A MORI poll commissioned by the DfES found that in 2003 virtually all the 72,900 childminders in England were women, and just one in eight came from an ethnic minority group.
Stephen Burke, director of the Daycare Trust, said: "Parents say they want childcarers to reflect the communities their children come from and provide positive role models.
"The childcare workforce should represent the diversity of the society around us. We need to ensure recruitment strategies are effective at targeting underrepresented groups in our society to encourage them to consider childcare as a valuable and rewarding profession."
The trust said it was often assumed that people from Black and ethnic minority communities preferred to look after children at home.
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