Blue Button Childcare

Today I dropped off my final set of childminding resources to a family that has been with me since day one, right through to the last! 🥰

Blue Button started when I met their eldest as a very dinky baby in the Winter of 2017 and today I had cuddles with their youngest, who is an honorary lifetime member of the BB Crew! 🐭🐫🐊🐯

Childminding has been an absolute privilege and I am very lucky to have scooped up some forever families, who are always welcome at my house - I’ve kept a couple of boxes of my mindees’ all time favourite resources for them! My home is their home! 🏡

Now is the time to close this page as I am now working full time on the Friendly Childminder’s Hub and can be reached through there!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1EU2QkAEz8/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The website will be live later in May and the Hub itself will be launching this Summer!

friendlychildmindershub.com

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

And so it begins, with mixed feelings of missing my mindees, but excitement for what’s to come…

For many years, both as a teacher then as a childminder, today has been about welcoming back children for the start of a Summer Term filled with child led activities and glorious adventures!

Today, is very different and that comes with mixed feelings! I closed my setting permanently before the Easter holiday, and this morning there won’t be any mindees ringing my doorbell ready for a hug and our breakfast rap!

Instead, I am about to start work on the Friendly Childminders’ Hub full time! It’s a dream come true, but my word, my house is far too quiet and I miss the children!

I’ve been building the Hub in the background for the last couple of years around family, childminding and my paperwork business! It’s been slow going and I had hoped it would be ready by now! But if you’re part of my Facebook group, Friendly Childninders, you’ll know I am also a stickler for details, I like to provide information from the ‘horse’s mouth’, and I want to create the best support network that I can! It will be worth the wait!

This is the right time to take a leap of faith to work on the Hub full time and I’ll have it out as soon as possible! The website will be available in the next few weeks, and that will share exactly what the Hub is about! After that, the Hub will be launched before September! I’m excited and nervous to put this out there! I’ve been harping on about it for so long and now it’s all ‘real’!

The childminding sector is often seen as the underdog of the childcare world and there is so much going on right now! Childminders need support with the day to day running of their businesses and they deserve the best!
Childminders ‘wear a lot of hats’ whilst they bridge the gaps within communities and provide the best of both worlds for the families who need them - nurturing educations in home from home settings!

Although I am no longer directly caring for children and that’s sad to experience, I hope that the Hub will help many childminders with whatever they need in both their professional and personal lives, and in turn enable them to further help families across the whole of the UK! 💙

Love this! My son was my awesome assistant from the ages of 6 to 13! 🥰🥰🥰

🌟 A huge shout out to the unsung heroes of the school holidays… the incredible children of childminders! 🌟

While everyone celebrates the amazing work childminders do (and rightly so!) — there’s a group of quiet heroes who don’t always get the credit they deserve.

These amazing kids share their mums and dads every single day — with babies, toddlers, big kids, and everyone in between 👶🧒👧
They open their homes, their toys, their space… and most importantly, their hearts ❤️

🌟 They become bonus siblings, best friends, peacekeepers, entertainers, snack buddies, and cuddle givers 🧸🍪🎨

They show patience when things are noisy 🔊
Kindness when others need a friend 🤝
And flexibility when their routines get shuffled ⏰

They’re the glue that helps hold it all together —
the smiling faces, the helping hands, the big-hearted legends ✨

They often wait quietly while someone else’s needs are met first — coming second more than they should sometimes 🫣 — and still show up with love ❤️

🥰 So here’s to you, my own beautiful children, and all the childminder children out there — the true heroes of the school holidays 💪
We see you, we appreciate you, and we think you’re absolutely amazing!

Goodbye from Blue Button Childcare! 💙💙💙

I’d like to share with you that today was my last day as a childminder! My setting is now closed and I’ve resigned my registration with Ofsted.

I will now be focussing on the Friendly Childminders’ Hub full time and hope to launch it this Summer!

I’d already made the emotional decision to close at the end of Summer term to launch the Hub and oversee extensive building work on our house, but circumstances changed and the stars aligned, meaning the end of Spring Term became the right time to do this!

I didn’t want to share the news until after I closed, so I could pour all my energy into the remaining weeks with my wonderful mindees!

I just can't articulate how important Blue Button Childcare has been to me, how much I've learnt, the memories made and most importantly my love for the children I've cared for during that time!

Childminders care for children as long as they are needed and occasionally, the children become part of their own extended families. I am incredibly lucky to have gained some 'forever families' along the way and made life long friends in their parents.

Being a childminder has been an absolute privilege and after I left the classroom behind, I found myself free to educate and nurture the children in the ways they actually needed and I am so proud of everything each of my mindees achieved!

As well as childminding, I’ve supported others through my paperwork business, childmindingpaperwork.com and my Facebook group, Friendly Childminders, which has over 9700 members and counting! Thank you to my lovely friend for her ongoing support with the group and everything really! Both the paperwork business and the group will continue, but the plan is to eventually bring the paperwork under the Hub’s ‘umbrella’!

It’s all been a bit bonkers really and kept me incredibly busy!

For the last few years, I’ve had a dream to build an online community for childminders that goes beyond the confines of social media in order to provide support, information and connection for childminders across the UK with the day to day running of their businesses.

A couple of years ago, my ever supportive husband, came up with an amazing way to make this online community a reality and I’ve been building it since 2023 around family, work life and all the other things that get thrown at us! It’s been slow going but I believe in it so much.

Childminders are a unique breed of amazing people who ‘wear many hats’ and the lines between our work and personal lives are often blurred! Childminders are regulated, trained and insured childcare professionals who open up their hearts and homes to the families that need them! They follow statutory government frameworks, deliver excellent educations through child led curriculums and many also offer funding and tax free childcare.

Yet despite all the strings to their bows, they are often seen as the underdog of the childcare sector and their needs seem to fall through the cracks sometimes! They deserve better, and through my own experiences and connecting with others, I’m hoping to deliver a solution to help childminders across the UK!

It's been an absolute privilege to be a childminder and my sadness at closing my business is testament to both years of joy and my dedication to jump into the Friendly Childminders' Hub with all I am, and everything I have. 💙

https://www.facebook.com/share/1APkBwWqbX/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Lunch and an arcade treat at the Trafford Centre! 🥰🥰🥰 3/4/25

Dino Falls Golf! We’ve driven past this so many times and today was the day my 🐊& 🦝 got to go! We had a fab time! 🥰3/4/25

All in an early morning’s play before our exciting adventure! 3/4/25

💚 Dear Parents 💚

Over the past few months, the private Early Years sector has been floored by new funding restrictions brought out by the Department for Education. For years, we have been chronically underfunded, but regardless, existing EY settings have pushed on to offer outstanding care and education for your children, despite crippling financial difficulties. Thousands were forced to close their doors for good.

Today, Keir Starmer and the DfE announced that 300 nurseries are opening in schools as an initial stage of a mass rollout. It is beyond frustrating; had they funded the PVI’s honestly, there would already be enough spaces for children without them needing to attend school at the age of 2 or 3.

There is something more today though that has really angered me; the marketing campaign that rolled out alongside it - the one where the DfE and our Prime Minister claim that these settings are a higher level of service and education than existing nurseries and childminders.

Let me make it clear, every private childcare setting is offering exceptional early education and care for your children. This Government are not ‘saving the day’ or creating better opportunities for your children. They are pushing them into school and deflecting from the funding scandal that is currently taking place. They want both parents back to work as early as possible to boost the economy and they want state-run nurseries.

Hear me when I shout it loud; your child does not need to be in school at 2 or 3. These nurseries are not offering anything above and beyond that of a private setting. They too will be underfunded, and they too will struggle to recruit enough staff. They will follow the EYFS just like the rest of us. The social media posts that I have read from MPs today are shameful, misleading and dishonest.

Your existing workforce are highly skilled in educating and caring for children in the first 5 years of their life. This is what we do, and we do it well. Your child will be more than school ready in a private setting and they do not need to attend a pre-school before starting in Reception.

Parents, I implore you to look further than the propaganda that has been rolled out today. Trust in your PVI settings, the passionate and skilled practitioners who care for your children each day - please support them at a time when they need you most.

Signed,

A very frustrated and disappointed childcare professional.

😔

All in a day’s play at the wonderful Heaton Park & Hall! 2/4/25