New nanny register campaign

The working group, whose 20 members include the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the National Children's Bureau, the Daycare Trust, the Chiltern College, the NSPCC and Nannytax, and agencies including Tinies Childcare and Nannies Abroad, was brought together by the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses (PANN).

They said last week that the group's goal was 'to provide a forum that identifies, analyses and develops nationally accepted strict criteria for nannies to work to, enabling them to become better equipped to provide the children in their care with a good standard of care and education'.

The working group has three key aims: to have Ofsted ultimately manage a register of all childcarers in England; to establish minimum standards of quality childcare in the home; and to establish best practice, policy and procedures for nanny agencies. It has asked CACHE to produce either training modules for nannies or a stand-alone course for nannies that relates specifically to working with a child in the child's own home.

The working group said it would lobby the Government 'to introduce legislation requiring all childcarers to be registered and monitored throughout their careers and all nanny agencies to be regulated following the best practice identified by the group'. It also intends to establish a professional code of practice for nanny agencies to ensure that 'they meet with their legal obligations and duty of care for both the nanny and the employer'.

PANN professional officer Tricia Pritchard said, 'There is presently no registration of nannies or regulation of nanny agencies under current legislation, creating confusion, bad practice and non-accountability. There is therefore a need for both of these schemes to be implemented, which would provide a level of measurability, so nannies and nanny agencies can be judged against accepted standards.

'This would raise the profile of nannies in society and afford them a status on a par with other carers, such as childminders, teachers, and nurses. It would also ensure that children cared for in their own home are offered the same protection as those in all other childcare settings.'