Turning parents into care professionals

Five women lean over trays of shaving foam in a Peterborough children's centre. They laugh as they draw shapes in the sticky bubbles while they refer to notes in ring binders and try to explain how messy play like this promotes child development. "Literacy, because we've been talking about what we're doing; emotional, because we've drawn faces; and physical, because you're using fine and gross motor skills," one suggests.

The women are all parents studying to become childminders through the Accessing Better Childcare (ABC) Pathway programme offered by Barnardo's. The majority are unemployed, as the charity prioritises out-of-work parents. The hope is the free 12-week course will get them into employment at the same time as creating local childcare places.

Course tutor Alison Wallace, ABC Pathway regional programme champion, congratulates parent Casey Vincent on her answer, which tallies with Early Years Foundation Stage guidance.

The group moves on to discuss a scenario they could encounter as childcare professionals. Two-year-old Adam's father is in and out of prison for theft, drugs and domestic violence and the boy is sometimes aggressive to other children. Wallace asks the group how they would support him. Vincent suggests contacting social services while others debate why Adam acts aggressively.

Such workshops have taken place in 14 local authorities across England since 2013 with Barnardo's delivering the training in partnership with councils facing childcare shortages.

Developed amid a national push to increase places, the government-funded programme has not had a smooth ride. As with many new schemes, the programme had teething troubles, with a potential partnership with the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (Pacey) failing to get off the ground.

Then came the announcement earlier this year that the Department for Education would not continue funding - a huge disappointment to Barnardo's, which is adamant the model has value.

This is the third and final cohort in Peterborough. City council early years and child intervention team manager Karen Hingston explains the authority adopted the scheme to improve choice and provide more places for disadvantaged two-year-olds. "We need a mixed market of childcare in Peterborough as we rely heavily on the private, voluntary and independent sector," she says.

Free childcare target

Local authorities have been under pressure to create more childcare places since September 2013, when the DfE introduced free funded childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds. Nationally, 260,000 more places were needed by September 2014 - a target that was missed amid early years funding cuts.

However, the drive to increase childcare places looks set to continue. While the new government's childcare policy remains to be seen, all three mainstream parties pledged increases in free childcare in their election manifestos.

Hingston's team delivered childminder training in-house before Barnardo's approached them. The scheme appealed because it could deliver more intensive support, she explains: "As a local authority with smaller teams, we just couldn't do that."

The fact that training took place in a children's centre meant learners met local early years professionals and were more likely to use services in the future. The model also ensured council involvement throughout. Early years team members act as a point of contact for interested parents through the local family information service. They visit learners during training to build relationships, and upon completion support them through registration processes. "We also do a five-month visit after they've got their registration," adds Hingston. "We offer ongoing training and some ABC participants have come to that."

She says it is too early to tell if ABC graduates have made a difference to local childcare provision, but the latest Ofsted data shows that overall, Peterborough's childminder quality is improving.

A commitment to improving local childcare options, as well as her own career, are reasons why single parent Rachel Moses signed up, having found it difficult to find provision that met her needs. "I have a six-year-old son.

He goes to school, but I have to work every other weekend and during school holidays and my childminder doesn't do those days," she explains.

Moses has already cut her work hours at a nursing home to do the school run. She is anxious to begin childminding, which will allow her to work from home and care for her son. "I'm so excited, I've been looking around charity shops for games," she says. "It's a good course and has flown by. We get lots of work to take home and it's not easy, but I've learned a lot."

Back to work

Vincent says the chance to earn an income and continue looking after her two-year-old son convinced her to join ABC. As a single mother on jobseeker's allowance, she says she is being "pushed into going back to work". "I don't want to - not because I'm lazy, but because I never thought I'd have him," she says. "I don't want to hand him to someone else to raise."

Her Jobcentre adviser told Vincent about ABC while other parents heard about the opportunity through friends or posters.

Sitting opposite her, Nagget Sultana explains that after 14 years raising five children full-time, she was looking for a career. "I thought, I'm great with kids and I can do childminding at home as well," she says. She already has a friend's daughter lined up as her first client.

The Peterborough group is enthusiastic about getting started, but not all those who complete the course set up a business. Over the two years to March 2015, 511 learners enrolled on the programme, of which 353 completed it. Discounting the 115 who finished in March, 37 have registered with Ofsted and 60 are in the process of doing so.

Barnardo's ABC Pathway lead Nikki Somerville says the national dropout rate of 31 per cent is "roughly the same as any kind of learning programme". After launching, Barnardo's refined its enrolment process to reduce dropouts. It introduced a literacy test after some learners struggled, and referred those with poor literacy to other appropriate courses. "We've had a couple of learners who've gone and got the skills, then come back," says Somerville.

Barnardo's also began checking applicants' IT skills after some had problems with online study. It extended the course from six to 12 weeks, and began delivering a new Level 3 course when awarding body Cache updated its existing qualification.

But Sommerville says the biggest challenges have been around actually setting up childcare businesses and meeting associated costs. In order to practice, would-be childminders must gain Disclosure and Barring Service clearance for themselves and all people living in their property. They must also receive a GP health check certificate before they can apply for Ofsted registration.

"Even on a short time scale, that can take around six months," says Sommerville. She estimates the total cost of these requirements to be about £300 - sometimes more. Registered childminders can apply for up to £500 from the government's Childcare New Business Grants Scheme, but this is only awarded after Ofsted registration. "If you're a single parent on benefits, where do you get that kind of start-up money from?" asks Sommerville.

Her concerns are backed by Pacey's Liz Bayram. She says the Barnardo's programme has "clearly worked" in getting parents to a stage where they could become childminders. But she would like to see if in a year's time the graduates have customers. "There is more to becoming a childminder than just training and setting up your business," she says. "A great deal of people drop out after the first year as the job's very challenging."

As the session in Peterborough comes to a close, Wallace reminds the women that the next time they meet will be their final session where registration processes are explained.

She previously worked in Peterborough City Council's early years team. As well as delivering workshops, she supports learners' home study over email or telephone, assesses their portfolios and arranges voluntary work.

Barnardo's requires learners to "give back" at least two hours by supporting subsequent groups. Some have helped deliver workshops or volunteered at other Barnardo's projects, such as food banks.

The fact the charity was unsuccessful in winning further government funding was a blow. It had planned to develop a new six-month course to give childminders special educational needs expertise and is now reviewing its options. A DfE spokeswoman would not comment on why Barnardo's bid was rejected saying only the process was "highly competitive".

Barnardo's strategic lead in Peterborough, Kat Band, says the programme's curtailment means its "true potential couldn't be realised". One goal was to increase childminder diversity. "Often childminders are white British, but we have many communities that might prefer someone from their own cultural background," she explains. "With additional investment we would have had more time to support people with English as an additional language to go on to the ABC programme. Unfortunately that opportunity isn't there now."

ACCESSING BETTER CHILDCARE How the scheme worked

The Accessing Better Childcare (ABC) programme set out to help local authorities meet childcare sufficiency duties by training parents to become childminders.

By targeting unemployed parents, it also aimed to lift children and families in disadvantaged areas out of poverty.

The free 12-week course was delivered mainly from children's centres, where learners would attend an enrolment session and four half-day workshops.

Learning was also done online, with parents expected to complete a portfolio of work assessed by their tutor, known as an ABC Champion.

Barnardo's provided childcare for learners' children during training.

Learners left the course with a Cache Level 3 award in Preparing to Work in Home Based Childcare.

This provides the knowledge to lead and manage a home-based childcare setting, comply with financial and taxation requirements, write business plans and register with regulatory bodies.

Parents would also complete a two-day paediatric first aid course and online food safety training.

In order to begin childminding, parents would need to register with Ofsted, receive Disclosure and Barring Service clearance for themselves and others in the home where they will childmind, and pass a health check.

To qualify, parents had to be over 16, have taken and passed a literacy test, have basic IT skills and a safe home environment.

Priority was given to unemployed parents without childcare qualifications who live in areas with high childminder demand.

At the end, learners took part in a celebration session. They were also required to "give back" two hours of their time by helping the next group of learners, or volunteering in a Barnardo's service.

The programme was funded by a Department for Education grant from 2013-2015 worth £1.1m. It ended in March 2015 after the DfE decided not to extend funding.

It was delivered in more than 40 children's centres across 14 English local authorities.

ABC PARENT Course helped me launch my career as nursery manager

Lisa Turnball completed the ABC programme last year and is now operations director at Spinning Tops

"I heard about the programme during a parenting group at my local Barnardo's children's centre in Blyth Valley, Northumberland. My second child was born in February 2013 and I was dreading going back to my NHS patient care adviser job after maternity leave.

The course seemed an opportunity to earn from home and stay with my daughter. It was one of the first courses and was meant to be six weeks but was extended because of teething problems. However, by January 2014 I had completed the training.

I left my daughter at creche during sessions and found it really informative. It changed my approach to parenting. I didn't find the homework too much of a burden.

I also had to attend first aid and safeguarding courses.

Halfway through training, a childminder friend approached me with the idea of setting up a nursery. She thought we could help deliver the government's funded free places for disadvantaged two-year-olds.

I agreed to become a partner but, just in case, continued setting up my own childminding business. I applied for my Disclosure and Barring Service clearance and registered with Ofsted, but this took until June 2014. This was frustrating - it would have made my life easier to have some income coming in.

At the same time, we were setting up the nursery. By June we'd signed a lease on a property and we opened in November.

I'm now operations director working with two other directors and a staff of four - one is another ABC Pathway graduate. I'm also studying a Level 3 childcare qualification online in the evenings.

We offer childcare for babies and children up to 14, including breakfast and after-school clubs, and morning government-funded two-year-olds sessions. There's definitely a demand for childcare in the area - we could do with a larger property.