A recap of childcare news from winter 2022/2023 plus resources, updates and behind the scenes at MindingKids!
For many this time of year brings lots to look forward to including better weather and getting outdoors more, making plans for the holidays, or putting projects that have been on hold over the winter back into action. With spring in sight, it’s time to get busy!
Hello and Welcome to all our new visitors, and a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all of our loyal members, customers and followers for your ongoing support!
If you are just starting out in the world of childcare or have years of experience, we hope that MindingKids can offer something to help you on your journey.
In childcare news…
💷Cost of Living Crisis
Rising costs continue to be a major concern and with the current Energy Bills Support Scheme coming to an end next month, both childcare settings and families will feel purse strings being squeezed even more! A survey by the Early Years Alliance revealed that almost 90% of pre-schools, nurseries and childminders are looking to increase fees by an average of 8% in order to cover rising costs and most worryingly more than a third believe that spiralling costs will force the closure of their setting within the next year.
Research has also shown that providers are struggling to provide healthy and nutritious meals as a result of rising food costs. More than half of providers reported that they were now using cheaper ingredients, cutting portion sizes or passing costs onto parents in the form of ‘snack fees’.
Read more about the cost-of-living crisis impact on childcare settings in this Nursery World article
Concerns over food provision are also detailed in this news post from the Early Years Alliance.
Looking for ways to reduce costs has never been more important. In addition to checking the Help for Households Campaign for information and support schemes, you may wish to try these money saving ideas in your setting or share with families:
✔️Saving on the food shop: Parent Club – How to save money on food and groceries
✔️Free Indoor Games and Activities: NHS Healthier Families – Indoor activities for kids
✔️Bills and Budgeting: Money Saving Expert – Cost of living help guide
❓Looking to increase fees to ensure your business remains sustainable? Our Revised Fees Notification Letters templates will allow you to formally notify families of any changes to your fees structure in a professional manner:
🕒Making Tax Digital Delayed
In response to the challenging economic climate the roll out of the government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme has been delayed for self-employed individuals and landlords.
The government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme is intended to move the UK towards a fully digital tax system, with an aim to improve accuracy and make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right. MTD is already a requirement for VAT registered businesses whereby accounts records must be kept digitally and tax returns filed at least quarterly (3 monthly) using compatible software.
MTD will now be mandatory for self-employed individuals with an income of more than £50,000 from April 2026, rather than April 2024. Those with an income of between £30,000 and £50,000 will need to comply from April 2027. For those earning less than £30,000 a government review is to take place for any further roll out of MTD for ITSA after April 2027.
Find out more about Making Tax Digital here
Minding Kids is keeping a close eye on the requirements for MTD and will do our to best support our customers via our Accounts pack and App.
You can also read more about Managing Your Accounts on our Hot Topic page!
📖Interactive reading
New research suggests that interactive approaches to reading can boost language development by up to seven months. International evidence summarised by the Education Endowment Foundation shows that encouraging children to ask questions and engage with pictures and texts during story time can have a significant impact on learning.
Read more about the research in this Nursery World article and find examples of interactive reading strategies in the Early Years Evidence Store.
Supporting language development through stories is something that my very own sister is an expert in! Visit the Kids Club English website for some fantastic craft ideas, songs, games and more!
Fiona has also been kind enough to share some of her story activity packs with MindingKids.
🧠Shaping Us campaign
Led by the Princess of Wales, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood has launched a campaign to highlight the importance of the first five years of childhood. It’s aim is to raise awareness of child brain development in the early years and how experiences, relationships, and surroundings can impact the rest of our lives.
Find out more about the campaign and why early childhood matters to everyone here.
🌳FREE forest and outdoor learning guide
With Spring in sight, many of us will be looking to take advantage of the better weather and explore more outdoor learning experiences. Children can learn so much from being outdoors and activities that allow them to experience nature and the world around them.
MindingKids has been asked to share this educational guide from Forest Holidays: 50 ways forest and outdoor learning experiences benefit child development
As well as lots of outdoor activity ideas the guide includes useful information on:
- Statistics on how much outdoor experiences help children learn.
- The important skills like confidence and responsibility that kids learn by being outdoors.
- How outdoor activities help young students in developing social and exercise-related routines.
Looking for more ways to learn through play outdoors? Download our FREE Outdoor Play Activity Ideas Sheet or investigate our Minibeasts Activity Pack!
For providers registered in Scotland (Care Inspectorate)….
📃Early Learning and Childcare Audit 2022
Commissioned by the Scottish government, the Scottish Childminding Association published the annual Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Audit at the end of November which confirmed some very worrying figures. Official data included in the audit show that the childminding workforce in Scotland has now declined by 34.9% since 2016 and warns that urgent intervention is needed now to prevent a childcare crisis. The SCMA has previously warned the Scottish Government of the devastating impact that the expansion of ELC funded hours policy has had on childminders with many leaving in droves due to ‘a significant increase’ in paperwork, working unpaid hours, duplicative quality assurance and unsustainable expectations.
The audit also includes proposals to further support childminder recruitment and retention which the SCMA are calling for the Scottish Government to act urgently upon.
You can read the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Audit 2022 here
To support childminders with funded provider status, MindingKids offers a FREE Approved ELC Provider – Childminder Checklist to help with meeting the criteria set out in The National Standard for Early Learning and Childcare Providers.
🚸Keeping Children Safe and Positive Mealtime Experiences
In January the Care Inspectorate wrote to all early learning and childcare providers to raise awareness of some safety issues highlighted by recent incidents and also to introduce a new series of practice notes aimed to support improvement and help keep children safe.
Keeping Children Safe – Look, Think, Act Campaign raises awareness of how, and why, children could leave a childcare setting without a responsible adult and uses SIMOA the elephant (Safe, Inspect, Monitor, Observe, Act) to help remember safety checks. A series of posters and graphics are available to share the message with staff and parents.
Keeping children safe: supporting positive mealtime experiences in early learning and childcare (ELC) provides support and guidance in the planning, preparation and provision of nutritious and healthy meals and snacks for children. Example scenarios and a list of key improvement resources are included to help further support positive mealtime experiences.
Take a look at our Healthy Eating Pack for more ideas to ensure food safety, promote healthy choices and involve children with fun healthy eating activities!
📨Annual Returns
Again, due to the ongoing pressures services are experiencing, providers have an additional 4 weeks to submit their annual returns with the deadline being extended to Sunday 19th March. All registered providers are required to complete a return, even services which are currently inactive.
You can find further information about annual returns on the Care Inspectorate website here
For providers registered in England (Ofsted)….
🌍NEW Climate Education Resource
A new resource named Sustainability Matters in Early Childhood has been launched by the educational charity NCFE linking climate education and green skills to the EYFS. The free resource aims to promote ‘creativity and curiosity’ helping children to learn about nature, climate change and the importance of sustainability through a range of activities.
Download Sustainability Matters in Early Childhood here
Take a look at our Climate Change Activity Pack for more ideas to help children learn about climate change and what we can do to look after our planet.
🔃Ofsted Updates
Ofsted have made updates to the following ‘myth busting’ guidance:
Ofsted inspections: what EY providers and practitioners need to know
New questions added include ‘What should I expect from the ‘learning walk’?’, ‘Is the notification call the start of the inspection?’ and ‘How will inspectors get the views of parents?’.
If you are due an inspection soon, this guidance is a useful read and should be referred to alongside the early years inspection handbook.
Ensure you are inspection ready with more ideas from our Preparing for Inspection Hot Topic and Learning Walk Plan.
⏸️Ratios to remain
Plans to change early years ratios are believed to have been scrapped by the government alongside other childcare reforms. A number of industry experts had raised concerns that increasing child : adult numbers would adversely impact quality of provision and compromise child safety.
A government consultation on regulatory changes including relaxing ratios concluded in September however a response is yet to be published. The government are said to be reviewing ‘all options to improve the cost, choice and availability of high-quality childcare for working parents’.
Read more in this Nursery World article.
Our Ratio Management Chart can help with ensuring you comply with your adult : child ratios and maximum numbers for your setting. Or manage and plan for a Ratio Variation / Exception to Ratios with our Ratio Variation Pack.
And at MindingKids…
🪄Finishing Touches
Following years of planning, we are bursting with excitement as we complete the finishing touches to our new website and app. Our expert developers are now in the final stages of checking everything over and we eagerly await their instructions on the roll out of the new MindingKids experience! Keep your eyes peeled!👀
🎂Turning 10
Wow! This year will mark ten years since I began my MindingKids adventure. I am so happy to say I have never looked back and feel lucky to have made a career doing something that I love. As time has passed, so too have my aspirations for the business and I understand how important it is to continue to move with the times and technology! In addition to celebrating a decade of MindingKids with the launch of the new website and app, we are looking to overhaul our social media presence with an aim to connect with even more like minded professionals.
🙏🏼Resource Requests
Whilst we never seem to run out of inspiration for new resource packs, we want to ensure that what we are working on is of best use and interest to our customers. If you have any ideas for new resources, improvements or activity pack suggestions then please contact us with your ideas. The more requests we receive for a specific resource will bump up the idea up the queue, so don’t be shy! We want our customers to let us know what they want to see more (or less) of so we can put our creating skills to best use. Feel free to get in touch here.
Since our Autumn News Update the following resources have been added, updated or improved…
Remember MindingKids Members have unlimited access to all MindingKids resources immediately as they are added or updated! Click here for further details!
New and Updated Resources
Scarlet Fever and Strep A Infection parent information sheet – Following the number of cases of scarlet fever soaring this winter alongside other winter illnesses we added a new Scarlet Fever and Strep A Infection parent information sheet to our Policies & Procedures Pack that can be used alongside our Illness Policy template.
NEW Childcare Contracts – Now suitable for use in ALL types of childcare setting! Set out Professional Childcare Contracts for ALL children in your care! Accommodate every kind of childcare arrangement including Term Time / Holiday Hours, Temporary, Retainer and Funded Hours. MindingKids Customisation Service is available with this pack! Add your business name and logo!
New Year Activity Ideas Sheet– For some activity inspiration after the festive break we introduced this FREE NEW Year Activity ideas sheet! 💖Reflect on events and achievements, 📝Make goals and ambitions, ⭐Make wishes and learn how new year is celebrated around the world🌍
Accounts Pack Updates– In preparation for Making Tax Digital (MTD) we have added NEW Quarterly Income and Expenditure Log Sheets to our Accounts Pack! All the logsheets you require along with a handy guide to help get your accounts in order.
Policies & Procedures Pack🌟PERFECTED – We have enhanced our Policies & Procedures Pack! ⭐Now with Policy Links to The Health and Social Care Standards (SCOTLAND), Early Years Foundation Stage (ENGLAND) and the National Minimum Standards for Regulated Childcare for children up to the age of 12 years (WALES)
Activity Planning Pack🔥REVAMPED! – Our Activity Planning Pack has now been revamped and is now bursting with inspiration, to BRAINSTORM IDEAS around a topic or theme, FOCUS LEARNING around a specific skill or task, and encourage more CHILD-LED experiences!
Coming Soon…
👀A NEW Look to MindingKids!
Thank you to all for your continued support! 💖
Cheryl & The Minding Kids Team! xxx
