The NSPCC wants a complete ban on smacking

Child welfare groups have welcomed plans to ban childminders in England from smacking children in their care.

The ban, announced by Health Secretary Alan Milburn, will also prevent childminders smoking in front of children.

Kate Harper of Save the Children said: "This is a great day for the protection of children who are in the care of others outside the parental home.

"What we have here is childminders who are professional child carers, who give a very good service to the majority of children in the country and who have said themselves that they do not want to use physical punishment."

We're delighted the government has now listened to the views of childminders Gill Haynes, National Childminding Association

The National Childminding Association, which has been campaigning for 10 years against childcare workers using physical punishment, also welcomed the move.

Chief executive Gill Haynes said: "We're delighted the government has now listened to the views of childminders on these extremely important issues.

"We've repeatedly argued that professional childcarers do not need to resort to smacking."

Loophole

The national childcare charity Daycare Trust said the review was a chance to improve standards and represented a "victory for children's rights".

Its director, Stephen Burke, said: "This is a logical move, bringing childminding into line with other forms of childcare, which will benefit children and raise the status of childminders."

But the smacking ban will not be extended to parents, despite pressure from child protection groups lsuch as the NSPCC, as well as the United Nations.

The NSPCC said all forms of smacking had been successfully outlawed in other European countries over the last 30 years.

It found that reform did not lead to parents being prosecuted for minor incidents, with change taking place through education rather than punishment.

It also said that changes to the law had not led to more unruly children and that they were widely accepted by both the general public and parents.

But the charity's chief executive and director, Mary Marsh, did welcome Sunday's announcement.

She said: "We hope that a serious loophole in child protection standards that allows childminders to hit children with parental consent will now be closed.

"Making it illegal for childminders to hit a child, along with all other professionals looking after children, could prevent children from coming to harm in the future."

Discipline

But Ferris Lindsay, of Friends of the Family, said smacking played an important role in training children and that parents who have vetted their childminders could trust them to make proper judgments about discipline.

The decision represents a U-turn for the government, which angered childcare organisations by refusing to ban smacking or smoking when it introduced new regulations for childminders in August 2000.

Ministers said then it was a matter for agreement between parents and childminders.

Under the new rules, up to 70,000 childminders in England will be forbidden from smacking or using any form of corporal punishment against children under the age of eight.

The rules will apply even if they have the written consent of the parent.

The Department of Education said it was time to impose the same rules on childminders as those that govern nursery staff and teachers.

This measure is not about telling parents how to bring up their kids Alan Milburn Health Secretary

Announcing the new measures, the government said it had no desire to interfere excessively in family life and prompt accusations that it is criminalising ordinary people.

Mr Milburn told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme: "This measure is not about telling parents how to bring up their kids, but equally there's got to be some protection for children.

"Nowadays nobody would be very happy if teachers and nursery nurses started hitting children.

"So there is an anomaly here that needs clearing up, and that's in relation to childminders."