{"id":35072,"date":"2024-05-23T06:48:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T06:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/childminder-numbers-halve-in-two-decades\/"},"modified":"2024-05-23T06:48:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T06:48:21","slug":"childminder-numbers-halve-in-two-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/childminder-numbers-halve-in-two-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Childminder numbers halve in two decades"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The availability and cost of childcare\u00a0has become an issue for many parents<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The number of registered childminders in Northern Ireland has halved over the past two decades while demand for childcare has risen.<\/p>\n

The availability and cost of childcare<\/a> has become a significant issue for many parents and a political priority.<\/p>\n

But the Education Minister, Paul Givan, has previously said that it may cost up to \u00a3400m<\/a> to put a childcare strategy to support parents in place.<\/p>\n

Parents in Northern Ireland do not get free childcare hours, unlike other parts of the UK<\/a> where parents are entitled to 30 free hours.<\/p>\n

Mr Givan is planning to bring a subsidy scheme for childcare to the executive later on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mr Givan told Nolan Live on Wednesday night that he hoped his package of measures would get support from executive colleagues<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Patricia Lewsley-Mooney told MLAs that there had been a big fall in the number of registered childminders in Northern Ireland<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Some parents pay for their children to enter nurseries or playgroups, but others rely on childminders to provide childcare.<\/p>\n

Most registered childminders work from their own home and look after up a maximum of six children a day.<\/p>\n

They are registered in a process including vetting by social services which can take a number of months.<\/p>\n

But Patricia Lewsley-Mooney from the Northern Ireland Childminding Association (NICMA) told MLAs on Stormont’s Economy Committee that there had been a big fall in the number of registered childminders in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Patricia<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ms Lewsley-Mooney said the time it takes for a childminder to be vetted by social services had increased significantly<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ms Lewsley-Mooney said that there were now just over 2,000 registered childminders in Northern Ireland compared to 4,383 in 2005.<\/p>\n

Parents in rural areas in particular could have trouble finding a childminder, she said, and there was also a need for more childminders in areas like west and east Belfast.<\/p>\n

She warned that “due to the demand of affordable childcare, there continues to be the growth and the competition from unregistered and unregulated childminders.”<\/p>\n

If a childminder is unregistered and unregulated they may not have been vetted by social workers, and may not have appropriate insurance or received training in things like first aid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Parents ringing in ‘dire straits’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\"SineadSinead Daly<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Demand for childcare is outstripping supply, says Ms Daly<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Sinead Daly, 48, has been a registered childminder for 14 years. <\/p>\n

She lives in Coalisland in County Tyrone.<\/p>\n

She minds eight children per day and has an assistant.<\/p>\n

Ms Daly previously worked in retail but wanted to be at home with her son, so decided childminding would provide an income and company for her child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave up retail at Christmas time, took a week off and then started the following week with all my slots [six including my own child] filled,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are ringing me in dire straits over childcare and unfortunately I can\u2019t help them out,” she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many parents are telling us they are struggling to find childcare and there\u2019s no doubt in this area demand is certainly outstripping supply.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Under pressure’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Ms Lewsley-Mooney also said the time it took for a childminder to be vetted by social services had increased significantly.<\/p>\n

“The problem is the registration process,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Before it was taking three to six months, now it’s taking six to nine months and beyond that.”<\/p>\n

“In fact, we’ve been 18 months on this and we still haven’t got two people registered.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Ageing population’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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She told MLAs that she had raised the problem with the Department of Health.<\/p>\n

“They’re saying the amount of social workers that are under pressure right across the board they couldn’t ask to make prospective childminders a priority,” she said.<\/p>\n

MLAs were also told that as many childminders did not have a pension they could be working into their 70s.<\/p>\n

Ms Lewsley-Mooney said they were an “ageing population.”<\/p>\n

“I met a childminder the other day who’s been a childminder for 43 years – she’s minding third generation children,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Getty Images The availability and cost of childcare\u00a0has become an issue for many parents The number of registered childminders in Northern Ireland has halved over the past two decades while demand for childcare has risen. The availability and cost of childcare has become a significant issue for many parents and a political priority. But the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[13590,737,5651,4030],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35074,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35072\/revisions\/35074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}