Ashleigh Crouch, 44, has worked in the childcare sector for 25 years, in roles from nursery manager and teacher to youth leader. He’s currently a childminder with his wife, Claire, 35, and the couple look after between four and seven children in their home in Basingstoke.
When we talk on the phone, he’s taking a quick break while toddlers nap. “It’s my favourite of all the jobs I’ve had,” he says. “But I don’t think people know much about childminders, and I don’t think we’re well publicised compared to nurseries.”
Crouch takes his charges on outings most days, including on buses and trains to gain real-life experiences, and last week took a lucky two-year-old to the Paddington Experience in London. But much of the benefit to those in his care comes from the home-based environment with children of mixed ages. “A baby who joined us last July was walking within weeks,” he says. “They want to copy the other children. We have a two-year-old who is taking herself to the toilet. [Whereas] in most nurseries you’re stuck with your own age”.
Two of the children Crouch looks after came to him and his wife after not settling in at a nursery. The setting, he says, was too big for them with too many other children. “They arrived scared and unsociable and [are now] the opposite and have gone off to school,” he says.
I’m not sure my own family would have managed without our brilliant childminder, Amanda Miller, who we found to look after our daughter, Percy, now nine, when she was younger. I’d contacted a few childminders to meet with in 2017, including Miller, when I bumped into her on our local beach with some of her children. In the summer, they stroll down to her beach hut and spend the day making sandcastles and picnicking. I didn’t need much more persuasion.
Sophie Morris chose childminder Amanda Miller (pictured) to look after her daughter, Percy (Photo: Ben Edmonds)And it was a success: six years on from her last day with Amanda in March 2020, my daughter Percy still cuddles “Angel bear”, which she brought home with her. Were it not for the pandemic, she would probably still be going to Mandy’s after school.
Nearly a decade after I chose a childminder for my family, I’m shocked to hear of the pressures facing the sector, and how few childminders remain in operation. The number more than halved between 2010 and 2025, from 58,000 to 25,300, according to Ofsted figures. “At the current rate and without government intervention to slow the decline, just a small handful could remain by 2034, severely limiting families’ ability to access this unique, flexible, and highly personalised form of care,” claims Coram Pacey, the home-based childcare association which represents 14,000 early year providers.
Government policy, however, seems to favour nursery setups. The 1:8 adult to child ratio for children over three means that nurseries can charge for more hours than a childminder ever could. What’s more, schools are being encouraged to open nurseries with up to £150,000 from a £45,000,000 pot on offer (the government says this is to create a further 300 new or expanded nurseries offering up to 7,000 places from September 2026).
In September last year, the full “Free Childcare for Working Parents” scheme came into effect, with up to 30 hours of funding a week available for children from nine months old. While childminders say the rates they are paid don’t cover costs, a new sting arrives this April, with the removal of a long-standing 10 per cent “wear and tear” allowance, which has allowed them to reduce their taxable income to cover the impact of caring for children at home.
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“It’s very useful,” says Miller. “It covers stuff like repainting skirting boards where you’ve been in and out with the buggy, perhaps someone’s been scribbling on the wall, and cleaning the carpets because you might have two or three children potty-training at the same time.”
Crouch has launched a Change.org petition, Childcare on the Brink: Stop the 2026 Cut That Will Push Childminders Out, to challenge the loss of this wear and tear allowance. It has over 18,000 signatures and has been brought up in the Commons twice in the past two weeks. He believes this particular cutback will force even more out of the job. “Many childminders are now saying they may have to close, reduce funded places, or stop offering flexible care, which will directly affect families who rely on us.”
Crouch also says that while some of the childminders he’s spoken to think that the Government is unfairly targeting their sector, he believes another issue is the Making Tax Digital programme. “[It] will require us to use paid software, adding yet more cost to a sector that is already struggling,” he says. He believes that because the number of childminders is so small, they’ve simply not been considered in these rule changes.
“We’re not nurseries or offices and we cannot separate our business from our home in the same way,” he points out. “Childminding does not happen in fixed rooms or fixed patterns. Children move freely through homes, gardens, kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces. Expecting childminders to evidence exactly which rooms are used, for how long, and to prove this to HMRC creates confusion, fear of audits and an impossible administrative burden.
“The replacement system being suggested requires childminders to claim for individual items but in reality this is unworkable. We’re compared to tradespeople like plumbers or decorators, who do not have dozens of children using their home. Proving that damage is ‘child-related’ rather than normal household wear is incredibly difficult and puts us at risk of disputes.”
Like most jobs in the care sector, childminding is not a high-earning profession. Coram Pacey says that a full-time childminder looking after two or three children might earn between £27,000 and £40,000 per year, but that the margins on costs are so tight that many lose money, earning only 91p for every £1 spent.
This shortfall is widespread because during the 38 weeks of the year that childminders receive funding, they cannot charge any top-up fees. Miller, for example, would charge £7 per hour, but is only paid £5.34 per hour for each three- and four-year-old in her care. Under twos and two- to three-year-olds receive £10.76 and £8.74 respectively per hour, but she can’t increase the ratios in the way a bigger provider like a nursery can. She feels she is a self-employed person with none of the perks of employment.
A key benefit of childminders is how flexible they can be for families with SEND children, but even those working in this sector aren’t receiving adequate support.
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Julia Carr, 44, has, like Crouch, been in the sector for a long time, working on and off since she was 16 and bringing all that experience, as well as bringing up her own five children, to the role. She currently works with her husband, Matthew. They look after a toddler with complex needs including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, dystonia and feeding complications. As she needs 1:1 care, they employ an assistant at a cost of £15,384 a year, before training costs, but only receive £6,064 to cover this, a figure that was increased after they appealed to the Special Education Needs Inclusion Fund (SENIF).
“We naively assumed it would cover the costs,” says Carr, adding that the SENIF team have been helpful but cannot offer more. In this case, the parents wish to help, but Carr isn’t permitted to accept any top-up payments. She has been advised to seek help from charities. “We often get children with additional needs because we’ve both been teachers, and I’ve been judgemental about childminders who don’t, but now I realise how hard it can be.”
Crouch and the other childminders I talk to have high praise for nurseries, but say they’re not right for all children. I chose a childminder for my daughter because of the home-based and consistent care. I didn’t want her with a different 17-year-old in nursery every day. I also had good reports from anyone who had used one, including my two older sisters whose children stayed in touch with their own childminders for years after leaving their care.
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