The search is on for the best childcare professionals of 2005 for this year's Childcare Stars Awards.

You can nominate yourself, your colleagues or your children's childcarer, to give them the recognition they deserve.

Organised by childcare charity 4Children and sponsored by the Government's Sure Start Unit, the national Childcare Stars Awards reward the best childcare professionals working in the sector today.

There are awards for outstanding nursery and pre school staff, playworkers, registered childminders or any professionally qualified childcarers.

There are two new awards this year:
• Prima Childcare Team of the Year, for any group of two or more who, working together, are making a tremendous difference to lives of young children and families, and

• Childcare Newcomer of the Year, sponsored by SkillsActive, for those men and women who have made outstanding contributions during their first year as a qualified carer.

Cherie Booth QC, Vice President of 4Children says: "Juggling the demands of home-life with children and for many, combining this with work, is not easy. But our lives can be made so much less pressurised when we know we can draw on the support of committed and talented childcarers. This is why I am delighted that this is the eighth year of the Childcare Star Awards, which provide a fabulous platform to reward the enormously dedicated and creative people who work with our children."

The winners will be announced at a gala dinner at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London on 29 June 2005. A host of celebrities will reward the winners with prestigious prizes ranging from a luxury week in Nice to an all-inclusive holiday to Paris.

To reward the best in the childcare profession, nominate yourself, or someone else, to be a childcare star. Go to www.4Children.org.uk/Stars for a nomination form or call the
4Children information line on 020 7512 2100. Deadline for nominations is 31 March 2005.