Come & Play! Childminder Stay-and-Play Sessions at Birmingham Leisure Centres
41 Childminders + 121 Children, 1 week, 5 sessions. Maths normally doesn’t make people happy… but this kind of maths does!
The HEART Midlands Stronger Practice Hub has partnered with Claire Fitzgerald, Area Lead for Childminders in the Midlands, to develop a suite of stay-and-play sessions specifically for childminders!
New childminder stay-and-play provision has been developed to help meet the unmet needs of childminders in Birmingham who had become isolated post-pandemic and were struggling to find stay-and-play sessions to attend.
Childminders said that many of the stay-and-play groups they once attended hadn’t reopened post-Covid and/or were finding themselves being turned away from groups that were running again as capacity had been limited to favour parents with their own children.
To combat this, HEART Midlands Stronger Practice Hub (SPH) has partnered with Claire Fitzgerald, Area Lead for Childminders in the Midlands, to develop a full programme of stay-and-play sessions specifically for childminders to attend across Birmingham’s Leisure Centres.
This fantastic new provision launched at the beginning of November and has already proved extremely popular.
“I recognise faces but it’s been such a great opportunity to put names to them”
“I’ve been childminding four and a half years and this is the first time I’ve been in a room with this many childminders”
Childminding can be an isolating career, which often gets forgotten about when making the decision to join the profession.
HEART Midlands SPH recognised the isolation childminders were facing and, with funding from the Education Endowment Fund (EEF), now offers an invaluable opportunity for childminders to get back together on a regular basis.
If you’d like to find out more about these sessions, please email Claire (lmcchildcaresolutions@gmail.com).
About the author: Claire Fitzgerald
Areas of Expertise: Childminding
Claire Fitzgerald’s commitment to outstanding outcomes for younger people began in 2005, when she completed her level 2 in early years.
Since then, Claire has delivered early years care in a number of roles, gaining valuable experience as a nursery practitioner. Claire was swiftly promoted to deputy nursery manager in early 2008. Later that year, Claire set up her own childminding business, which she ran successfully since 2008 recently becoming ‘Outstanding’ across all areas of her provision.
To further develop her understanding of the theory of childcare and education, Claire then undertook a teacher training course. During the full-time, heavily placement-based course, Claire spent much of her time helping children with special educational needs, giving her a deep understanding of the safeguarding requirements of vulnerable children.
Claire then became a training officer at an ‘Outstanding’ rated training provider and has since worked in other training officer roles helping to provide apprenticeships for teaching assistants, continuing with her passion of helping those with special educational needs. Claire also trains early years practitioners on a freelance basis and is also a governor.
Claire has just gained the position of Area Lead (HEART - Midlands Stronger Practice Hub) for Childminders on the new Covid -19 Childminder Mentor Programme and is working hard to share best practice for other childminders to enable better outcomes for children across the city.