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Truss aims to introduce childminder agencies to cut cost of care

By Will Hazell POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

LIZ TRUSS will drive the creation of “childminder agencies” under a Frenchstyle system to slash the cost of childcare, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Under radical reforms being considered, the agencies could be given public money to grow while childminders could be released from individual Ofsted inspections, with regulation by the watchdog focusing on the agencies.

Childminders could also be given permission to work from council homes. In his mini-Budget speech, Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor, promised to break down “barriers for enterprise” by “reforming the supply side of our economy”, with childcare identified as a key sector for reform.

The Government believes that the changes would help families and increase productivity by allowing more parents to return to work.

A source said: “It’s one of the few areas where you can make big reforms that don’t cost money, but actually have a really positive impact. There’s not many places left like that.”

Boris Johnson’s government launched a consultation on changing the staff-to-child ratio in England from one adult to four children so it mirrors the Scottish ratio of one to five. Childminders will be central to Ms Truss’s package, with a focus on elevating the role of agencies. These act as a “onestop-shop”, registering childminders and providing them with training, admin support and marketing services.

Ms Truss helped introduce the agencies when she was children’s minister from 2012 to 2014. In a speech in 2013, she said they could “simplify the process for becoming a childminder”, working to “spread the cost, reduce the hassle, and use economies of scale to make it cheaper”.

While their role remains limited in the UK, boosting the organisations could help reverse a fall in childminder numbers, which have plummeted by 35 per cent since 2015.

Department for Education civil servants are also understood to have taken a keen interest in a recent report by the Policy Exchange think tank, which recommended boosting the agencies and “removing regulatory burdens”.

The report recommended providing a subsidy for every childminder that an agency recruits, while also requiring every current childminder to register with an agency within five years.

Alternatively, the Government could use tax breaks to encourage expansion. The agencies play an integral role in the

Netherlands and France, where childminders work together in local hubs. Both countries were visited this year by Will Quince, the then children’s minister, on a DfE fact-finding mission.

One recommendation in the Policy Exchange report under consideration would see childminders removed from registration and inspection by Ofsted. Quality assurance would be carried out by childminder agencies, which would remain accountable to Ofsted.

Another area the Government is keen to tackle relates to council housing where many childminders are not allowed to operate from. This could be changed to allow childminding without exception. There have been calls for costly red tape to be removed in other areas, such as a legal requirement that childminders must receive a GP health check before they are able to work.

Another change could see the scrapping of a rule that childminders must operate for no more than 50 per cent of time from non-domestic premises, allowing them to set up on high streets.

A DfE spokesman said: “We will be taking forward reforms to make childcare easier to access and more affordable which will help boost economic growth. We are exploring a wide range of options, but no decisions have been made.”

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2022-10-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://dailytelegraph.pressreader.com/article/281685438728881

Daily Telegraph