Midlands Enterprise Awards 2021

27 | Midlands Enterprise Awards 2021 In a world of juggling priorities and responsibilities, @Home Childcare offers a helping hand for parents and childminders with children’s education and emotional needs at its core. CEO Yvette Oliver-Mighten talks to us @Home Childcare’s role and why it is so important today. Founded in 2005 by CEO Yvette Oliver-Mighten, @Home Childcare is an award-winning childminding centre in the Midlands. It was set up as a solution for working parents who need flexible, responsive, and trustworthy childcare to fit around their busy schedules. In December 2015, @Home was registered with Ofsted to become a regulatory body for childminders, officially known as Ofsted Childminder Agencies. The company then became Orange Moon Childcare however it still uses its trading name @Home Childcare. It operates as a quality assured community for professional childminders known as Home Early Educators. Yvette says, “As we are the Ofsted equivalent for childminders, our role is to register, monitor and inspect educators. Unlike Ofsted, we also provide on-going development support and training. It is a personalised service because we know every single educator we select to be registered. Inspections are the game changer. Lots of things can go wrong in between the years waiting for your next inspection, especially as most educators do not have the external support they can call on”. @Home makes sure that parents have peace of mind in the knowledge that the early education business that they use is trustworthy, reliable, and just the right fit for both theirs and their child’s needs. It also supports those wanting to set up a childminding business by providing special training and advice. This is to make sure that they can achieve a Good or Outstanding rating for the quality of their home-based provision. Another service that it provides is annual inspections where it assesses the quality of care and early education, in contrast to Ofsted’s 3–6-year inspection cycle. This is another thing that gives parent’s extra confidence in their childminders as well as helping those childminders to stay on target for themselves, the parents and, of course, the children involved. Yvette says that its social mission is to “improve access for suitable people wishing to set up home-based early education businesses by removing barriers to entry, and to enable more families to benefit from the unique care and early education home-based childcare can offer”. Its core values push it on an upward trajectory towards the continuation of empowering suitable people who have a passion for childcare. “We want to help people to grow and develop sustainable childcare businesses that children will enjoy and thrive in,” says Yvette. “Part of our vision is for parents to recognise that home settings are great places for children to get the best start in life”. As these childminders deliver the same early years foundation stage outcomes as nurseries, pre-schools, and nursery schools, @Home feels it is necessary to promote these as viable options to parents who may otherwise struggle to find confidence in this area. @Home knows that childcare is more than someone watching over the safety of children, it is about education and nurturing so that a child may flourish. This is where its core values really shine; it focuses on providing flexible childcare that encourages, educates, and benefits all parties involved. Its unique selling points involve it being a social enterprise with a social mission to help people set up their own childcare businesses. It has a sister company that is a government approved training provider, of which they use their funding for pre-registration training for new educators. Its registered educators can undertake a funded, nationally recognised, early education qualification with its sister company’s training provision. Yvette says, “The trend we are noticing is that more parents are understanding that high quality home-based childcare has a lot to offer and are choosing it as their preferred childcare instead of nurseries”. Parents can benefit by entrusting their children to a small ratio of carers to children in a childcare setting. They benefit from this because their children can receive more attention in a homely environment, therefore encouraging and stimulating growth. @Home’s staff members views and values must match the views and values of the company. They must complete a thorough induction and demonstrate not only their willingness to thrive but their tenacity in doing so. “We try to be clear in our recruitment ads about what we are looking for and don’t settle for anything else. We rather do without, than hire someone who doesn’t match our ideals,” says Yvette. The very culture and heartbeat of the company is that of children first, and their education, safety, and wellbeing. @Home is expanding its Full Support Service to new locations for the future of childcare in Manchester and South Yorkshire areas. Yvette concludes, “We believe our work represents a quiet revolution because, for the first time, rather than go it alone, childminders can choose to be part of a professional community where they can gain benefits such as early years qualifications, support and training with the early years curriculum, personal mentors and annual inspections”. Contact: Yvette Oliver-Mighten Company: @Home Childcare Web Address: https://www.athomechildcare.co.uk Jul21417 Best Nationwide Childminder Business Support Service 2021