Transcript National Children’s Bureau

Childminders: the road to
professionalism
Quality Employment in Care Work with
Young Children
European conference,
Brussels April 21st- 22nd 2008
Sue Owen
Director, Early Childhood Unit,
National Children’s Bureau,
England
The growth of
professionalism in
childminding
“Developing a sense of
professional identity was not
about being absorbed by existing
professions or even emulating
them. It was a grassroots process
of connecting to other caregivers
and building a unique sense of
identity from the ground up”
Taylor, Dunster and Pollard, 1999
What are the elements of
professionalism for
childminding?
To quote Moss (2003):
 Improved employment
conditions
 Rising levels of educational
qualifications
 Job related training
 The prospect of career
progression
 Distinctive pedagogical
approaches
traditionally recognised
elements of professionalism
 Training and qualifications
 Recognised approach to




practice (distinct pedagogy)
Entry criteria
Improved pay and conditions
of work
Emotional distance and limit
setting
Self-regulation
What does the history of
childminding in Britain
tell us about these?



There has been a persistent
opposition to characterising it as a
profession
Only the organisation and
participation of childminders
themselves has changed this
This has culminated in the
development of a system of quality
assured networks which act as
forums for this dialogue and for
changing practice and offer
possibilities for a strong profession
in the future
Low status and unprofessional…

In the 16th century vagrancy
legislation (1536) noted the
growth of a class of women who
took care of other people's children
and the poor conditions in which
they were brought up. This was
attributed to a lack of, or
irregularity in, adequate payment
for the service.

In Victorian literature: “Left to be
minded, Sir. I keep a minding school. I
can only take three, but I love children,
and fourpence a week is fourpence a
week.” Charles Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865)
Confusion between
childminding and baby
farming
Mrs. Dyer the Baby Farmer
The old baby farmer 'as been executed,
It's quite time she was put out of the way
She was a bad women, it isn't disputed,
Not a word in her favour can anyone say.
19th century rhyme.
The Infant Life Protection Act 1870

Daily minding was excluded because of
what was described as its
"unobjectionable character".

The committee imagined what a
childminder might say:
“I shall not subject myself to be obliged
to pay a sum of money to take a license
out; I shall not subject myself to be
visited by an inspector who is to inspect
my house, and my children, and all my
arrangements, for the small sum of 4s a
week.”
20th Century legislation
 by the end of the War, 1,400 day
nurseries and 15 supervised daily
minding schemes were in
operation, mostly run by local
authorities.
But…..
 "the proper place for a child under
two is at home with his mother“
Ministry of Health Circular 221/45
Nurseries and Childminders Regulation Act 1948
Childminders had to register with the local health
authority if they cared for more than two children
under five, from different families, for the day or a
"substantial" part of it
“We do not want in any way to
interfere with the kindly relative or
friend who looks after one or two
children while the mother is at
work...we do not think that much harm
can come to children looked after by
friends and relatives in this way. We
want to distinguish here between the
good neighbourliness, the kind of
services that relatives provide, and the
people that are going into childminding
as a business.”
Fines reduced from £25 to £5
“...the announcement of
these penalties may deter
a certain number of
harmless old ladies who
are in the habit of minding
children and who, when
they see these penalties,
may discontinue their
good work.”
After the 2nd World War the
profile of childminding continued
to change
 In 1949 day nurseries took 11.6
children per thousand, by 1968 this had
fallen to 5 per thousand. Registered
childminders took 0.5 children in every
thousand in 1949 and 11.3 in 1968.

The Health Service and Public Health Act 1968
brought more categories of childminder
under the law. It became necessary to
register with the local authority if you
cared for any children, other than those
of a close relative, for two hours or
more a day and if you received a
"reward" for doing so.
The Childminders
Brian Jackson, New Society 1973

“Too many children, especially West
Indians start life in Dickensian squalor.
If we don’t tackle illegal childminding
imaginatively, how shall we ever help
them?”
 “I suspect, the biggest group of all are what
we might call maternal minders. They half
see minding as a career. They are not
grasping for money…they are not
cruel….They see the “good” child as the
quiet, undemanding, physically static child.
The talking, playing, exploratory creature is
the “naughty” child.”
The Jackson campaigns and the
increase in childminding led to lots of
training initiatives in the 1970s
Childminders
“undergoing” training….
National Childminding
Association
 Established in 1977, following


publicity on the Other
People’s Children TV show
Controlled by working
childminders although others
could join (hence
childminding association)
Formed of local group
meetings (many set up as
viewing groups for the
programmes)
This began to lead to: “connecting to
other caregivers and building a unique
sense of identity?”

1970s: attempts by childminders
themselves and by childminding workers
to develop groups in which childminders
could work together for mutual support
and the development of improved practice

1980s:Informal local groups, meeting
regularly, with toy and equipment loans or
playgroups attached, were available in
most areas and were usually members of
NCMA
More formal networks were
developed as a means of quality
assurance
 More organised networks: often run by
social services departments or voluntary
organisations which trained and supported
childminders to provide services for
specific groups of children e.g. of a
particular employer or with disabilities.
 National Childcare Strategy:The success of
networks led to them being copied for
childminders in general, as a way of
ensuring quality for the delivery of free
nursery education
 Childminding In Business! set up by NCMA
to provide employer-supported
childminding
Children Come First
 A quality assurance scheme


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for childminders networked
together in groups
Some accredited to provide
free nursery education
Every local authority was
given funding to establish
networks with paid coordinators and training
An expectation that
childminders would be
qualified to the level which
allows them to work
unsupervised
The contribution of networks
There is research evidence to show that
involvement in professional organisations and
organised networks are factors leading to higher
quality of care for children (Owen 2000, Mooney
and Munton 1998).
networks were designed to address
professionalisation:
 the drive for recruitment and retention of
childminders (status, pay and conditions, career
progression)
 improved standards of care and education for
children (pedagogy, training and qualifications)
 improvements in parents’ confidence in
childminding (self-regulation, status)
“I’ve always thought
childminding was a good job
but it’s very responsible, hard
work and there isn’t much
appreciation for it. I think
networks try to help with those
problems, I suppose they try to
make the best of a good job!”
(network childminder in discussion group)
In 2004-5 NCMA did a study on the
effectiveness of childminding
networks
 To find out more about how
childminding networks have
affected the role of childminders:
which features matter most?
 To find out what can be learnt about
quality issues from network coordinators’ reports.
 To make recommendations on the
administration of networks and on
how best to support childminders.
Many things hadn’t changed:
98% female:
Co-ordinator reports: gender composition of current
networked childminders (Dec 2004)
2%
Female
Male
98%
97% white:
Co-ordinator reports: ethnic composition of current networked
childminders (Dec 2004)
1%
0%
2%
White
black A/C
indian sub continent
other
97%
77% over 30:
Co-ordinator reports: age distribution of current networked
childminders (Dec 2004)
7%
2%
14%
30%
under 25
26-30
31-40
41-50
over 50
47%
But…51% had the required level of
qualifications and 22% were working
towards these (compares with 16% in
the 2002-3 Childcare Workforce Survey)
co-ordinator reports: qualifications of network childminders
(Dec 2004)
5%
27%
childcare level 3
46%
working towards level 3
without
equivalent to level 3 or above
22%
Access to training was also the
most important aspect of
networks for childminders
childminder survey: the most important elements of network
activity
confidence
toy and equipment
loans
meeting other cms
no. of mentions
co-ordinator
training
0
20
40
60
80
100
Training and qualifications


“The training teaches me how
much I already know and how
much I still have to learn”
77% in the survey said training
was one of the most important
aspects of the network
91% said that network
membership increased their
motivation to do training and
qualifications
Training should be:
 on-going, not one-off
 leading to recognised



qualifications
accessible in terms of finance and
timings
arising from their own debates
and situations
linked to improved pay and
conditions (career progression
and status)
Beyond training…….
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

“the most important part of the
network is the support from the coordinator.”
“The network toy library is great as I
can hire things I wouldn’t otherwise be
able to afford, including multi-cultural
resources and wooden toys”
“the best thing about the network is the
human contact, I am getting better at sharing
and, therefore, at relating to parents”
“I have gained more confidence and
self-esteem, feel valued for the service
I provide.”
“It has definitely made the job more
interesting so I am less likely to give
up”
What isn’t changing?
“parents don't seem to understand or be
interested, I would really like to develop
this area”

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Pay: A large majority (68%) felt that
network membership had not affected
what they could charge for their services.
Filling vacancies: A similar number said
that network membership had made no
difference to the number of requests they
received for places
But…it is the more experienced and
higher quality childminders who are being
recruited into networks, now they need to
be accepted practice for all if they are to
address issues of professionalisation
Contacts and more
information:
Sue Owen (NCB)
[email protected]
NCMA
www.ncma.org.uk