Mums who haven’t managed to get jobs because they can’t find child minders have turned the tables on the shortage of care in the East End—by training as carers themselves!

They signed up to a course run by the Limehouse Project training them to the level required by health and safety regulations to look after other people’s children in a ‘home’ setting.

The first seven mums from Stepney’s Ocean housing estate have now qualified as child minders in the programme paid for by Tower Hamlets Homes.

The organisation’s neighbourhood director David Thompson, who presented their Childcare diplomas, said: “They’re on the road to employment as well as now being in a position to help others get jobs by increasing the availability of childminding in the area.”

Each trained mum can now register as a qualified childminder with Ofsted and the local authority.