Childminders face standards change

The Government looks set to change its national standards for under-eights daycare which allows childminders in England to smack children in their care and to smoke in their presence with parents' permission. At the National Childminding Association conference on 'Childminding Changes Lives', held in London last week as part of National Childminding Week and National Childcare Month, Ivan Lewis, minister for young people and learning, hinted that there might be changes to the standards next year. He said, 'I am aware that the national daycare standards did not always meet the aspirations of the NCMA and childminders.