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November 14th, 2012
Hi everyone, just to let you know our EYFS 2012 Observation, assessment and planning records now include the development matters age-bands. You can now simply circle the relevant age-band for each aspect of the seven areas of learning & development.
We have also updated our completed examples with the same age-bands.
Thanks,
Amanda
November 11th, 2012
When you first care for a child, it is a good idea to gain an understanding of that child’s starting points. This process will help you to provide appropriate care for the child as it will:
Point 5 is relevant as although the EYFS Framework does not dictate that starting points must be recorded, the document “Conducting Early Years Inspections” (this is a document published by Ofsted that provides guidance on how Ofsted inspectors should conduct their early years inspections) includes the following statement:
“Any evaluation of children’s progress towards the early learning goals must be judged in relation to their starting points, their individual needs, how long they have been at the provision and how often they attend. The Inspector should examine the information that the provision gathers about what children know, can do and enjoy when they start to attend. Evidence of starting points can also be gained by talking with staff and parents about the level of children’s social, communication and physical skills on entry, and, importantly, by observing children new to the provision”.
Our new “My starting points” record can be used to capture a child’s starting points in terms of what they know, can do and enjoy generally and across the seven areas of learning & development. For children below the age of two you may want to focus just on the three prime areas of learning & development. There are two sections to this record:
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Thanks for reading,
Amanda
Please remember:
The information contained in our blogs, newsletters, resources and website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by us and we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to our blogs, newsletters, resources and website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website, blog, resources or newsletters for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of our blogs, newsletters or website.
November 6th, 2012
Hi everyone,
We have been asked this question by one of our members and think it should be easy to answer, but it isn’t. It would be great if either the Department for Education or Ofsted published clear guidance, but unfortunately at time of writing we have found no clear or complete answer. Given this we have created our own eBook detailing the paperwork we believe Ofsted registered childminders must have, should have and could have to comply with the Early years regulations.
Members can download this eBook and many others from our new Childminding eBooks page.
Thanks for reading,
Amanda
Please remember:
The information contained in our blogs, newsletters, resources and website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by us and we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to our blogs, newsletters and website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website, blog or newsletters for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of our blogs, newsletters or website.
October 23rd, 2012
To reflect the new EYFS regulations, Ofsted has changed how it inspects Early Years providers. As an early years childminder, we take a look at what you could expect in your next inspection.
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October 18th, 2012
I am pretty sure no-one enters childminding to get rich, if so they would soon be disappointed. However providing an income whilst still being at home with your own children is one of Childminding’s main attractions. Therefore, before embarking on childminding, it is good to gain an idea of how much you might earn. We have developed a simple Income & Expenditure Estimator which can help you to do this. It is an Excel-based tool but please don’t be put off, it’s very easy to use.
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September 26th, 2012
Trust plays a big role in childminding. Parents trust you to care for their child and you trust parents to pay you for doing so. The EYFS regulations, criminal record checks, Ofsted inspections and your policies & procedures all go some way to ensuring parents can trust you to care for their child, but can you trust parents to pay you for the professional care you work hard to give?
Here we look at six ways you can help protect your childminding business from the financial impact of no-shows and non-payment.
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September 19th, 2012
Hi everyone,
As promised we have now created completed examples of our childminding EYFS 2012 Observation, Assessment & Planning records and Child’s Personal Plan for a 10 month old baby.
These are available for all members to download from our EYFS 2012 resources page.
Thanks,
Amanda
We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs is for general information purposes only and we are not responsible for, nor endorse, any external websites. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information
September 13th, 2012
We have just added new completed examples of our Childminding EYFS 2012 Observation, Assessment & Planning record and EYFS 2012 Child’s Personal plan. They are for a 42 month old child. Hopefully they will provide some inspiration if you are struggling with your EYFS planning.
Members can access them by clicking on the links below
Completed example of our EYFS 2012 Observation, Assessment & Planning Record
Completed example of our EYFS 2012 Child’s Personal Plan
We will add completed examples for a baby soon,
Enjoy,
Amanda
We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs is for general information purposes only and we are not responsible for, nor endorse, any external websites. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information
August 30th, 2012
Hi everyone, just in case you haven’t seen our Facebook or Twitter posts, we wanted to make sure you know that we now have a Mobile phone & Camera Policy for childminders available for all members. Currently our Safeguarding Policy has a section on mobile phone and camera use but this new policy goes into more detail. You need to have a policy on mobile phone and camera use for the new EYFS 2012 regulations.
Members can download our Mobile phone & Camera Policy here.
Thanks,
Amanda
August 15th, 2012
Like us, you may well be back from your summer holiday and already wishing for the next one… Whilst we can’t help with the booking, we have created a range of resources that we hope will help with organising your next holiday around your childminding business. All resources are available for members to download on our “Management” page of resources and can be tailored for your unique childminding setting.
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Thanks for reading,
We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs is for general information purposes only and we are not responsible for, nor endorse, any external websites. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information
July 26th, 2012
Using technology in your childminding practice can support children’s learning and prepare them for a technology-based future. It can also significantly help you to run your childminding business. The 2012 EYFS reflects this, with technology being one of the three aspects of the “Understanding the World” specific area of learning & development. It also leads to its own early learning goal. However digital technology in particular can pose risks to children and may be an area of concern for yourself. In this blog we look at ways you can use technology safely and effectively to improve your childminding practice.
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Thanks for reading, I hope you have found the blog useful and that it has given you some ideas on using technology in your setting. Please leave any comments below.
We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs is for general information purposes only and we are not responsible for, nor endorse, any external websites. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information
July 3rd, 2012
The new EYFS regulations introduce, for the first time, a requirement for childcare practitioners to carry out a formal progress check for each child between the ages of 24 – 36 months.
Here we answer ten questions you may have on how to successfully include the progress check at age two in the running of your Childminding setting.
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We hope this article has answered some of the questions you might have about the new progress check at age two.
We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs are just our interpretation of the regulations and are for general information purposes only. We recommend you read the EYFS 2012 Statutory Framework produced by The Department of Education. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information.
June 19th, 2012
Hello
You may have heard in the media today about the release of the results from the Nutbrown Review. The review, lead by Professor Cathy Nutbrown was requested by the government. The aim of the review was to look at how the childcare workforce could be strengthened.
The Government is now considering the report and will respond to later in the year.
The report contains recommendations which I have copied to the end of this blog. From my initial reading, the main recommendation affecting childminders is Recommendation 5 : “The EYFS requirements should be revised so that, by September 2022, all staff counting in the staff:child ratios must be qualified at level 3”. There are other recommendations too about what exactly ‘level 3’ means. Remember though that currently these are only recommendations put to the Government.
Further it has been announced that the Governments Childcare Commission will now look at how childcare can be made more affordable. According to the BBC, this commission will focus on: “deregulation, child-minding and how to expand wrap-around care for schoolchildren”. I will blog again when I have found out more details about this and how it could affect childminders.
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We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs is for general information purposes only and we are not responsible for, nor endorse, any external websites. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information
May 31st, 2012
Hi everyone
You may have heard in the media recently about a report from the think tank Centre Forum (written by Elizabeth Truss) called “Affordable quality: new approaches to childcare”. Here is a link to the report.
The report (as I read it) recommends ways that the author thinks would lead to more affordable childcare. Two of the recommendations are for childminder ratios to be increased and for childminders to be de-regulated and instead managed through agencies, which childminders might pay a percentage of their childminding fees to.
This report has been met with opposition from many within the chidcare sector and the NCMA have heightened their campaign calling for the Government to retain individual registration and inspection of childminders in England, within the framework of the revised EYFS. Click here to find out more.
There is now a petition which you can sign urging “the Government to undertake full and current research into all aspects of registered childminding and to consult with experts in the field, national representative organisations and most importantly those who are practising registered childminders, before deciding on the future regulation and inspection requirements of childminders”. I have signed this petition as I feel it would be best for the childminding sector to remain regulated, for many of the reasons stated in the petition.
If you would like to read and sign this petition please click this link
I plan to write more about this in our next newsletter and it would be great to hear your thoughts on this controversial issue.
Thanks,
Amanda
May 31st, 2012
Hi, welcome to the seventh and last blog in our series on marketing your childminding business. In this blog we conclude your marketing mix by focusing on the ‘Promotion’ element and adding a few notes on the less relevant ‘Place’ element of the mix. ‘Promotion’ is all about making sure parents or carers looking for childcare know about your services and consider you a viable solution to their childcare needs.
This blog is in two parts: The first part looks at creating your brand and what to include in your promotional material to help build your brand. The second part looks at ways you can promote yourself, both digitally and through more traditional methods.
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May 6th, 2012
Hi, welcome to the sixth blog in our series on marketing your childminding business. In this blog we are moving on to the Price element of your marketing mix. This is all about how much you charge for childminding, exactly what you charge for, and how parents/carers can pay for the childcare.
Most childminders have an hourly rate that they charge. These rates vary across the country. According to The Daycare Trust the average hourly rate (based on 25 hours of care a week for a child under 2 years old) that a childminder in England charges is £3.70. This compares with £4.08 for an hour of care in a nursery. The average hourly rate charged by childminders differs widely across the country. Childminders in East Midlands charge an average rate of £3.17 per hour whilst those in London charge £2 more at an average of £5.18 per hour.
The chart below show average hourly fees charged based on 25 hours of care a week for a child under 2. Data is from The Daycare Trust’s Childcare costs survey 2012.
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April 19th, 2012
Hi, welcome to the fifth in our series of blogs on marketing your childminding business. In this blog we look at Step 4, your marketing mix, and in particular the Product part of your marketing mix. Confused? Let’s have a recap using the diagram from the first blog in this series:
So by this point you have worked out what you want to sell (the type of childminding you want to offer) and you know that there are parents / carers in your area that are looking for this type of childcare.
Now it is time to develop your marketing mix. You may have heard of the Marketing mix before as it is used in marketing talk worldwide. If you haven’t heard of it before, don’t worry it isn’t complicated. The idea is that to get customers to buy what you are selling you need to determine four things: You need to consider exactly what your product is; what price you are going to charge; how you promote the fact your customers know your product exists; and finally how you will get your product to the place of your customer. The fourth point ‘Place’ isn’t too relevant to childminding (it is more for physical products like how to get a mars bar into the hands of customers) so we won’t spend much time on it. The other three P’s are all important though, we cover ‘Product’ here and will look at ‘Price’ and ‘Promotion’ in the next two blogs.
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April 4th, 2012
Hi, welcome to the fourth in our series of blogs on marketing your childminding business. In this blog we look at Step 3 – your marketing strategy. This really isn’t complicated – it is just about deciding what you are going to offer and who you are aiming at. In this step we bring together the two earlier steps of understanding your marketplace and understanding what you want to achieve from childminding.
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March 28th, 2012
This is the forth in our series of blogs on the development of the Revised EYFS, or as we now call it, EYFS 2012.
For those who have read our blogs on the proposed changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework published in July 2011, we are pleased to say that there are only a few differences between the proposals and the actual statutory framework document – You will recognise some of what is written below from the earlier blogs but please still read the whole blog as there are some new requirements that are significant.
This blog discusses what we believe are the main differences between EYFS 2008 and EYFS 2012. It also outlines our thoughts on what the changes mean for childminders in England. As the document was only published yesterday these are our initial thoughts and we will write update blogs in the next few weeks as more comes to light. We have attempted to strike a balance between informing you of all the changes and not scaring you away with a massive blog. We hope we have the balance right – any feedback on this would be welcome.
Currently registered childminders in England are required to operate within the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage 2008 (the EYFS and what we are now referring to as EYFS 2008). In September 2012 a Revised EYFS framework will replace the original EYFS framework. We are referring to this as EYFS 2012 in the same way as other professional bodies. If you have time, it is worth reading the entire EYFS 2012 framework that was published yesterday (27th march 2012), there may be something applicable to you that we haven’t picked up.
The EYFS 2012 will come into force in England from September 2012, before then all childminders must follow the EYFS 2008 framework, however it is good to get prepared for the introduction of EYFS 2012.
The EYFS 2008 and EYFS 2012 statutory framework documents contain many styling and wording changes that are too frequent to detail here. In this blog we are focusing on the regulatory changes that will affect childminders. To make it easier to read we have split the changes into separate headings that mirror the headings in the EYFS 2012 framework document.
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Overall we feel that the EYFS 2012 is a welcome development and will help to ensure the childcare sector continues to focus on helping children to thrive. We are yet to be convinced that it will lead to a significant reduction in paperwork but the reduction from 69 early learning goals to just 17 should make the observation, assessment and planning cycle simpler.
We would love to know what you think!
We will now get started developing resources to help your transition to EYFS 2012 and for use in your setting after September. These will be available for all members to download as soon as they have been created. We will also blog about the resources and any other information that becomes available.
Thanks,
We hope that this blog has been of interest. Please remember that the information contained in our blogs are just our interpretation of the regulations and are for general information purposes only. We recommend you read the EYFS 2012 Statutory Framework produced by The Department of Education. Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for more information.
March 28th, 2012
In our last blog we discussed the importance of understanding your marketplace. In the third blog in this series we turn the focus onto you – what you want to achieve from childminding.
People become childminders for a variety of reason. It is good to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve before you agree to care for the child of the first parent or carer that asks.
Have a look at the image below, do any of the nine ‘wants’ match what you want to achieve from childminding?
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