As a small team of mothers, since we started Melted Parents we’ve had incredibly kind and supportive feedback - 99% of the 1000s of DMs, messages and emails have been so appreciative from parents, stakeholders and the wider community. We share this message with the intent of moving forward positively and to continue our focus on advocating for and supporting parents.
Last week, we launched our Day Care Provider Pulse Survey. This survey was established in response to feedback from parents, many whom also included screenshots of communications from their providers who have specifically named the direct cause of a price rise as the NICSS (Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme). For one parent, there was a 13% rise in fees.
We needed to act quickly, to have data on trends or rises, to have valuable information take to the Department of Education and for meetings with other stakeholders.
Melted Parents have always maintained a position that we fully understand why providers increase their prices, the only ‘failure’ here is the Government for not investing in providers/families for decades.
Why is it important to see the trends in fee increases then with the NICSS?
- We need to see how widespread this specific issue is.
- In order to persuade the NI Executive of the need for change, we need data and evidence to underpin the personal stories shared by followers.
- Not all providers are raising fees (in fact, results to date show that the overwhelming majority are not).
- A survey is the only way to evidence the reality of the situation quickly - especially as volunteer organisation with extremely limited financial resources.
- We also are lobbying for the £167 cap to be raised and the only way to successfully evidence this is to report on fees factually - the fee increases mean more parents won’t get the full value of 15%.
Childminders & The Day Care Provider Pulse Survey
Since launching the Day Care Provider Pulse Survey, we have faced online abuse and misinformation from some childminders, stating falsely that this would be used to ‘name and shame’ them.
To clarify, our social media post launching the pulse survey, and the tracker itself does not ask for individual names (nor include registered childminders).
We do not intend to post the survey results regarding unique providers publicly to social media.
Why are childminders not included in the Pulse Survey?
- Childminders typically increase fees in September in line with the school year - as advised by NICMA. It wouldn’t be fair to include for this reason.
- Childminders are typically individuals and we didn’t feel it was appropriate to include personal names / addresses in the survey.
That being said, we also faced critique from childminders that they were ‘not included again’ because we didn’t include them in the form. However, we feel our decision to not include childminders in the pulse survey was the right one.
Feedback on the NI Childcare Subsidy Scheme
Parents: We welcome your comments and messages on the scheme that help us build a better picture on the impact the scheme is having. If you have any specific queries on the scheme, please continue to direct these to the Department of Education and Early Years as the owners / administers of the scheme - nicssparent@early-years.org
Feedback on the NI Childcare Subsidy Scheme
Providers - Day Cares & Childminders:
On the whole we’ve received generally great feedback on the NICSS from providers. However, we have also received some unhelpful, at times abusive messages from providers who are inappropriately accessing closed online spaces created for parents to gather for peer support. We have always responded and maintained that Melted Parents have no control over the schemes’ design and rollout.
With anything new, there will be concerns and questions - we appreciate and value our childcare providers and hope that with continuous improvement from DE and Early Years can be a scheme that works for everyone. We will continue to direct providers with feedback to the DE and EY as the owners/administers of the scheme, and please contact any relevant stakeholders for you such as NICMA, Unite or NIDCO.
Melted Parents are a group of volunteers and while we want to ensure all feedback is listened to - we are not the appropriate channel for providers to feedback. While we’re happy to listen and have constructive conversations, we are not an appropriate channel for abusive messages about the scheme or misinformation sharing.
A final note…
Whilst we have received unhelpful comments and messages from some, we have had many, productive messages in private and would like to thank the providers who came to us with queries and were resolved with positive conversations for all.
As a group of parents, in order to proactively work across the sector - in the past few months we have:
- held a round table with providers
- held an engagement session with parents who are also providers to inform our work
- when a recent daycare closed, one of our team took annual leave to visit them and share our sadness.
Our behaviours and actions in working with providers have demonstrated how we value their place in the sector - planning and undertaking this work in our own time.
We have always, publicly and privately said that providers are the backbone of our economy and an extension of our families - behaviours from some over these past few days have been incredibly sad to face as a group of parents.
While we don’t have a paid or official role in the communication or rollout of the scheme - as a group advocating for parents, we want to ensure parents have all of the information to help their family thrive, at the moment this is focusing on how they can access critical funds via the scheme and that means in the way it’s been designed by Department of Education and Early Years.
Melted Parents will continue to advocate for parents, signpost to relevant stakeholders and above all else - share the lived experience that families are facing at the cold face of this crisis.
Working together respectfully and collaboratively is vital to ensure investment in the sector and secure the delivery of a long term strategy. There of course, will be times when parents, providers and wider stakeholders don’t all agree on views or priorities - however this can, and has been done respectfully.
After decades of empty promises regarding a childcare strategy, as a sector there’s a long way to go to solve all of the issues it faces. We want to direct our energy towards working together as a sector to support the design of a childcare strategy that works for children, parents and those who care for our children.
We will keep working openly and collaboratively, we will keep lobbying for families, sharing the lived experience we’re all facing due to the childcare crisis and will keep striving to bring you the most up to date information we have, in a digestible, shareable way.