ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the key role that childminders can play in helping young children to move along the pathway of understanding what it means to be part of a community, and how to play a positive role in such a community. It promotes the potential value of childminders as a resource for linking a child to their local community, and also in contributing to the strength of local communities. The chapter considers why childminding has been and still is an undervalued and underused service. It advocates the need for better support for childminders as a means of promoting children's early start in becoming community members and citizens. The concept of childminding networks, groups of childminders led and monitored by a paid co-ordinator, emerged initially as a way of employers supporting their staff to find high-quality childcare. Childminding, therefore, has unique potential to nurture the sense of belonging and respect which children need to develop on their path towards citizenship.
