b"10 questions with Tricia PritchardTricia Pritchard is a veteran in her field with over 30 years of experience in the tradeunionandemploymentlawindustry.Overtheyearsshehasprovidedadvice,support,andpersonalrepresentationtocountlessnanniesonissuessuchaswrongful dismissal, unlawful deductions, leave entitlement, sick pay, and maternityleave. She has robustly negotiated improved terms and conditions of employment(including pay awards) and she has worked on a national level, making sure thatgovernments remain acutely aware of the contribution home childcarers make tothe UK economy. Tricia is chair of the national Regulation Matters (RM) campaign.1. What is the Regulation Matters campaign? RM is a UK-based national campaign calling for the registration of all childcarers sothat nannies and other home childcare professionals are brought under the sameregulatory umbrella and held to the same registration standards currently requiredofchildminders.Theobjectiveistosafeguardchildren,improvechildcarestandards, create consistency in the childcare industry, and finally give nannies theprofessional recognition they so richly deserve. 2. How and when was it started?We have been campaigning under the banner 'Regulation Matters' since 2006. The campaign actually evolved from previous campaigns following a number ofhigh-profile cases such as the Louise Woodward case, the British au pair foundguilty of the murder of a child in America back in 1997. Originally called the Playpen campaign, we argued for the recognition of nanniesso that they would not be confused with au pairs, childminders, mothers helpers,and so on. However, the Woodward case drew everyones attention to the fact thatthered be nothing to stop anyone found guilty of a child-related crime in the USfrom taking up a post as a nanny in the UK. This shifted the focus for the campaignto the registration of nannies and the regulation of nanny agencies, which is howRegulation Matters came about. You might be reading this and thinking to yourself, Wow, the campaign has beengoing a long time and still nannies are not registered, and of course, both pointsare indeed true. However, it is well known that campaigns calling for a change tolegislation can take many years, and therefore time isnt an indicator of success asfar as we are concerned. We will continue our work to completion!3. What are your objectives?In the absence of registration and regulation, our key objective is to develop a self-regulatory framework for all practitioners and agencies to work within. Thats a tall order because if you dont have total buy-in from nannies and agencies,anything you come up with will just be ignored, and we cant let that happen. The important work of any campaign is not just to call for change and make certaindemands. You have to clarify what it is you mean. What could registration andregulation actually look like? You have to be clear about the impact of that changeand be prepared to produce a model that is tried and tested. When you get in frontof government, you need to do more than merely present the problemyou need todemonstrate the solution. NannyMag.com| 19"