Number of registered childminders continues to fall
Ross Watson
Thursday, July 29, 2010
The number of registered childminders has fallen again, by more than 500 in the past quarter, according to the latest Ofsted figures.
The figures show that there were 56,361 registered childminders on 30 June 2010, compared to 56,881 on 31 March 2010. The decline represents the 14th consecutive quarterly drop in numbers.
More than 6,000 childminders have left the profession since the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), the curriculum which all practitioners working with under-fives have adhered to since March 2007.
The government launched a review of the EYFS last month, claiming that it leaves childminders with too much paperwork to do in terms of recorded observations and self-evaluations.
But the National Childminding Association (NCMA) has maintained that the economic downturn has played a bigger part in falling numbers than the EYFS.
Leslie Forsyth, NCMA’s interim director of operations, said he was encouraged by the fact that the rate of decline appears to be slowing down when compared with previous quarters.
"It is also good news that there is an increase in the number of home childcarers and childcare on domestic premises, suggesting that home-based childcare as a whole is progressing well," he added. "This positive picture is reflected in NCMA’s own membership survey, which has shown that the overwhelming majority of registered childminders, who are members of NCMA, expect to be childminding in 12 months time."
The Ofsted figures, Registered Childcare Providers and Places, were published today, and pointed to an overall decline in the number of childcare providers, with childcare on non-domestic premises dropping by 134 in the past quarter to 26,603.
The government also published the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2009 today. It showed that only four per cent of settings in the 30 per cent most deprived areas had at least two graduates with Early Years Professional Status (EYPS). The previous government set a target for all settings in the 30 per cent most deprived areas to have two practitioners with EYPS by 2015, by which time all other settings should have at least one.
