Two childminders have opened up about the devastating impact the cost of living crisis is having on their livelihood and the sector.
Sharon Collins from Newry and Cathy Thompson from East Belfast contacted Belfast Live after seeing the stories shared recently by parents struggling to meet their childcare bills.
"The cost of childcare for parents and the amount they are paying out of their income is outrageous and we have no argument with that, but just wanted to speak from a balanced point of view because registered childminders are not making massive profits," said Cathy.
Read more: Northern Irish mums open up on their battle to meet childcare costs while working
"Our prices have increased because our costs have increased, we're not posting big end-of-year profits or anything.
"Many childminders are working well below minimum wage per hour.
"Some childminders are working up to 55 hours per week, because they're working longer days than the parents themselves, because the parents are dropping off kids before they start work and lifting them after they've finished."
Sharon and Cathy have both been registered childminders for 15 years, so have a wealth of experience and both are part of Unite the Union's registered childminder branch.
Sharon said there were hidden costs to being a childminder that were putting serious pressure on the sector.
"Obviously we all know about the cost-of-living crisis, but people have to realise that when you're self-employed and working in your own home, it adds up," she said.
"We have to maintain a temperature from 18-21 degrees at all times so that means the heating tends to be on.
"Electricity, gas, diesel, petrol prices have all gone up too."
Cathy agreed, saying that there had been a noticeable rise in her bills for running childcare.
"The price of food has nearly tripled - people don't want to give children cheap, processed food, we're professionals, so it is really expensive," she added.
"A lot of childminders have been pushed to the point where they're saying they won't increase their hourly rates but are asking parents to send food in with their kids, to try and limit the costs being passed on to parents as much as possible."
Sharon said that the sector was facing an absolute crisis, where demand remained as high as ever, but the job was simply not paying enough to retain people.
"I think it's so disheartening that there's no one that can help us at the minute, without a sitting government," she said.
"It's just soul-destroying that people in this job, dedicated to the job and that love the job, are being forced to leave.
"Since October, we've had 99 registered childminders leave the sector altogether. We have a private chat page in the Newry and Mourne area and we have 374 parents on it and there are only 8 registered childminders on it."
Cathy was forthright about the situation facing both parents and childminders alike.
"It's black and white - we need someone to either subsidise parents or subsidise the sector, because they're the only two real options," she said.
"There's something wrong when you've got two parents in good jobs and they're struggling to pay for their childcare, there's something wrong there.
"They get to a stage where they look at their childcare costs and they say that one of them would be safer working part-time or whatever, they're just doing the maths like we all do.
"Parents are struggling, childminders are struggling, when both sides of the balance are in trouble, it's not going to work."
The impact of the cost-of-living crisis has also been felt directly by Sharon, who admitted that it had left her struggling.
"I can only speak for myself on this one, but being a single-earner household, I have to report my income every four weeks to universal credit," she said.
"I'm slowly coming out of it but I've been in a deficit for months, by the time I put in my costs, what I should be coming out with would have been a lot more pre cost of living.
"What I make, I'm maybe keeping in my pocket a third of what I'm actually earning, even to the extent where Universal Credit has said you're not earning enough here, you need to get another job, so I'm not making any massive profits here.
"I don't want to leave my job and believe you me I've thought about it a few times, but that would be six sets of parents that leave their kids with me and that's basically six parents that would not be able to go to work because there are so few registered childminders near here."
Both women are calling for the government to intervene, whether that be a returned Stormont Assembly or Westminster.
They would like to see changes made to the current ratio system, which allows for one childminder to every three under school age and three over school age kids, six in total.
The childminders said changing this to allow for more under school age children within that ratio would help with costs, as those children are in for a full day.
"We want to work together with parents to put pressure on those with the power to sort out this childcare crisis," said Cathy.
"The problem is, the under school age children are full day places, so the over school age ones are coming out of school at 3pm or 3.30pm and getting looked after until around 5pm, so it's only really about two hours or so.
"Taking away some of the restrictions in the ratios seems to be a no-brainer."
Cathy went on to say that through Unite, a request had been made to change those ratios to the Department of Health.
A spokesperson for the department said it was aware of the request and was reviewing the current provisions in place.
"The Department of Health is clear that any proposal to change the ratios in childminding must consider implications for the safety of children and the potential overall impact on service quality," the spokesperson said.
"The Department is committed to reviewing the Minimum Standards for Childminding and Daycare. The review will extend to current staff to child ratios within childminding."
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