London - Childminders in Britain will be allowed to smack their charges as long as they have prior parental permission under planned new government regulations, the Department of Education said yesterday.
The new regulations should come into force in 2001, but they will not apply to children's centres, creches, playgroups and kindergardens which receive government funding.
Ms Gill Haynes, chief executive of the National Childminding Association, opposed the legislation.
"In the daycare centres across the board everybody who has anything to do with professional care and upbringing of children is agreed on this issue," she said on BBC Radio. "We know that parents and childminders don't want permission to do things which we all know are bad for children."