Minister urges social landlords to open the door to childminders
The government has written to housing associations, social landlords and developers in England to allow childminders to work in their rented properties, in an effort to increase the availability of childcare for parents.
Claire Coutinho, the children and families minister, wrote a letter urging the housing sector to better support prospective childminders, who often face restrictive clauses in contracts stopping them from working in their homes.
The government hopes this will help tackle the barriers to prospective childminders who rent or have leasehold properties, compared with those who own their own home.
It comes as the government launches new measures to support more people into the childminding sector. This forms part of the government roll out of its new childcare offer, which will take expected government spending on childcare to more than £8bn in total by 2027/28.
The government has already tabled amendments to the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) that will mean childminders can work together in groups of up to four and spend more time working outside their own homes, such as in a community centre or village hall.
The government will also consult on reducing registration times to around ten weeks, make sure childminders are paid monthly by local authorities, and soon launch the childminder start-up grant, worth up to £1,200 for all childminders who have joined the profession since the Spring Budget.
The number of childminders operating in England has more than halved over the past ten years. The government has recently raised the funding rates paid to early years providers including childminders, although some in the childcare sector fear the increases are not enough to meet rising costs and demand.
Coutinho, said: ‘We have outstanding, high quality childminders, offering flexible and accessible childcare in a home-like environment.
‘Too often prospective childminders are having the door slammed in their faces because they face a blanket ban on working from home.
‘However, parents tell us time and again how much they value the flexibility and quality that childminders bring so we are making sure that we are supporting the workforce to deliver what parents need.
‘To do this in the best possible way, we are addressing the challenges childminders face including loneliness, where they work, long registration times and local authority pay timetables. Through our support of the sector, we will deliver the flexible care that parents need.
‘Every working parent of three- and four-year-olds is being encouraged to check what they are entitled to for the autumn term so that they are getting the maximum possible support now, and are ready to sign up for the new offers when they roll out early next year.’
Childminders can currently face challenging registration processes. According to data collected by childminder agency Tiney, one in eight prospective childminders who did not complete the registration process were unable to do so because they could not secure permission to work from their home.
Childminders living in leasehold properties are sometimes blocked by so-called restrictive covenants, which say the properties cannot be used for business purposes. Some who are living in rented accommodation have found their tenancy agreements prevent them from registering their business, or that their landlord’s mortgage agreement includes restrictions from the lender.
Within the letter to landlords, Coutinho has urged them to engage with prospective childminders to unblock these issues wherever possible, for the good of local communities.
Image: Thiago Cerqueira
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