The National Child Minding Association has just held its Annual Conference in Scarborough, and the numbers attending keep on growing. It is now the biggest regular meeting of childcare workers in Europe. There were 630 childminders present, and by the time you add on some of the NCMA’s 300+ staff, speakers and exhibitors, it was quite a crowd.

As always, it was a friendly crowd. We understand from contacts that conferences of this sort in other professions are often opportunities for cat fights, back-biting, rivalries and scoring points. In general, this is not so in childcare - or in social care as a whole. When the NCMA get together, there is usually a lot of laughter, the chance to make friends and renew contacts from earlier events. After all, childminding is often a solitary occupation as far as adult contact is concerned, and the Annual Conference offers a complete contrast.

Certainly the Bookworm Ball proved a time to let hair down, and the ingenuity and hard work shown in the costumes was remarkable. The winners were Cruella De Ville accompanied by seven Dalmatians; the fact that they were 94 short did not detract from their success. Then there were the five Alices in Wonderland, the two competing sets of characters from Peter Pan, the Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, a realistic Mr Snape and two or three hundred other entries. They all deserved prizes.

Story-telling

This year the Conference theme was story-telling, and Gervase Phinn proved a hilarious contributor. Not only were his stories of his time as a teacher and an inspector very funny - (they are in his books, if you want to read them) – but they also showed acute observation of children and their behaviour, reactions and thinking, with some powerful underlying messages. He described himself as an average boy from Rotherham; if so, the top stream must have been geniuses.

The Minister

It was rather tough on the Minister for Children, Margaret Hodge, to follow that act, but she gave a detailed and powerful speech outlining the Government’s thinking, and its track record to date. The Minister was thinner on future plans as the Government’s ten-year strategy is due for publication soon, and she had been instructed to keep it under wraps.

Margaret Hodge was given quite a hard time by childminders when she invited questions. While the Government has been pouring money into childcare and its plans are fundamentally sound, the way they are applied varies dramatically from one authority to another. In some there are clusters of childminders based on schools meeting the needs of children at the school requiring care before and/or after school hours. In others, the schools cater for the children, leaving the childminders underemployed and refusing to work collaboratively with them.

There is always the risk of casualties and aftershocks following any major development, but a bit of good collaborative planning could probably resolve this one, so it will help if the Minister could bang a few heads (metaphorically, of course).

Professionalism

The NCMA has done an excellent job over the years in establishing the professionalism of childminders, and their initiatives have been good both for childminding and for the Association. There are now 48,000 members, amounting to about two-thirds of all registered childminders, with virtually all new entrants to the profession joining. This is an extraordinary record, contrasting with all other professional bodies for childcare workers in this country. The NCMA is the only voice for childminders. A motion passed at the NCMA AGM was that they should be known as Registered Childminders to reflect the standards required of them and the professional approach which they take to their work.

A Wider Role?
However, it is extraordinary how many people outside childminding have never heard of the NCMA. Indeed, many people are quite confused about the difference between childminders, nannies, au pairs and so on. Are they equally confused about the difference between doctors and nurses or solicitors and barristers?

The reason, presumably, is that childcare workers in England tend to work in silos, and unless people have direct contact with a childminder, they do not know much about them – or their organisation. Childminders work in their own homes and do not have a high public profile, and the NCMA for the most part works in the childminding field.

The NCMA, though, is now probably the most powerful voice in childcare – certainly in relation to younger children. It now offers its services to nannies as well as childminders, but its pre-eminent position means that it should also speak on behalf of the sector as a whole. It has much to offer.