I hope you have all enjoyed your half term holidays, whether you have had time off with your families, have managed a break away or enjoyed lots of extra outings with mindees. It has certainly made a change to have lovely weather for a Bank Holiday weekend, even though for some, the extreme heat brings challenges of keeping little ones safe.

Our new Setting Manager tool that will help you complete your childminding ‘paperwork’ on your phones, or any other device should be launched within the next 6 weeks for you. This feature will be FREE of charge for members and is an example of how, as not for profit organisation, we invest in our membership features.

Last week, I was interviewed for 5 Live Drive about the decline in childminder numbers, and what we can do to encourage more childminders in the profession to reverse this decline so that parents who would prefer a childminder for their child(ren) can find one.

You may have heard Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announce that she is has asked the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) to examine childcare costs to parents. We know that the CMA have been asked to examine practices of paid for/ funded hours and consumable charges, but don’t yet know what this will entail. We know they will be looking at different types of provision. I’m delighted that Cat and I have been invited to meet with the CMA regarding their initial scoping and also asked how they can work with us if their Board does decide to carry out a full review. You can be absolutely assured that we will speak for childminders around the issues of funding rates for 3- and 4-year-olds and ask that funding rates are looked at within a wider review and not just looking at parents charges.

We are delighted to welcome Penny Webb to our Board of Trustees. Penny has been a friend of Childminding UK for many years and is a real champion of childminding. Penny was awarded the British Empire Medal for her volunteering for childminding support and raising the profile of the role you all love. We are all looking forward to her input into our lovely little charity.

Date for your diary

Bookings for our Conference on Saturday October 17th in Northampton are going well. We have secured some fantastic speakers and workshops for you and of course there will be a Members Discount accessible. To be sure of getting your preferred workshop choices, please book early to avoid disappointment.

Don’t forget to complete your profile on our FREE Advertising Platform. If you don’t already have a Dashboard, please visit any page on our website in the top right hand corner click the log in button and then choose the ‘register’ option.

Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other,

Tina