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Alongside consultations on ratios changes and changes to the Early Years National Funding Formula, the government has announced new changes aimed at encourage more childminders to join, and remain in, the early years sector:

These are:

• Reducing the upfront costs of becoming a childminder via financial support
• Allowing childminders to spend more of their time working from a greater range of locations – for example, a local community centre or village hall rather than their own home
• Giving childminders greater flexibilities within the ratios when looking after their own children or siblings of other children
• Working with Ofsted to reduce inspection of childminders
• Slimming down the childminder specific Early Years Foundation Stage, reducing the framework by one-third to ensure content is targeted and simpler to navigate

While most of these are not part of the formal consultations (the exception is the proposal to give childminders greater flexibilities within the ratios when looking after their own children or siblings of other children, which forms part of the ratio consultation), we at the Early Years Alliance are still keen to get childminder views on the changes so we can share these with the Department for Education in our ongoing discussions with them. As such, if you are currently an Ofsted-registered childminding professional, we would be grateful if you would share your views on the changes listed above via the form below.