Ms Ida Lane:

Going back to the point made about childminders working with centre-based professionals, I have experienced it the other way around. I had centre-based professionals come to my home. They were taken aback by the freedom the children had, how relaxed, engaged and happy they were and how they were playing around and working together along with the amount of equipment I had invested in over the years, including books. The professionals found it completely different from their crèches. Instead of us having to go out to crèches - how that would work, I have no idea, if one had to drag a load of children along - perhaps they should come the other way. They could learn from us to make it more homely. They went back to their very large crèches with major ideas from my home. Maybe it could go the other way around.