GovWire

As a childminder, you can:

• work solely from your or somebody elses home, or work from your or somebody elses home and spend some of your time on non-domestic premises, such as a community or village hall

Or

• work solely from somewhere other than a home, like a community or village hall. It does not count as childminding if it is the home of one of the children being cared for, unless the care is for more than 2 different families at the same time.

You can either follow the guidance on this page to register as a childminder with Ofsted, or you can register with a childminder agency instead. See:

• childminder agencies contact information and Ofsted reports

• background information about childminder agencies on the Foundation Years site

There are some situations when you cannot or may not need to register with Ofsted or a childminder agency.

You can work alone or with up to 3 childminders at any one time. Each childminder (often known as co-childminders) must apply to register separately.

If you work with 4 or more other people providing or assisting with care, you are providing childcare on domestic premises. You must register with Ofsted or with a childminder agency.

You may also want to work in different settings as well as being a childminder.

You only need to apply as a childminder once, even if you work from a number of different homes or premises. However, you must tell us about all of the premises where you will work.

You can operate either as an individual or as an organisation (for example Jenny Smith or Jenny Smith trading as SuperStars (Ltd)) but for Ofsted registration purposes you will be treated as an individual registered person. If you become a company after you register, you will not need to apply again.

Childminder assistants

You can have assistants but can only leave them alone with children for up to 2 hours a day (with parental permission). If you want to leave children alone with assistants for longer periods of time, the assistants must register as childminders in their own right.

Your assistants need to get an enhanced check with barred lists from DBS. You will need to use the Childminder: report new adults in the home service. They cannot work unsupervised until they have received their suitability letter from Ofsted.

If there are 5 or more people working together to provide or assist with childcare on a domestic premise, this is a childcare on domestic premises provider and a type of group provision.

You can either apply to register with Ofsted as a provider of childcare on domestic premises, or you can register with a childminder agency instead. See:

• childminder agencies contact information and Ofsted reports

• background information about childminder agencies on the Foundation Years site

You cannot work as a childminder and offer childcare on domestic premises under the same registration. If you want to work part of your time as a childminder, and part as childcare on domestic premises, you need to register separately for each. You will need to pay 2 fees and have separate inspections.

You can apply either as an individual or as an organisation (for example Jenny Smith or Jenny Smith trading as SuperStars (Ltd)). If you become a company after you register, you will need to apply again.

You will need to have an enhanced check with barred lists from DBS for yourself. You can get this using the Ofsted DBS service.

Anyone aged 16 or over in the home also needs an enhanced check with barred lists from DBS. This includes:

• anyone who lives in that home

• anyone who works there during childcare hours

• any assistants who will be working with you

Find out more about household members or visitors that we need to know about.

We may need extra documentation if you have lived abroad in the last 5

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