A LIMERICK childminder has warned that carers looking after children in their own homes will be forced out of business unless there are changes to legislation.
And Childminding Ireland says that the Minister for Children, Disability, and Equality, Norma Foley, is “not engaging” with the sector and “risks being the Minister who oversaw the end of childminding in Ireland”.
Charmaine Parnaby is a Tusla-registered childminder living near Kilmallock, County Limerick. She has been childminding for more than 20 years in Ireland and the UK.
She runs Little Rainbows Childminding, caring for six young children all under the age of three in a “home-from-home” setting and is one of just 18 Tusla-registered childminders in Limerick.
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“We need a complete review of the sector,” Charmaine told the Limerick Post. “Under current regulations, I can’t even have a helper who can take over for short periods to let me keep medical appointments or even to go to the shops.
“I have to ignore medical appoints or close for the day and it’s the same for every childminder,” she said.
Crèches are allowed take on qualified, vetted extra staff “but childminders, people who look after children in a warm, loving home setting with dedicated facilities, by definition, have to work alone”, Charmaine said.
A childminder is allowed an emergency back-up person in the event of some major event, such as the childminder being taken suddenly ill, but that person can only take over for however long it takes for parents to be contacted and children collected, and even then, they must be Garda vetted.
To make the situation even more unworkable, Charmaine says, Tusla has been tasked with handling Garda vetting in the childcare industry but does not offer vetting for emergency contacts.
In addition, the substantial government subsidy currently available to parents through registered childminders is not being offered through newly-registering childminders, upping the bill for childcare in the sector by 80 per cent for those services.
“My daughter, Brytnee, is a graduate with Level 5 childcare qualifications, paediatric first aid, and she’s Garda vetted, but I can’t leave her alone with the children, not for five minutes,” Charmaine says.
She has now had to take the decision to close every Friday so she can attend appointments and take care of personal essentials.
Added to this, there is a massive amount of paperwork required of childminders and even tighter regulations due to be introduced next year.
With her list currently full and a three year waiting list, Charmaine says she in not the exception in demand for childminders.
“Parents area absolutely desperate. I have phone calls every week, but I have to tell them I’m full until 2028,” she says.
“Childminders won’t sign up to the new regulations. They will just shut up shop because we’re being pushed out by regulations made by people with no understanding of how we work.
“I’ve written to Norma Foley, invited her to come down and see what I do so she understands what’s involved.
“There has to be a massive review and childminders must be listened to in doing that. Otherwise, no one will want to do this job and that will take a huge amount of availability of quality, safe childcare away from families.”
According to Childminding Ireland “the majority of childminders in Ireland have told their representative body they intend to cease operations within the next 12 months as a new government system takes hold”.
Bernadette Orbinski Burke, Childminding Ireland chief executive, said the current “one size fits all approach is driving childminders out, creating anxiety across the sector and reducing childcare capacity”.