By Maggie Simpson, Chief Executive of Scottish Childminding Association
As Chief Executive of Scottish Childminding Association, I spend much of my time helping to give people a clearer understanding of what running a childminding service is like in 2015. Recently that has had me involved with Scottish Government in the statutory guidance on the Children and Young People Act; as a member of the core reference group for the early years workforce review and on a number of groups with the Care Inspectorate.
Our members are regularly in touch and I get a real lift hearing about their successes as well as concern about just how tough it often is to run their childminding business. Gone are the days when childminding was only about delivering a service to working parents. These days it is just as often about delivering early learning and childcare to 2 year olds or providing a Community Childminding Service to families at times of difficulty.
I see the work they do in supporting children’s learning and the lengths they go to in order to help families and their community.
What never changes is the passion childminders have for the job they do and their complete commitment to the children in their care. That makes my job much easier as I can speak with confidence to help influence national policy as I know just what a difference they make to the children in their care.
Childminders bring that joy and fun with them to any event. That will be the same whatever country they come from; so Edinburgh had better watch out when they hit town for the IFDCO conference.
I confess I am an IFDCO addict. I attended my first IFDCO conference when we ran the event in Glasgow in 1999. I attended the conference in Florida in 2006 when I accompanied some of our volunteers and delivered a workshop. I went to the conference in Cork with a whole band of childminders from Scotland and met a whole host of delegates from all over the world.
Now it is back in Scotland and this time we are running the conference in Edinburgh together with our colleagues from Children in Scotland.
I would urge that you don’t miss out. Come along and listen to a whole range of first class speakers that we have put together for you. Attend great workshops to learn at and share your ideas and knowledge. Just as important of course, there are plenty of social events for you to have fun. Check it all out at www.ifdco.com
I look forward to meeting you all at conference in July so click the button now and book.