Childminder calls for change to government-funded childcare

The UK government currently allows working parents of children aged three to four to claim 30 hours of 'free' childcare a week.

These hours can be used with "approved" childcare providers and cannot be accepted by "informal providers such as grandparents".

Shelley Hills, a grandmother based in Durrington, said she has "cut through all the red tape" to become a registered childminder and would not describe herself as an informal provider.

Shelley Hills has decades of experience in the profession. (Image: Shelley Hills)

Mrs Hills has been childminding for 23 years and is unable to accept government-funded hours from her daughters Jessica and Chloe after their children turned two years old.

She said: "We do rigorous amounts of training but when it comes to our grandchildren, nieces and nephews we can’t get a penny.

"This needs our politicians to wake up and change the rules. It's a very unbalanced and unfair way of looking at it."

While Mrs Hills charges her daughters a discounted rate, they are effectively missing out on 30 'free' hours a week, which equates to roughly £165, if their children do not move on.

"The only way they access them is if they leave my care, move to another setting which won’t be a home from home like they want and then have more expenses as the government don’t pay enough on the funding rates," Mrs Hill said.

Childminder Sally Ronchetti previously told the Journal that the government-funded hours pay below her hourly rate and result in parents being invoiced for nappies, meals and trips to make up for it.

Read more: Wiltshire childminders paid late as council bring in new system

'Not an effective use of public money'

When quizzed on the issue by Miriam Crates MP in 2021, Vicky Ford MP, then-parliament under-secretary of state for children and families, said the government 'did not believe it is appropriate to use public funds to pay an individual to look after a relative'.

Mrs Ford added: "Childminders cannot receive funding for related children. Successive governments have taken this same approach, with the aim of avoiding creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders so that they can be paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis.

"Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses."

'We need a better system'

Mrs Hills' member of parliament Danny Kruger supports the call for change and said a "better system" is needed to give families flexibility.

Danny Kruger MP sympathises with Shelley Hills. Mr Kruger, MP for Devizes, added: "I sympathise with Mrs Hills and I think we need to support 'family childcare' more.

"We need a better system that gives families flexibility about how to use the money they are entitled to for childcare - including giving it to their relatives, like grandparents, if that's what works best for them.”