Worrying slump in childminders

OLDHAM is in the grip of a childcare crisis with new government rules set to make it worse, it has been claimed.

According to the Liberal Democrats there has been a worrying slump in the number of registered childminders since the start of the decade.

New Government figures for 2009 show there are 400 registered childminders across the borough down from 500 in 2001.

The Lib-Dems seized on the figures to warn that parents trying to make childcare arrangements for the looming school summer holidays could be in trouble.

And they highlighted how the steepest decline — a loss of almost 5,000 childminders across England in just 12 months — had followed last year’s launch of the Government’s controversial nappy curriculum” which sets out 69 goals for five-year-olds — including an ability to write simple words.

And, to add to the problem, Britain is experiencing a baby boom. The increase in births between 2004 and 2008 was 3 per cent in Oldham, according to the Lib-Dems.

Annette Brooke, the Lib-Dem children’s spokeswoman, said: “It is going to be a real struggle for hard-pressed parents to find good, affordable childcare. The bureaucratic nappy curriculum is putting people off being childminders.”

But Dawn Primarolo, the children’s minister, insisted it was “nonsense” to suggest that the new demands on childminders were driving some out of the profession.

However, Ms Primarolo, while denying a significant fall in the number of childcare places available, admitted: “We know there may be variations at local level.”