Again on references - parents know that we aren't going to give them names of people who are going to say bad things about us.

What I do try to do when I give references out is to point out the parent that might be most likely to identify with the new family in terms of most recent to start a child in care at a young age or the parent that has been with me for a long time and has two in care in that they have made the adjustments. Sometimes the parents have called my reference just to talk about the whole concept of childcare itself.