Faq’s

  • The suggested Childminding Charges included in our Membership Pack are set by working childminders – not NICMA staff.  Every year, the Childminding Advisory Council, made up of childminders from across Northern Ireland, set fees which members can use as guidelines when drawing up their contracts.  But you don’t have to use – they are SUGGESTED only but they can be helpful for newly registered childminders and for parents who need to know what their childcare costs are likely to be before they return to work.  Each individual childminder should assess their service and set fees according to the level of service offered. 

  • The Minimum Standards for Childminding and Day Care for children under age 12 were launched in July 2012.

    These standards ensure quality child care for all children and parents who use registered services.  For the first time, they mean that all parents and children who use registered child care can expect to receive a consistent minimum standard of care, no matter where they are in Northern Ireland.

    The standards are used by Health & Social Care Trusts to register and inspect childminding and day care services for children under age 12. 

    The Standards state that all registered childminders must attend training in three core areas: 
     
    1.Health & Safety 
    2.Child Protection / Safeguarding 
    3.First Aid 

    NICMA can offer Health & Safety and Safeguarding training that is specific to childminding settings and will meet the requirements of the Minimum Standards.  


     

  • NICMA provides advice for childminders, parents and others involved in childcare and our aim is to ensure that any advice given is FAIR to all parties.  We are not legal experts, that’s why we offer a Legal Advice Line for our members, but we have many years of experience of working with and supporting childminders.  All of our staff are trained to offer impartial advice based on what is good practice in terms of running a high quality childminding business.  That advice is based on the information we receive from the childminder or the parents – and this sometimes differs greatly as we are presented with two very different scenarios.  It is also important that the advice given is CONFIDENTIAL -  we never share details of calls with either party [unless specifically requested by the caller] – it would be  a breach of data protection and it’s important that the caller knows that they can speak confidentially.
     

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