Nursery World - Childminding networks: Careering ahead

Childminders' growing professionalism has given them the green light to becoming more involved in delivering the Government's ambitious childcare initiatives. Mary Evans reports

Once upon a time, childminders were sometimes seen as the poor relation of the early years sector, offering little more than glorified babysitting, but like Cinderella their status has been transformed. They are now widely regarded as an increasingly professional part of the childcare workforce with a major role to play in delivering the Government's ambitious childcare and early education programme.

The vehicle for change has not been a fairytale coach, but the development of quality assured childminding networks which have raised the status of childminders within the sector, with parents, other agencies and crucially among childminders themselves.

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