Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire Community Childminding Network
This project was established in 2007 and provides services for
disabled children and young people and their families, which are
sufficiently differentiated to meet their diverse needs.
The network has also supported children and young people with
disabling conditions who do not meet the criteria for disabled
children, for example those who have attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or Asperger’s Syndrome.
The service we manage
The service includes a wide variety of support for the following
who now have access to either short breaks or respite care which
were previously unavailable to them:
- Disabled children under the age of 5
- Disabled children and young people with medical needs who now
have a choice about where to have their short breaks.
- Children and young people with autism who do not have severe
learning difficulties
- Children and young people who require short breaks more
frequently than the previously existing services were/are able to
offer
- Children and young people who have disabling conditions such as
Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Working parents and carers of disabled children and young people
can also access childcare for the same price as parents of any
other children in Buckinghamshire.
Results
In 2007, Buckinghamshire County Council commissioned an
independent evaluation of the Buckinghamshire Community
Childminding Network. The evaluation looked at outcomes for
children and young people, outcomes for childminders and
childminder satisfaction, parent/carer satisfaction, satisfaction
levels amongst referring officers/agencies and attitudes and
satisfaction levels of the members of the multi-agency management
group. The resulting report was an overwhelming endorsement of the
network as a cost-effective way of providing high-quality, flexible
support to families.
In 2008-2009, the service supported 179 children from 159
families. Forty-nine of the children had disabilities. In addition,
there were seven who had ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome or challenging
behaviour, but did not meet the criteria for disabled children’s
services.
Recently published research shows that work undertaken by the
service saved the social care provider £269,000 over a two-year
period, and also led to additional saving within the health
budget.
The service team
This team contains eight members of staff providing services to
childminders that will meet their needs so that they can offer high
quality services to children, young people, their parents and
carers.
For more information, please contact Vicky Lee, Service Manager
vicky.lee@ncma.org.uk.
Page last updated:
11/17/2011