored for reference. 


Free resources

Childminders have asked me to share some of our sources of free information - we like free information and activity ideas here at Knutsford Childminding! We get a lot of our resources from the TES resources website (register free) and display ideas from Mrs Pancake and Teacher’s Pet. There are lots of freebies on Twinkl and we recently bought an annual subscription to access even more of their printables. Free downloadable booklets from Early Education include some interesting guidance documents about playing and learning in the early years.

I have written lots of guides for childminders on Childcare.co.uk, some of which are free. I have also added hundreds of free resources to the Childminding Forum website in the ‘free downloads’ section which childminders and other early years professionals might find useful. I have lots of blogs including my WordPress blog for parents and practitioners and my Knutsford Childminding blog and I regularly add information to this Independent Childminders website. I also have lots of documents in the files section of the Independent Childminders Facebook page – I know where most of them are so if you are looking for something please ask me.


Funding unfairness

It baffles me how nurseries and pre-schools can claim funded sessions when practitioners work with their own children – but childminders cannot claim the funding. I have taken this up with PLA who have agreed to raise this unfairness with DfE on behalf of those childminders affected by the decision to withdraw funding if the childminder is working with their own or a related child. I have written to PLA and they have published my letter in their latest ‘Under 5’ magazine – I have added a copy on the Independent Childminders Facebook group here. I will let you know if I receive any further correspondence.


Disabled children and the Equality Act 2010

This booklet from the Council for Disabled Children gives guidance to how the Equality Act 2010 should be used by early years providers in settings. All childminders must ensure they do not discriminate against disabled children – this booklet provides extra guidance. I have updated my e-book 47 ‘The Equality Act 2010’ recently to reflect changes to SEND requirements in the latest version of the SEND Code of Practice (Jan 2015) here.


SEND resources from the Communication Trust

There are some new free early years resources available for download from the Communication Trust covering speech and language, speaking and listening, early identification, supporting children, working with parents and workforce development (a short online course) - here. The resources have been written to help develop knowledge and skills around the SEND reforms and speech, language and communication development.


SEND information from Contact a Family

If you work with families of disabled children the Contact a Family website has been re-designed for easier navigation and provides advice and information for families and practitioners who are looking for support with finding information, getting a diagnosis, requesting financial support and much more. It is a useful website link to keep in your computer favourites and share with parents - here.


World happiness report

The World happiness report 2015 does not make very good reading for children and families in Britain. Our happiness comes 21st in the list behind countries such as Australia, Denmark and Switzerland. The report evaluates the progress various countries are making to support wellbeing… it is important that practitioners regularly note children’s wellbeing to ensure their levels of wellbeing are not changing (EYFS requirement 3.6 – safeguarding). You can read a copy of the report here.


Election results

What do you think to the results of the general election? Are you delighted that the Tories have another 5 years in power or worried for the future of your business and concerned about your sustainability when they push through the 2 year olds in school agenda? Nursery World magazine have gathered together some of the comments from colleagues across the early years world including Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, who is always vocal on behalf of childminders - you can read the report here.


Disability – autism

Do you care for children with autism in your provision? Recent research has been published which aims to show how children with autism see the world. It has been reported in an article in Nursery World magazine - here. If you suspect a child might be on the autism spectrum you should speak to parents and advise them to take their child to the Health Visitor. You might also find it useful (with parents permission) to speak to the Health visitor and ask for guidance to help you gain a better understanding of the condition.


Reporting suspected abuse

The Government have been talking about the possibility of making it an offence if professionals do not report suspected child abuse to the notifying authority. This is happening because of mistakes in the past where abused children have slipped through the net and not received the help they need, with no agency taking responsibility for missed opportunities to respond to concerns about their safety. This Guardian newspaper report includes some interesting arguments for and against mandatory reporting - here.


Childcare Expo 2015

We are planning ahead for our visit to Childcare Expo 2015 at the Ricoh Arena Coventry. We will be going on Saturday 26th September … it will be the 6th annual event and it is being billed as bigger and better than last year! The seminars are yet to be confirmed but we will be keeping an eye on the website and I am sure something good will pop up for us to book. You can find more information on the Childcare Expo website and sign up for regular updates via email.


Milk for breastfeeding mums

Do you work with any breastfeeding mums? If so, they might find this information in the Morton Michel free newsletter about the risks to breastfeeding mums of drinking organic or UHT milk (which is linked to iodine deficiency) interesting - here.


Vitamin D and sun cream application

Have parents of children in your provision asked you not to apply sun cream to their child because of the recent news articles about the rise in cases of rickets? I researched the vitamin D / sun cream issue after an enquiry from a parent… she read in the paper that cases of rickets have increased 4 fold since the push for everyone to use high factor sun cream. During my research I found that experts state if children have daily vitamin drops (which health visitors recommend), eat fatty fish at least once a week or, for example, drink a cup of vitamin D enriched orange juice and go outside every day then they will be getting enough vitamin D. The problem appears to be with children who are kept inside to 'keep them safe' or older (and ever younger) children who are inside on electronic equipment all day. As I said to the parent, you need to consider the trade-off between lack of vitamin D (which you can boost elsewhere and which children get with or without sun cream) and the risk of skin cancer / other sun related issues ... and she now fully understands why we will be sticking to our policy of regularly putting cream on all children on hot / sunny days. Childminders must consider their sun cream application policy carefully if this request is made.


Child fitness levels

According to a new study, child fitness levels are worryingly low - combine this with recent research by Ofsted which found that one in three children in the UK is overweight and we seem to have a serious problem on our hands. The chief medical officer guidelines recommend that all young children spend at least an hour a day being physically active – do you achieve this for the children in your care? In our provision we do ‘wake up shake up’ dances with children every morning, organise a daily song and dance session where children get up and are active and plan daily outside play opportunities. We organise sports games in the garden and visits to the local play centre. We go to the park and on a nature hunt round the local area at least once a week and walk with the children to and from school and town regularly.

This Activity Challenge is an initiative designed to support providers to encourage children to get up and moving – older children might enjoy getting involved in the challenges and raising their fitness levels. For younger children, you – and parents - might find the free pack of activity ideas from the Change4Life website useful.


Starting school – the start of testing

A childminder on the Independent Childminders Facebook group (on this thread) wanted to find out more about the new baseline tests for children starting school in September on behalf of one of her parents.

While the testing is not compulsory, schools will be penalised if they do not sign up to one of the assessments and start testing reception children this year – you can find more information in the guidance from Foundation Years here.

Members signposted a number of useful links which other colleagues might find helpful to share with your parents including...

- Nursery World magazine review baseline assessments - here

- Sample questions from the ‘GL assessment’ tests - here

- You can download sample questions from the Hodder Education tests - here

- Parents might find the sample questions here interesting / scary – here

Early Education do not believe testing is appropriate and have a petition against it, asking the Govt to re-think its position. You can find more information here.


Working with parents – starting school tips

We have been working with other practitioners to put together a list of useful starting school tips for parents who have children entering reception class in September. Childminders on the Independent Childminders Facebook group have come up with some brilliant ideas which I will collate into a document which members can give their parents. You will find it in files on the group at some point in the next month or so, alongside all my ‘Preparing for School’ letters to parents from the past year. Members who are using the letters and the activity ideas from them have received very positive feedback from Ofsted inspectors – it is a great way of showing evidence of working closely with parents to ensure their children are ready for school in September. 

I hope you find this May 2015 newsletter update useful. If you would like me to include any links or guidance in my newsletter please let me know. Thank you.

Sarah. 

April newsletter for independent childminders

These newsletters are written to support childminders who want to stay independent of agencies now and in the future. I use lots of different sources (acknowledged where possible) to ensure I am sharing best practice information and advice including Ofsted, Foundation Years, Nursery World and Practical Pre-school magazines, Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA), Morton Michel ChildCarer e-newsletter, NCB Early Childhood Unit, Pacey, Children and Young People Now online magazine, the Childminding Forum, Facebook groups I admin including Independent Childminders … and many more.

Planning for May

Have you written your bug hunt planning yet? We have ordered our caterpillars (always an exciting moment) and we are planning to take the children into the woods to look for minibeasts. We have made some spotter sheets based on the ones from Nature Detectives for the children to use with our new clipboards. When we have been out to spot minibeasts we will come back and focus our activities and our teaching on learning more about different minibeasts to develop children’s interests. I have contributed activity ideas to a new series of minibeast activity guides free for gold Childcare.co.uk members here which you might find useful.


Funding for relatives

Childminders have been complaining about the rule which prevents them from receiving LA funding for children who are relatives. I have submitted a letter to my membership organisation Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA) about this issue which they will hopefully print in their next magazine and PLA’s CEO Neil Leitch has assured me he is on the case, talking to DfE to try and get more clarification – especially as nurseries and pre-schools can claim funding for children related to staff or owners. I have been a member of PLA for some time now – they do very good work lobbying Government on behalf of childminders.


General election

Do you know who you are voting for in the general election on 7th May? The Family and Childcare Trust have put together an election fact sheet with information about how the main parties claim they will support the early years if they get into power. You can download teh factsheet from here. 


NEYTCO There is a new guide from NEYTCO – the new trainers group - called ‘How to be an Early Years Consultant and/or Early Years Trainer’. The guide has been written by the NEYTCO team: it outlines all you need to know to get started on the road to consultancy and / or training. If you are already a trainer or consultant the guide has some tips for you as well as free templates to support you with your consultancy or training business. The guide is free for NEYTCO members and only £5.00 for non-members - follow this link for more information.


Staying safe online

You will find some useful information to share with parents about online safety / keeping children safe online on the NSPCC website here. It is important to show evidence of how you share information with parents during your Ofsted inspection… adding useful links which parents can follow to your newsletters is one way of doing this.


Integrated review for 2 year olds

From September 2015 there will be an integrated 2 year review for all children – it will pull together the 2 year progress check that childminders and other early years practitioners currently write with the health visitor check. You will find more information on our Independent Childminders website here.


Teaching and learning

The focus of early years inspections is changing and all childminders need to be ready! Ofsted inspectors will focus on teaching and learning in future inspections. Remember that teaching = helping, advising, supporting, guiding, playing with, chatting to, having fun with, suggesting … not sitting early years children at a table and making them work!! It is important that children are used to working with you on different projects through the day… reading books, singing songs, making and using playdough, preparing their own meals and snacks, doing some experiments outside, learning something new, following up an interest with some more information etc… if it is not part of your daily routine they will look confused and possibly play up during inspection and that’s never a good place to be!

I have talked in more detail about childminders and teaching in this blog.


Tooth brushing

Do you offer tooth brushing as part of the children’s routines during the day? A lot of childminders help children to brush their teeth half an hour after lunch with a tiny amount of toothpaste on a brush, showing them how to clean their teeth effectively, using the brush to move up and down across all the surfaces and getting all the way to the back. We are aware of the risk to soft enamel on children’s teeth which is why we only use a tiny blob of toothpaste and wait half an hour after eating before brushing. It is part of our daily routine and the children really enjoy joining in. The importance of good early dental health has been emphasised in a recent dental health survey reported in the ECU bulletin (2.4.2015) which notes that in 2013 ‘nearly a third (31 per cent) of 5 year olds and nearly a half (46 per cent) of 8 year olds had obvious decay experience in their primary teeth.’

Changes to the car seat law

The car seat laws are changing! It's not an immediate change - we have some time to work it out, discuss it with parents and save money to replace our car seats. You will find more information on this website. Childminders have been discussing the changes on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and have found this information from Parentdish useful. 

Disqualification by association

The disqualification by association rule is causing a lot of confusion across the early years sector. If you are living with someone who has a criminal conviction (various convictions apply) you will need to let Ofsted know and they will shut you down pending investigation after which you will have to apply for a waiver before you can start working as a childminder again. I have talked about the rule in a previous newsletter and added some information to the Independent Childminders assistant page about what questions to ask when checking whether staff suitability has changed. We are hearing some worrying stories about how Ofsted are using the rule to shut childminders down pending investigations which they believe are totally unnecessary, destroying businesses as a result. If you are involved in a disqualification by association muddle with Ofsted and would like me to bring it up at the next Ofsted Big Conversation meeting please let me know.


Scottish childminders

Please note that the Prevent Duty Guidance has been released for Scotland as well as England and Wales. You can download a copy from here. Please see my newsletter (Prevent Duty Guidance - safeguarding update 04.2015) for more information. 

While we are in Scotland, there is some new inspection information which I will be using to update my e-book 68 'SAF - Scotland' (available from Knutsford Childminding) over the next few weeks. You can download a copy of the new 'Excellence in Care' guidance from the Care Inspectorate website here. 

- with thanks to Minding Kids for this link. 


New Childminders

Are you setting up as a childminder? The Govt has extended the grants available to newly registering childminders. You can find more information here. 
 

A little note to my readers! I am delighted that you enjoy reading my newsletter and I am very happy for you to share it with your colleagues … together we are stronger! However, if you want to write your own newsletter and simply copy mine please respect my intellectual copyright and mention where you sourced your material. Thank you. 

If you have any news items you would like me to include in these newsletters, please contact me via the Childminding Forum, Independent Childminders Facebook page or by email and give me the details. 

Chat soon, Sarah. 

Prevent Duty Guidance - safeguarding update 04.2015

Safeguarding update - 16.4.2015

The new Prevent Duty Guidance has been published - here.

It places a requirement on all early years providers ‘to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. The Government has defined extremism in the Prevent strategy as “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs… and … calls for the death of members of our armed forces”.

The guidance states that all early years providers must understand the risk of radicalisation and implement the Prevent duty effectively. If we have staff, this information must be shared with them. We must also know who to contact to raise a concern if we are worried about a child being drawn into terrorism or radicalised. The ‘Safeguarding practitioners: information sharing advice’ document has been updated (03.15) - download here. It gives details about what information can be shared and with whom.

The Prevent Duty guidance identifies best practice for early years providers including childminders on pages 10 - 12 and describes ways in which we can comply. The guidance also refers to an ‘explicit requirement to promote fundamental British values as part of broader requirements relating to the quality of education and to promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils’. British values of ‘democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs’ must be promoted in age appropriate ways in all early years settings.

Demonstrating compliance

Compliance with the Prevent Duty guidance - we have downloaded the guidance for our computer files (safeguarding folder) and printed the relevant pages of the guidance for our safeguarding file (pages 10 – 12). We will update our safeguarding procedures to state we are aware of and compliant with the new Prevent Duty Guidance when our Local Authority has advised us about their procedures.

Compliance with promoting British values - we have confirmed our commitment to promote British values as part of our ongoing commitment to deliver high quality teaching and learning to all children in our care in this parent blog here. 

Local Authority information - we have contacted our Local Authority (Cheshire East) who have advised us that they are updating their model safeguarding procedures and writing a guide to the Prevent Duty guidance which will be available mid-June. When we receive it we will share it with our families.

Sharing information with practitioners - I have shared the link for the new Prevent Duty guidance – and this blog - with early years practitioners. I have also shared further information about how British values might be promoted.

Sharing information with parents – parents can read our safeguarding file at any mutually convenient time; we have emailed a copy of the guidance to all parents; we will share our safeguarding procedures update when Cheshire East have given us further information.

© Sarah Neville / Knutsford Childminding, 04.2015

Childminder news - update! 

At the end of March we were provided with  some new documents from HM Government to replace previous safeguarding guidance –

The guidance ‘Information sharing advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers’ (03.2015) here. This replaces the previous ‘Information sharing: guidance for practitioners and managers’ published in 2008.

The document ‘What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused’ here. This has been re-written (March 2015) to replace the 2006 version. It clarifies the 4 main types of abuse and gives examples of when providers might need to report safeguarding concerns, advising that any practitioner can report a concern about a child to children’s social care or, in an emergency, the police.
 
We have also been sent some updated teaching and learning guidance –

Foundation Years have released more detailed advice to clarify what Ofsted will be inspecting when they consider whether providers are promoting British values here. The guidance advises that there are 5 fundamental British values - democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs and these are already embedded in the EYFS requirements. The values should be taught as part of your ongoing curriculum planning.

The British values guidance tells us that the safeguarding PREVENT agenda is likely to be law from July 2015 and will place a duty on early years providers “to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. The information states that the EYFS will be updated to reflect the new prevent agenda legislation. You can find more information about the PREVENT duty here.
 
We have also received details about how the 2 year progress check will change later this year –

We need to be prepared for the new integrated 2 year review from Sept 2015. Guidance from the Department of Health and DfE states that early years practitioners will be expected to work closely with Health Visitors and parents to ensure the 2 year progress check is delivered in a joined up way. There are different models suggested in the guidance for delivering the integrated review – which probably means that every LA will be doing something slightly different. Information about the integrated 2 year review is here.

To carry out the integrated review, health visitors will be using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire document ASQ-3 to assess whether children are making appropriate progress. Practitioners might find it useful to read the ASQ-3 document which will be used alongside the current 2 year progress check.

There is a free open access online training course here for practitioners to provide further information about how ASQ-3 will be used. I suggest using the free open access training here and writing your own CPD certificate. 

This all ties in with the newly released parents guidance ‘What to expect, when’ which has been written to help parents contribute more fully to the 2 year progress check / integrated review. If you haven’t sent parents the link to the guidance yet I suggest you include it in your next newsletter so they are able to download and read it (and tell an Ofsted inspector they have been provided with the link if asked during your next inspection). If they have children around the age of 2, advise them that they can use the guidance as part of the 2 year progress check process.

Childminder news - March 2015

Spring has sprung and with it lots of opportunities to get children outside planting flowers, fruit and vegetables and learning about growth. As part of our seasonal planning calendar, we use the garden through the year … and we are lucky to have a covered outside space for all-weather access. Over the next few months we are planning to audit our outside space and make sure we have resources available to cover all 7 areas of learning which complement – rather than repeat – our inside resources. Once we have completed our audit we will be able to work with the children and choose some new bits and bobs. It’s our new rule - no buying until we know what we already have!

…………………………..

The new Ofsted inspection framework details have been released! The Common Inspection Framework will be used by Ofsted from Sept 2015 and there will be further guidance about the new inspection judgements for childminders released before September (Ofsted say June ish). This Childminding Forum thread has all the links you need to find the latest information about the Common Inspection Framework.


I will be writing more information for independent childminders when we have further guidance from Ofsted.

…………………………..

NEYTCO is a new training organisation which has been set up for early years trainers and consultants by Laura Henry. Laura is an experienced trainer who travels the country delivering her courses. The new training organisation aims to support trainers. I will be joining when I have finished my course to become a trainer– I am nearly there, just waiting for my essays to be marked! Then I will be able to deliver training in my local area to childminders and other early years providers – I am very excited about this new adventure! You can find the NEYTCO website here.

…………………………..

Do you have children in your care who are starting school this September? The names of the new baseline assessment companies have been released recently (Nursery World magazine article) and parents will need to understand that their child will be assessed during their first six weeks of starting Reception class. The assessments (Govt information website) will primarily focus on children’s abilities in language, literacy and mathematics and parents might need reassurance about what their child will need to know. We are told that the test will be linked to the learning expectations in the Early Learning Goals.

The baseline test is intended to give teachers a starting point from which they will work with the children – however, many professionals are very concerned that testing 4 and 5 year olds is wrong and there is a Change.org petition against it from Eary Education. 

I have written information and guidance for childminders who want to introduce the baseline test to parents on the Childminding Forum here.

…………………………..

If you work with disabled children, or you want to learn more about disability and children with special educational needs (SEND) you might find a new free e-learning resource useful. The Disability Matters website contains a series of free learning packages to enhance your CPD here.

…………………………..

I am the childminder representative on the North West steering group for the Ofsted Big Conversation. We recently held a very successful event which, among other things, introduced providers to the new Common Inspection Framework. Ofsted were also challenged to respond to providers and justify what they are doing and how they are managing themselves and 3rd party inspectors from Tribal and Prospect. You can find the notes from our recent OBC meeting on the Childminding Forum here including important information for childminders about ratios and other guidance documents recently removed from the Ofsted website.

…………………………..

Excellent news for all childminders who want to stay independent of agencies! Ofsted have changed its plans to plans to remove data on childminder numbers and places from official figures. This shows 2 things – 1. That childminders are valued by Ofsted; 2. That agencies are not taking off as they had perhaps hoped! It is new to be celebrated by all childminders who want to stay independent of agencies.  You can read more information about this important policy change in the Nursery World article here.

…………………………..

Health and safety update – if you have a health and safety policy or a policy which covers exclusion for medication conditions which includes information about the ‘Guidance on Infection Control’ document, you need to change the writer from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) to Public Health England (PHE) when you do your next update. You can find the latest guidance document here (published Sept 2014).

…………………………..

Disqualification by association is a subject which is causing a lot of childminders and other practitioners including nurseries, pre-schools and schools a lot of concern at the moment. Hidden in a requirement of the EYFS and rarely considered in the past, it has suddenly become an Ofsted hot potato and DfE have been approached to write more guidance. You can find their latest guide to the rules from DfE here (dated Feb 2015).

You will find more information in this blog by Debbie Alcock (hosted by Laura Henry).

I have written this blog about childminders and staff suitability.

…………………………..

As part of my commitment to share information as widely as possible, I have consulted with other practitioners about the best ways to get information ‘out there’. While I already post a lot of free information and support on the Independent Childminders Facebook group I am aware that we cannot reach all childminders who want to stay independent of agencies on Facebook alone. For this reason I have started duplicating important posts on the Childminding Forum in the Independent Childminders section here – you do not need to be a member of the Childminding Forum to access this information.

…………………………..

There is an interesting new survey form the University of Sheffield about ‘professional love’ as defined in early years settings and providers. Some of the questions aren’t necessarily relevant to childminders – when I completed the survey I missed a few of the multiple choice questions out and then used the writing boxes on the next page to explain why I hadn’t answered. I imagine they will get very different replies from childminders and, for example, nursery or pre-school providers and I look forward to reading the results. You can read about it in this Nursery World article.

…………………………..

There is a new booklet from 4Children called ‘What to expect, when?’ which aims to explain the 7 areas of learning to parents. While it is aimed at parents I am sure practitioners will find it interesting – it’s only £2.50 to order a copy (including postage) so I thought I might get one for our parents to browse if they want to borrow it… I have sent them the link as well. For practitioners who have been asking me – it does NOT replace the Early Years Outcomes or the Development Matters guidance – it has been published in addition to these 2 documents for use by parents: however, I imagine practitioners will find it useful. 

…………………………..

Are you ready to show evidence of quality teaching to your Ofsted inspector from September 2015? Most childminders teach children – even if they don’t like the title ‘teacher’ they inform, advise, support, help, guide etc … now Ofsted will want to see more defined evidence in our individual planning, teaching and learning. I have talked about quality teaching in more detail in this Childminding Forum post, which includes links to a free blog and further guidance documents for Childcare.co.uk gold members here.

…………………………..

From 1st October this year it will be illegal to smoke in a car if there is a child in the car. Failure to comply will lead to a £50 fixed penalty notice. You might want to share this section from the latest Morton Michel newsletter with your families – to be inclusive you need to give it to all families, not just those who might smoke.


…………………………..

It is important that providers are aware of the new reporting requirements for incidents of female genital mutilation. The government will introduce a new mandatory reporting duty through amendments to the Serious Crime Bill. The proposed duty will apply in cases of “known” FGM in victims under 18, and apply to all regulated healthcare and social care professionals, and teachers.

Source – NCB Early Childhood Unit newsletter 18.2.15

…………………………..


Have you signed up for Child Safety Week 2015 yet? We always plan some activities linked to the week with the children in our care. This year, Child Safety Week will run from 1st to 7th June and theme  is ‘tea time terrors’. There will be a free action pack for all providers. You can find out more details on the Child Safety Week website here.

…………………………..

Early years providers will be able to claim the EY Pupil Premium soon. There is information from DfE to parents here which providers might find useful.

There is more information available on the Foundation Years website here including good practice reviews. If you are awarded the premium for a child who is falling behind you will receive £100 per term for 3 terms and Ofsted will inspect you on the impact the funding has made to the children, looking closely at how you have spent the money and how it has improved children’s outcomes from their starting points. 

There is lots of support for childminders who want to stay independent of agencies! We have a Facebook page called Independent Childminders and the Childminding Forum. If you have any questions I am sure our helpful members will be happy to answer them for you.

Chat soon, Sarah. 

---

Feedback from Ofsted Big Conversation meeting 13.3.2015

At the meeting, among others, was Gill Jones deputy early years director from Ofsted. I was very lucky to be able to ask Gill a number of targeted questions on behalf of members of the Childminding Forum and Independent Childminders Facebook group. I was also able to ask Kath, a senior HMI from Ofsted, for further guidance.

We might not have the answers we wanted to hear BUT we do now have quite a few answers to outstanding questions which we can take forward and make a difference in the future…

Working with other settings (or not)

I spoke to Ofsted about the issue of childminder downgrades because other settings won’t work with us. Ofsted said that if you have evidence of trying to share with other provisions but you are up against a brick wall… and your inspector sees your evidence and still gives it you as an action, challenge! 

Stage 1 is to challenge the inspector on the day; stage 2 is to write a letter to Prospect / Tribal saying something like 'how can I achieve this if the other setting won't work with me?' We have been assured that all stage 3 complaint letters will be read by a senior Ofsted HMI in your local area / region (this is something new) and if they start seeing trends like this happening then they will action it by, for example, retraining inspectors or checking that the other providers who refuse to work with us are following the EYFS. 

Reporting serious accidents – what’s happened to the guidance?

All the guidance documents have been removed from the Ofsted website and Gill Jones advised that they are NOT coming back. When there is an accident we need to record it, reflect on what happened, risk assess and if necessary make changes to provision, resources, equipment, staffing etc to keep children safe. Then, as part of the risk assessment, we need to ask ourselves whether the accident was serious enough to report to Ofsted or not. If we think that it was serious enough (what the EYFS calls in requirement 3.16 as a ‘significant event’) then we need to contact Ofsted and let them know – either by phone 0300 123 1231 or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. 

We can't second-guess what Ofsted will consider to be ‘significant’ and they will not give us a list or offer further guidance because the EYFS is the rule book we need to follow. This means (my take on the conversation) that it will be up to the inspector on inspection day to decide if it was significant or not – so best practice will be to tell them about the accident and let them decide if they need to know or not.

Historic actions / recommendations / inspection outcomes

If you were inspected even 3 months ago the inspection you had was very different from the inspections childminders are getting today. All inspectors including Prospect and Tribal have been re-trained by an Ofsted HMI – both in how to deliver Ofsted inspections and in how to write the new-style one page inspection reports. This means that Ofsted are confident inspectors are better trained, inspections are improving in quality and the type of actions we are getting should be more relevant. 

If mistakes are made Ofsted state that we must follow the complaints procedures – stage 1 – speak to the inspector; stage 2 – complain to Tribal / Prospect; stage 3 – complain to Ofsted. 

Previous information suggests that for every complaint received by Ofsted, there are 10 providers who mutter and move on. Sometimes they complain on groups and forums but they don’t tell Ofsted that there was a problem with the inspection. The future is in our hands - if we don't report unfairness things will not change.

Ofsted clarifies the situation on variations & guidance

Gill Jones was very clear that we are NOT getting our variations guidance back … she said that we must use the EYFS to decide what we can and cannot do with variations. Think about what Ofsted say when childminders ring the phone line to ask advice about variations – risk assess, check with parents, check floor space etc but Ofsted will not give specific advice. It is up to each childminder to follow the rules of the EYFS and it is up to Ofsted inspectors to decide if the childminder is acting within the law of the EYFS and whether they are managing the variation well. 

Ofsted assure us that Tribal and Prospect inspectors are all being re-trained by Ofsted and will make better judgements – but if we are not following the rules of the EYFS they will action us.

So... let's look again at what we are told in the EYFS. We have requirement 3.30 – ‘Exceptionally, and where the quality of care and safety and security of children is maintained, changes to the ratios may be made.’

This makes it clear that variations can only be for exceptional circumstances. Note that the wording of the EYFS does not talk about ‘new business’ or ‘continuity of care’. However, it is generally accepted that new business is not normally an exceptional circumstance. If a provider were to try and justify new business as exceptional they would need a very good argument in their risk assessment - because new business is primarily about earning extra money and that's not exceptional or in the best interests of the child and children already in the provision. 

Then we have requirement 3.42. ‘If a childminder can demonstrate to parents and/or carers and Ofsted inspectors or their childminder agency that the individual needs of all the children are being met, exceptions to the usual ratios can be made when childminders are caring for sibling babies, or when caring for their own baby.’

This requirement states the only reasons (according to the statutory document that is the EYFS) why variations can be organised. If providers arrange a variation for any other reason they will need to justify it very carefully and clearly show that each child's individual needs are being met.

What isn’t in the EYFS? As we have already noted, it doesn’t mention continuity of care or new business. Ofsted will not comment on that wording because the Eyfs does not talk about it - they are not in a position to give advice on or re-write the Eyfs... so, if it does not say you can do something in the EYFS, admin on the Independent Childminders Facebook group and Childminding Forum will always advise caution.

We are, however, grateful for the letter from DfE in this Childminding Forum thread which clearly says variations for continuity of care are acceptable. The letter was requested by admin (Rick) on behalf of ALL childminders and can be used by any childminder who has issues with Ofsted inspectors questioning variations related to continuity of care. If you cannot access the letter from the thread please ask and we will send it to you. 

Paid for inspections

If paid for inspections do go ahead, Gill Jones advised that they will not be immediately after the inspection the provider is trying to improve. In the future providers with a ‘requires improvement’ grade will be re-inspected within a year – Gill said that paid for inspections won’t happen much quicker. 

Providers complain that they lose funding if they get a ‘requires improvement’ or ‘met’ grade in the new ‘no children on roll’ inspections. Ofsted state that there is nothing in the DfE funding guidance to state that LAs must withdraw funding and providers should challenge their LA to justify their decision.

Further questions

On behalf of members, I asked Ofsted for the following information – 

- Do pre-registration childminders have to buy insurance? Ofsted are getting back to me…

- Do all emergency contacts need first aid and a DBS check? Ofsted advised that if, in an emergency situation, you make a judgement call in the best interests of children and an inspector disagrees with you – then you should go through the complaints process so they find out about it and can monitor what is happening. 

- How can we find out about individual Ofsted inspectors and the type of things they are looking for? There isn’t anything on the Ofsted website but the company Watchsted have started monitoring childminder inspections and there is a ‘search by inspector name’ option. 

- Can we have longer than 24 hours to question inspection reports? This is especially important to childminders who don’t necessarily check their emails every day. The answer from Ofsted is no, this is not going to change – if you have been inspected you will know a report is on its way and should keep checking until it arrives. However, don’t wait for the report if you want to complain about the inspection.

The main messages I got from the meeting…

If you have a complaint or issue after an inspection, tell the inspector on the day... then report it to Prospect / Tribal as a stage 2 complaint... then report it as a stage 3 complaint to Ofsted. Ofsted cannot change things if they are not made aware of the problems!

Variations rules are in the EYFS – if you do anything different to what is stated in the EYFS, you have to be very clear about how you justify your decision. Your inspector will be checking that outcomes for children – teaching and learning – safety etc are not affected as a result. 

We are not getting our guidance back… full stop.

They might not be the answers we had hoped for - but we do now have answers to a lot of outstanding questions and we can hopefully start to move forward.

Chat soon, Sarah. 

Childminder news - February 2015

Now the weather is improving our thoughts are turning to what we are going to plant with the children this year. We enjoyed growing and harvesting tomatoes last year and the children made and tended a lovely herb garden which we will repeat this year. The herbs were not just used in cooking – we also used them in crafts (ground herbs on glue makes a fab sensory picture) and in messy play – the children made lavender playdough and lots of magic potions. We are wondering whether to try growing some strawberries and beans this year – we will take advice from our local garden centre first as our soil is very clay and heavy.
What are you planning to grow this year? Don't forget to record the details on your action plan for Ofsted - it will show your inspector that you are thinking ahead and planning seasonally appropriate activities to support children's learning. 

Child Safety Week is from 1st – 7th June 2015 and the Safety Heroes will return for more mayhem, teaching children important safety lessons. Some recent information from CAPT advises on the dangers of washing liquitabs - you might have noticed the new warning at the end of television adverts to keep the tabs away from children. There is also new EU legislation on the safe use of liquid nicotine which can kill a child within a few hours of ingestion. If you work with any parents who use liquid nicotine they might find it helpful to read the advice. More information here on the CAPT website.


Our latest blog – a blog for our parents which we share with other providers to support continued professional development – cooking with children.


Child Protection and Safeguarding policy and procedures update – over the next few months we are going to be hearing lots more about the new Govt initiative to protect children from radicalisation and teach British values. While it is important to be cautious when deciding that a child might be radicalised to avoid inappropriately labelling or stigmatising individuals, it is suggested that there will soon be a requirement to make a report to the Local Authority / Local Safeguarding Children Board if there are concerns that a child is being radicalised or their family is involved in terrorism. Some LSCBs are already advising early years providers to update their child protection policy to note these changes.

Please see this link for more details from Ofsted about how they are tackling radicalisation and extremism.

Please see this Childcare.co.uk link (written by me) for further information about British values.

This is the Trafford PREVENT website – you LA will be making similar information available for you to read more about how the Govt is working to protect vulnerable children in the coming months.


Baseline check in school – are you aware of the Govt’s aim to require teachers to do a baseline check on children as soon as they start school? It has led to a huge campaign by early years professionals and experts to stop the new legislation and a petition set up by Early Education on the Change.org website. Campaigners at Early Education say that children must not be tested at such an early age – especially when you have 4 and 5 year olds in the same class – it is totally inappropriate for them to be assessed to the same educational level. You can find more information in this Nursery World article – and the petition if you want to sign it is here.


Naps help children learn – I often find it odd that they have to do studies to prove what early years providers have always known – that young children perform better when they are not tired! As reported in this recent article from Nursery World magazine, ‘napping helps children to develop their memory and retain new behaviours they have learnt.’ You might find it helpful to share the results of the study with parents, especially if they are asking you to cut out their child’s sleep during the day.


Toys and gender – do you choose toys depending on children’s gender or do you use their interests when selecting your resources? Do you find children already have pre-determined ideas about what toys to choose based on gender preconceptions given to them at home and when out shopping? We always explain to our parents that we are happy to let their child play with whatever they choose – a girl who wants to play with a tool kit might one day need to fix her car or train to be an engineer and a boy who pushes a buggy might one day be an amazing father or early years professional. A recent article from Morton Michel talks about the gender divide and quotes Jo Swinson, Equalities Minister, who has recently written to toy manufacturers and retailers asking them not to market children’s toys as gender-specific.      


2 year progress check – all childminders should have written a 2 year progress check by now – they have been in legislation since Sept 2012 and the revision to the EYFS. The way progress checks are going to be used in the future is changing – the aim is that from Sept 2015 all health practitioners will work alongside providers in the early years to improve outcomes for young children. Health Visitors and Childminders / other early years providers will join together to write an integrated review which will more fully inform parents about their child’s progress and ensure any concerns are picked up and acted on quickly.  You can find more information about this here.


SEND resources – I have found some useful information and support materials on the Mencap website related to the new SEND Code of Practice. The website states ‘Mencap has worked in partnership with the Department for Education to develop two easy read guides for parents and children and young people with learning disabilities, to help explain the changes to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system in England.’ You might find it useful to share these documents with parents or children who have special educational needs or disabilities so they are fully informed about the new Code of Practice.


Improving literacy – yet another study has been conducted telling us what we already know … that when parents include literacy in their children’s lives at home, children’s early literacy is enhanced. It’s not rocket science – if parents promote reading, looking at labels, spotting environmental print, talking about books with their children etc then children will take more of an interest in the written word. Early years practitioners can support children’s literacy development at home by loaning books and providing parents with activity ideas to follow up with their child at home. This will also help us to show evidence of compliance with the EYFS requirement to promote children’s home learning (requirement 3.73).

There is information about the study here if you want to read more.


Important insurance information – our LA has advised childminders who have advertising logos on their cars to check that they are fully insured. This information follows a recent news story about a vicar whose insurance was declared invalid because she had an advert on the side of her car. Childminders have business insurance to carry children … but this might affect you, especially if you advertise your business on a second car that is not insured for business use!

Early Years Pupil Premium – information is being released by the DfE, Ofsted and Local Authorities about the EYPP and how it will be awarded – and how it should be spent by providers to raise outcomes for the children. I have written an information sheet about the information we have at the moment and put it here on the Childminding Forum where it is accessible for everyone – I am sure it will be updated as more studies are completed. I will try to keep members updated as new information is shared.


Red nose day – have you ordered your free early years resources for Red Nose Day yet? Red Nose Day 2015 is on 13th March and the free nursery pack (which is available for childminders) can be ordered now. It is full of balloons, stickers and lots of fun ideas. You will find activity ideas and fundraising suggestions on the Teach Nursery website.


Sign language – do you have any children in your provision who use sign language? It can be particularly valuable for children who are not yet talking, children who are learning English as an additional or second language and of course children who are deaf or partially hearing. The British Sign website teaches a new sign every day - you can find more information here.


Information Commissioners Office – we have recently received clarification from the ICO that childminders who have photos of children in their files (for marketing or evidence for Ofsted) do not need to hand those photos back to parents when children leave – we can instead ask parents for their written permission to retain the photos in our provisions. This is new news and very exciting information for childminders who would otherwise lose lots of evidence of activities and experiences offered to children when children leave our provisions. I worked closely with Laura Henry (NEYTCO) and Nursery World Editorial to resolve this issue and I am delighted that we now have this new guidance in writing from ICO.


Reading Matters is a good website to share with parents of older children in the provision. It provides activity ideas and practical help for parents to support their child’s reading. You can find our more on the website here.


Bath safety – a recent email from Public Health England advises providers to inform parents about the dangers of leaving children unsupervised in bath seats because they are at risk of tipping over. There have been some recent cases of babies drowning while strapped in the seats. You can find more information to pass on to parents on the Govt website here.

Independent childminders need to support each other - we can stay independent of agencies if we work together and share information. If there are any news items you want me to include in my newsletter please let me know.

Sarah. 

Winter 2014/15 newsletter for childminders

Hello! It’s getting cold and dark out there… I hope everyone is taking it carefully and has a winter risk assessment to share with parents (and Ofsted should they visit). There is one on the parents page of my Knutsford Childminding website if you want a nosey – just scroll down under the parent newsletters to find it!

I checked with Morton Michel (my childminder insurance company) about de-icing the path leading to our house and the risk of parents or children falling and suing me. They told me that as long as I have taken care to make it safe for me and my family then I will be covered by my policy if someone does have an accident. However, I spoke to the Local Authority about de-icing the path at the front the house and was advised to leave it as it is – a different can of worms entirely and one best left.


Teaching children in winter

What themes are you covering through winter – apart from winter of course?! At Knutsford Childminding, our winter planning covers January, February and March so we will be covering lots of different British and world events as diverse as Valentine’s Day, Australia Day and Chinese New Year. There is a big difference between celebrating and marking world events – we celebrate those which mean something to us and we mark / cover those which we want to learn more about.

We have just downloaded our free ‘give nature a home’ booklet from RSPB ready to use during the winter months in the garden with the children. To support childminders and share activity ideas as widely as possible, I have put together a winter Pinterest board which might be of interest. I have a ‘Seasons Planning’ e-book (e-book 9) which has recently been updated on my Knutsford Childminding website and I will also be writing some new seasonal planning for Childcare.co.uk gold members here.

There is a FREE ice themed activity booklet from Muddy Faces here. 


Teaching children British values

We have been told by Ofsted and DfE that we need to teach children about British values so we have been doing some work on this to ensure our planning remains inclusive. We recognise the importance of teaching children about similarities and differences and we aim to support them to learn about the multicultural and diverse world in which we all live. If you are a subscriber to Child Care magazine (Practical pre-school) I am in the middle of writing a series of articles about British values to support other professionals. You might also find this blog useful.


Integrated review at age 2 

Early years providers including childminders are going to be expected to work with Health Visitors to deliver the 2 year progress check soon – the legislation has taken another step towards being ready. The NCB website has a question and answer section, a case study and some other interesting support materials here.


Allergy legislation 

The new EU allergy legislation has caused a bit of a stir in the childminding world. The requirement is to be able to give parents, on request, a list of the foods / allergens their child has eaten. Imagine the following scenario – a child has an allergic reaction and food is suspected. The child’s consultant wants to know exactly what the child has eaten during the days leading up to the reaction. Parents ask you for a list of the food you have served their child… we are currently using the ‘scribble it down in a diary every day’ method of recording what food we are offering the children in our care. We are also taking photos of labels (if we use packets) and keeping them in a folder on our phone and if we are on outings, we are asking the café or shop for an ingredient list and taking a photo of that. It’s working for us so far!

The most important thing to remember is that there are very few changes to good practice. If you already let parents know what their children are eating … and keep a record of children’s allergies … and act on information given to you by parents about their child’s diet … then there is very little you need to change.

There is a free training course from FSA (with certificate at the end) here. There is no reason for childminders to stop providing food for childminded children - unless you want to of course! It is important to remember that, for many parents, food provision is a deciding factor when choosing a childminder. I have written lots of guidance about the changes to allergy recording requirements which is free to access here on the Childminding Forum.


Watchsted

Watchsted is an independent company which monitors Ofsted across the UK. The website states, ‘We wanted to create a tool that presents the very latest Ofsted inspection data in a simple and meaningful way to save people time.’ The information on the website is free. Watchsted have started to add childminder inspection reports on their website! This will, when it has been fully developed, be a very useful resource for childminders because it will allow us to look up inspection reports in our local area and spot trends. You can see some childminder reports already in place on the childminder map here.


Ofsted Big Conversation 

I am childminder representative on the North West steering group for the Ofsted Big Conversation (OBC). The OBC consists of professionals from nurseries, pre-schools, childminders, children’s centres, Local Authorities and others from the early years sector. All committee members are volunteers who meet and engage in conversation with Ofsted: our aim is to bring about positive change to the way inspections will be shaped in the future, at both local and national level. 

We have had some notable successes, for example Ofsted have changed the way they manage complaint-led inspections as a direct result of our input. You can find more information about the Ofsted Big Conversation and your local group here. We are committed to working with Ofsted to improve inspection experiences - we cannot change your inspection grade or talk to Ofsted on behalf of individuals but, by monitoring inspection outcomes in the North West we can get an overview of how things are going locally and what we need to talk to Ofsted about next. Please contact me if you think I can help you.


Risk assessments and button batteries 

2 children have sadly died recently after swallowing button batteries. A request has gone out to all parents and childcare professionals to warn parents about the dangers of these little batteries. We added a paragraph to our latest newsletter which is handed to parents on paper (with invoices) and uploaded onto our Knutsford Childminding website (parents page) for quick reference. There is more information about the risk of button batteries on the ROSPA website here. 

You might find it useful to add some information about button batteries to your risk assessments and a note to state that you have shared the website link with parents. If you need support with writing risk assessments, e-book 5 from my Knutsford Childminding website is a comprehensive risk assessment guide – I have updated it with button battery details (updates are always free).


Updated Ofsted documents

The Ofsted evaluation schedule has been revised (Sept 2014). You need to make sure you have the latest version because some of the grade descriptors have changed. New grades descriptors are more detailed than previously and we are aware that Ofsted inspections are tougher as a result.

I have just finished writing some guidance for Childcare.co.uk gold members about the new grade descriptors – it will be on the Childminder Plus section of the website soon.

Don’t forget to read the letter from Sir Michael Wilshaw to early years inspectors about what Ofsted inspectors should be looking for during inspections. You can find it here.

The DBS factsheet from Ofsted has been updated. The factsheet sets out Ofsted’s guidance on Disclosure and Barring (DBS) checks for childcare providers.

The Ofsted document ‘Conducting early years inspections’ has been updated again (Nov 2014) and some of the rules have changed – you can find the latest version here. One of the biggest changes is for newly registered childminders who will now be inspected within 30 months of registration (and the registration process and pre-registration visit will be tougher because of this change). If childminders need an inspection so they can offer funded sessions through their LA, they need to contact Ofsted for more information.

You might find this blog on my Independent Childminders blog page useful when preparing for your Ofsted inspection.

The Ofsted website and resources section has moved to a www.gov.uk website – you will need to sign up for your subscriptions again – and there is a new page with lots of inspection guidance gathered together.


Childminders and staff 


I have written 2 new blogs for childminders who work with assistants. I have also updated the guidance in e-book 48 ‘Assistants’ from Knutsford Childminding to reflect the new information –

Assistant suitability - disqualification by association here.


Assistants and appraisals here.


Safeguarding

A new report has been published which looks at childhood neglect and how practitioners can spot neglect and support children who are being neglected. You can find the report (which is well worth skim reading) here - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/379747/RR404_-_Indicators_of_neglect_missed_opportunities.pdf.

Some Local safeguarding children boards (LSCB) are changing to MASH (multi agency safeguarding hub). This will be a gradual process of change over the coming months – you will need to keep an eye on your LSCB website for more information because, if your LSCB changes its name, you will need to update the details in your safeguarding procedures.


Schools working with childminders 


There is some interesting information on the Learning Exchange website about how schools can work together with childminders to run all or part of their school-based childcare and holiday activities (wrap around and holiday care). 

I am not sure how well it would work if the childminder has children of their own or has other childminded children but there are case studies on the website if you are interested to find out more.


I hope you find this newsletter informative. I try to keep my Knutsford Childminding Facebook page updated with useful information and bits and bobs – please ‘like’ the page so you see my posts in your news feed. There are lots of places for childminders to go and support each other including – the Childminding Forum and the Independent Childminders Facebook page.


Sarah / Knutsford Childminding

Autumn 2014 newsletter for childminders

Back to school theme

During early September we enjoyed planning a 2 week back to school theme with the children – we provided resources so the children could explore lots of school room role playing. We borrowed books from the library about starting school to add to our current reading selection and made a small interactive display which also featured photos of the local schools. To run alongside this theme, we planned some adult led road safety reminders for the children before the school runs re-started.

To share children’s learning with home we took photos of each child pretending to be in school, playing either the teacher or the pupil and sent it to parents, suggesting they play schools with their child at home.


Preparing children for school

There is a series of ‘Preparing Children for School’ Information Guides on Childcare.co.uk in the Childminding Plus section of the website - . The first Information Guide – an introduction to preparing children for school – is FREE to anyone who wants to log in a download. The other Information Guides are free for gold members.

I have also written a blog on the Independent Childminders website about school readiness and I have written a mini e-book about preparing for school (mini 77) which is on my Knutsford Childminding website.

Pacey have written a ‘being ready for school’ series of guides which can be freely downloaded by all childminders.


New legislation for childminders 

There has been a lot of new legislation for early years providers to cope with over the last few months. The Eyfs and the Childcare Registers have been updated and Ofsted have reviewed / are currently reviewing quite a few of their documents. 

There is a new Ofsted parents poster as well which must be displayed on your noticeboard.

I have written guidance for childminders including a newsletter with links to the changes and a free ‘are you ready for the EYFS 2014?’ checklist for all providers.


Information for my e-book customers 

I have just finished updating all my e-books so they reflect the new legislation. Please email me if you would like your FREE updates. The biggest changes are to e-books 16 ‘EYFS meeting the standards’, 25 'Paperwork' and e-book 42 ‘Assistants’. 

I have also finished a comprehensive review of my mini e-books - the biggest changes are to mini e-book 42 ‘Childcare Register’.


Pre-school learning alliance

I have been a member of the Alliance for a year and have just renewed for a second year. I like the work that Neil Leitch does for childminders - he is very pro-childminders and very strong in his defence of us. I also like the local support I get from PLA - I had a visit from a local PLA coordinator a few weeks ago offering me support - and tapping me for information about what childminders need in the future! I am also attending a local conference next week ... I love networking!

Membership costs £42 a year and is well worth it (in my opinion)!


Childminder agency update 

Childminder agencies became law on 1st September 2014. Nothing has really happened yet … a few childminders have received emails inviting them to meetings to discuss agencies but we haven’t heard much more news or gossip about them on the Independent Childminders Facebook group – but I suppose we wouldn't as this group is for childminders who intend staying independent of agencies - the clue is in the name of the group! 

There is a new section on the Childminding Forum for agency discussions – I added a post recently with updated agency information. 


Pinterest 

I have decided to dip a toe into the world of Pinterest. I have started an autumn board –  full of craft ideas and other boards thinking ahead to winter, Elf on a Shelf and Christmas. 


Autumn planning at Knutsford Childminding

Our planning at Knutsford Childminding for autumn includes a combination of –

• Collecting and exploring leaves, conkers, acorns etc and using them for art and crafts
• Finding out about Harvest Festival through making autumn soup and Harvest bread, art and learning about Harvest through the world.
• Learning about hibernation and how British wildlife prepare for winter
• Getting out and about as much as possible to notice the changes in the world around us
• Focussing on preparing children for school through the coming months as we have 2 new school starters next year...

We have just put up our autumn display and we have made an autumn sensory tray, with some laminated autumn words and pictures for the children to ‘read’ while they are exploring.


SEND legislation 

The Government have released a new SEND Code of Practice 2014. All the relevant documents are uploaded into the Childminding Forum free downloads and if you are asked by your Local Authority to write a Local Offer you will find some help here.


Allergy legislation

There is a new EU law which aims to make it easier for people with food allergies to recognise when the main 14 allergens are in food they buy. Childminders are required to know about the law and be able to inform parents about the contents of their child's food if asked. This should make it much easier for parents of children who have allergies to recognise when allergens have been added to the food they buy.

There is a useful poster to display and email to parents and a free food allergy training course with certificate.  


2 year progress check

I attended training recently and was given some new information about the 2 year progress check which I have shared on the Childminding Forum in the general EYFS section here. I hope you find it useful. 


Infection control guidance 

The infection guidance document has been updated and there are a few changes to note. We have printed a copy of the new guidance for our files and informed parents that we have a copy if they would like to read more.


Ebola outbreak

A number of childminders have expressed concern about the Ebola outbreak. There is a free training course on the Alison website with a certificate to print out at the end if you would like to find out more information. 


Elizabeth Jarman training

I heard Elizabeth Jarman speaking and was involved in a workshop at the weekend. She never fails to inspire me! We have made lots of changes (helped by the children and families at Knutsford Childminding) to reflect her ways of working and I am sure we will make many more over the coming months (a period of reflection is always recommended). Her Facebook page is worth a 'like' because she is always updating it with good ideas and suggestions. If you can get to her training, I advise you to attend!


I think that's about it for changes during autumn! If you are worried about anything please ask either on Childminding Forum or the Facebook group and I am sure we will be able to help. 

Chat soon, Sarah x

Legal requirements for childminders

Contracts - childminders are not legally required to have a contract with parents. However, there is some doubt as to whether insurance will be valid if you do not have a contract in place. It is very strongly recommended that you have a contract in place, signed by parents, before care starts.

Childminders insured by Morton Michel can purchase contracts directly from the insurer or can download a FREE contract, terms and conditions and fees policy from Childcare.co.uk - you do not have to be a member - you can log in as a free member. 

CRB - DBS check - you and any staff who work with you must have a valid CRB check (unless you have a Police Check from many years ago) to work with children. If you have children over 16 or other adults on the premises they must have a CRB check as well.

You are legally required to keep information about CRB / DBS checks available for viewing by Ofsted and parents on request. 

Note - DBS disclosures replaced CRB checks for all newly registering childminders. assistants, apprentices and over 16s. Established childminders do not need to replace their CRB checks with DBS disclosures (correct 05.2014). Newly registering childminders will need to sign up for the DBS update service. You can find more information from Ofsted in their guidance factsheet here.

Data protection - if you store any information about children or their families on a computer or if you take digital recordings (voice, photo or camera) of childminded children then you must register with the Information Commissioner?s Office. If you are not sure whether or not you need to register, ring them and find out.

Visit the ICO website for more information. Registration costs £35 (2014).

Environmental health - you must be registered with your local Local Authority Environmental Health as you are running a food business if you provide childminded children with food or drink. Newly registering childminders will be automatically registered by Ofsted (from 2014).

You need to download or order a copy of the document Safer Food Better Business for Childminders and follow the good practice information. Some Local Authorities require childminders to attend a Food Hygiene Level 1 course as part of the registration process. 

Insurance - you must be insured to work as a childminder. If you employ other childminders or assistants you must also have employer?s liability insurance.

There are 2 main insurers - 

·         Morton  Michel - I have been insured by Morton Michel for 20 years! 

·        Pacey which is also a membership organisation for childminders and other early years professionals.

Both companies offer a range of benefits to childminders who insure with them.  Both have professionally designed paperwork for sale.  

If you drive a car for your work you must have Class 1 Business insurance. Check with your insurer for clarification. Some household insurance companies will not insure childminders for accidental damage - check your policy and renew with a new company if necessary.

National Insurance - you must pay Class 2 self employed national insurance at £2.75 per week (2014) to keep your pension and benefit entitlements. There are exclusions (some people do not have to pay) but you need to check you are protecting your pension and benefits before applying for them. You can find out more information here. 

If you earn above £7956.00 (2014) you will also be billed for Class 4 National Insurance which is calculated at 9% of your gross income (2014). This bill will appear when you have completed your annual accounts with HMRC. It is usually best to put money away to pay the bill when your accounts show that you are close to earning £8k (after expenses). 

Ofsted - if you care for children for longer than 2 hours a day for reward or profit you must be registered as a childminder with Ofsted.

There is an annual fee of £35 (2014) and you will be inspected by Ofsted approximately once every 3 - 5 years - and more regularly if there is a complaint made against you or you are not meeting the requirements of the EYFS / Childcare Register on inspection.

In some areas of the country, childminder agencies are starting up in 2014 / 15 and  new childminders might be registering with agencies. The information provided on this page is for childminders who are staying independent of agencies - if you are registered with an agency you will need to speak to them. 

Planning permission - you might need to apply for planning permission if you -

·         Work with another childminder or assistant;

·         Are registered for more than 6 children;

·         Work from a listed building;

·         Build an extension.

If you are unsure you should check with your local council Planning Department. You will find more information about Planning Permission here.  

Planning permission is not automatic, it can take months to come through and it will cost you money to apply. Be aware that the Planning Department will probably write to your neighbours to find out about the impact of your business on them and that if your neighbours object you might not be granted permission.

Do not risk working illegally - always check whether you need permission!

Record keeping - there are certain records you must keep depending on the register you are on.  There are 2 registers -

·         The Early Years Register (EYFS) up to the age of 5;

·         The Childcare Register (for older children).

Please see my e-book 25 Paperwork for Childminders from my Knutsford Childminding website for more information.

Safeguarding / child protection - the Local Safeguarding Children Board / Child Protection Agency telephone number MUST be written in your Safeguarding / Child Protection Policy and Procedure and you must know what the agency?s referral procedures say. If they have a leaflet to download, make sure it is in your files.

If you care for a child from a different Local Authority you must include details about their LSCB in their documentation.  You must be able to demonstrate to Ofsted that you are up-to-date with safeguarding requirements. It is good practice to attend a local course (which must be LA approved) and to update yourself regularly. 

Tax - you must register to pay tax when you start to work as self employed. Even if you only earn a few pounds you must be registered and complete a tax return each year.  

Further information about tax and childminder expenses can be downloaded from here. You can find more information and support on the HMRC website.


If you have any questions about setting up as a childminder, please ask! You can find me on the Childminding Forum.