Who am I and why did I start Childcare Kingdom?

Dear Colleague,

I have been working in childcare for over 25 years in various roles from assistant to manager in a wide range of settings. I've also been a foster carer, but most recently I was a childminder. Sadly I had to quit my role as a childminder to move abroad with my husbands job, which is when I started to use my free time to produce books, documents and resources which other childminders can benefit from, to make childminding easy.

My name is Anna-Marie Owen, I'm a mum of two boys and a wonderful step daughter, I'm also wife to my best friend and soul mate, as well as being the founder of Childcare Kingdom. I, like you, work on my own which means I'm solely responsible as the author, editor, illustrator, secretary, marketing agent, accountant, designer, and website developer! (which inevitably are all me too!)

As a childminder I have been shocked at just how much childminders are expected to do on their own. Like me you are solely responsible and act as manager, supervisor, caregiver, educator, health and safety officer, SENCO, nurse, environment planner, builder, accountant, marketing agent, secretary, writer, IT expert, and more, the list is endless.

Your working 50 hours a week or more hands on with the children and then the many hours on top of this producing your own paperwork. For a minimum wage and then the government go and throw on top of this even less per hour to register with the local council to offer funded hours and more paperwork to boot (FCCERS). No wonder childminding numbers are declining dramatically!!!!!!

It concerns me that so many childminders are leaving the profession after years of childminding because of the pressure that is put upon us. So, the only thing I can do now is to try and help keep childminders in their jobs because after working in all types of childcare settings, I firmly believe childminding is the best childcare available for this and all generations to come.

My aim is to simplify things for you, so I have built this website to help childminders gain access to all the information they need to carry out their million and one tasks, successfully and professionally. I hope to make your role as a childminder easy, simple, less frustrating, less stressful and most importantly enjoyable.

Best Wishes Anna