Information at your fingertips (Childcare in general)

Member Name:

Product:	Childcare in general
Date:	30/09/01 (38 review reads)
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Advantages: Information at your finger tips, National Network, Local Contacts, Phone numbers for more information

Disadvantages: No all information is complete

I have just been to a Children’s Fun Day, organised by the Blackpool Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership and held at the local sports centre. Apart from having a really fun time with the children, Clowns, Face painting, Decorating biscuits and cakes, Drawing, Circus Skills, and the rest, I have found some useful information I thought I would pass on to all of you who might be looking for Childcare.

The Government produced a National Childcare Strategy in 1998, which required all local authorities to set up an Early Years and Childcare Partnership (EYDCP), which are made up of local organisations who have an interest in the Early Years Education and Childcare. The aim of the Strategy is to provide a quality childcare place for every parent who needs it by 2004. (Information from a sheet produced by Blackpool EYDCP)

At the fun day there were people from different types of childcare, from Pre-School Learning Alliance and their Play-Schools, to Private Nurseries and PiP Integration, which helps to integrate “Special Needs” Children into the mainstream Nursery or Play Group situation, to Childminders.

In the information that I collected on my way around was a web site address for the National Child Minders Association. On my return, I promptly logged on and had a look at the site. The site offers advice to anyone who is, or would like to be a registered Child Minder, Information on Legal Requirements and Voluntary, but very useful training and certification that may be undertaken. The address is www.ncma.org.uk

Whilst looking through the site, I found a link for people looking for childcare. This link takes you to a National Childcare site run by the Government, and with a simple search you can easily find information on the type of childcare you are looking for, including Child Minders, Nursery, Play Groups and After School Care.

The search involves either putting in a Post Code and click
ing search, or clicking on an area of a map of the UK, then on up to Three Towns or One Region within the resulting Area Map. I clicked on North West, then Central Blackpool and came up with a screen offering the different types of childcare that I might be interested in. I clicked on After School Clubs and found three in my area along with contact details for the individual scheme. There is also a contact number for your local EYDCP who will be able to advise you if there are any other schemes that haven’t been added to the data base yet. The address for this is www.childcarelink.gov.uk

I hope that some of this information is of help.

The one thing that I think is really important when choosing childcare is that you can see that your child is happy, and that you are “happy” to leave your child in the care of the person providing the service.

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