RESOURCES

Childminders play a vital role in early years education, as equal partners with other providers in the delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

Childminders are also unique in what they have to offer, a fact that should be celebrated as contributing to choice for parents. All registered early years providers have to meet the same requirements for learning and development, but it is the overall ethos of each type of provision, the interplay of local demographics and the beliefs and values of individual educators that help to shape the educational programmes children receive.

Another factor is the number of people concerned with delivering a service. The larger the provision, the more people involved, the more time and effort it takes to manage teams, devolve roles and responsibilities and organise rooms and groups. A childminder generally works alone as ‘captain of their own ship’, though thankfully not in isolation. There are mechanisms for support, advice and guidance available including the Alliance, childminder coordinators, agencies, networks and forums.

Delivering the EYFS
The EYFS promotes teaching and learning to ‘help children prepare for school’ and sets the standards that all providers must meet. As registered person, the childminder has overall responsibility for the provision and is legally responsible for complying with the requirements and regulations.

With very little differentiation within the EYFS for the various types of childcare and education, the emphasis must always be to consider how the provision is organised in line with the requirements. In a home-based setting, the opportunities and challenges are probably no more or less than for any other form of early education.

One of the biggest operational challenges for the home-based educator is that they generally work alone and must take on all of the roles defined within the EYFS. The childminder is manager, key person, lead person for safeguarding, SENCO, curriculum lead, first aider, administrator, finance officer, cook, cleaner, and in cases where they are working with an assistant, employer. With so many balls to juggle, the childminder can potentially miss opportunities to create a uniquely effective learning environment in all the challenges of meeting minimum requirements. Self-evaluation also requires more focus for a lone-worker who does not have colleagues to give the immediate feedback that supports personal reflection.

The following relevant specifications within the EYFS need consideration of the implications for the home learning environment:

• 1.16 Each child must be assigned a key person. (In childminding settings, the key person is the childminder.)
  
  
• 3.3 Childminders are not required to have written policies and procedures. However, they must be able to explain their policies and procedures to parents, carers and others.
  

• 3.24 Childminders must have completed training which helps them to understand and implement the EYFS before they can register with Ofsted or a childminder agency. Childminders are accountable for the quality of the work of any assistants, and must be satisfied that assistants are competent in the areas of work they undertake.
  

• 3.42 At any one time, childminders (whether providing the childminding on domestic or non-domestic premises) may care for a maximum of six children under the age of eight. Of these six children, a maximum of three may be young children, and there should only be one child under the age of one. Any care provided for older children must not adversely affect the care of children receiving early years provision. The EYFS gives further detail about ratios for childminders and where exceptions can be made.
  

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