Valuing the mind in childminding

with babies and their families.

Childminding offers unique opportunities for babies. Being cared for in a home environment by a consistent professional can create the conditions for close, responsive relationships.

But practical pressures can reduce the time and capacity needed for this engagement. A 2026 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) highlights the long working hours, administrative demands and limited opportunities for collaboration experienced by childminders, with some working more than 60 hours a week.

Alongside caring for babies, childminders are simultaneously running a business, preparing food, managing paperwork, maintaining the environment, communicating with families and keeping on top of regulatory requirements – and often, they do all of this while working alone.

Our review not only highlighted the pressures associated with this lone-working model, but also the more limited opportunities childminders have to access professional support and develop practice alongside others.

This matters because stress does not simply sit somewhere in the background of practice: it can spill over into vital interactions between babies and their caregivers. Indeed, a 2012 study by Marleen G. Groeneveld and colleagues found that higher levels of stress among childminders were associated with lower-quality caregiving.

A childminder's wellbeing impacts more than just the babies they care for; it also shapes connections with the entire family. Building deep, trusting partnerships with families is essential to high-quality childminding, not an optional extra. Close communication helps childminders understand changing routines and adapt their provision to meet individual family circumstances.

Childminders welcome families into their homes and often come to know them extremely well. While these relationships can be enormously rewarding, they also involve emotional labour. In a 2021 study, researchers Dr Summer W. Luckey, Dr Sarah N. Lang and Dr Lieny Jeon, describe the potential for relationships and wellbeing to become part of either a ‘virtuous’ or ‘vicious’ cycle. When childminders are experiencing stress, relationships with families can become more strained, adding further stress. Positive relationships with families, on the other hand, can support childminders’ wellbeing and help positive relationships to flourish.

If we want babies to experience sensitive, responsive and relationship-rich provision, we need to pay attention to the conditions in which childminders are being asked to provide it. That means moving beyond seeing wellbeing as an individual responsibility. Childminders cannot simply be expected to become more ‘resilient’ in response to heavy workloads, professional isolation or the emotional demands of their work.

Our review points instead towards the importance of practical and professional support. Early years policy needs to consider how workload and unnecessary administrative pressures can be reduced. Childminders need strong professional networks where they can reflect on practice, learn alongside others and experience the collegial support that can be harder to access when working alone. There is also a need for professional development that recognises the emotionally demanding aspects of childminding, including relationships with families, professional boundaries, safeguarding and emotional labour.

Caring responsively for babies is demanding work. It requires adults to notice small cues, regulate their own responses and remain emotionally available across the day. Our research has found that much of a baby's learning, development and wellbeing happens through ordinary moments of interaction, such as being comforted when upset, sharing attention over an object, responding to a sound or gesture or enjoying a playful exchange together. Making the most of those moments depends not only on what a childminder knows, but on having the emotional and practical capacity to be present.

Ultimately, childminder wellbeing cannot be separated from quality of care. When we support the adults responsible for a baby's everyday early experiences, we are directly supporting the babies themselves.