Childminder Registration in England: Ofsted or an Agency, the Ratios, and the New Inspection Cycle

Childminding in England is regulated more tightly than most people realise, and the framework changed twice in recent years — once in November 2024, when new provider categories arrived, and again in September 2026, when the inspection approach and report cards were replaced.

This guide sets out who must register, which register you go on, the ratios, and how inspection now works.

Who must register

Registration is required where all five of these apply: you are caring for a child under eight; you are not related to the children and have no parental responsibility for them; you are paid to look after them; you look after them for more than two hours a day; and you look after them mostly in a home, your own or someone else’s.

Applicants must be 18 or over. Those looking after only their own relatives cannot register. Caring for up to two families at the same time in the home of one of the children may be exempt. Providers caring for children aged eight and over may register voluntarily.

The legislative basis is the Childcare Act 2006 together with the Childcare (Early Years Register) Regulations 2008, the Childcare (General Childcare Register) Regulations 2008, the Common Provisions Regulations 2008 and the Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012, with exemptions under the Childcare (Exemptions from Registration) Order 2008.

The three registers

• The Early Years Register — children from birth to the 31 August after their fifth birthday.
• The compulsory part of the General Childcare Register — children from the 1 September after their fifth birthday to their eighth birthday.
• The voluntary part of the General Childcare Register — children aged eight and over, or providers exempt from registration who choose to register.

Ofsted or a childminder agency — one or the other

You register with Ofsted or with a childminder agency, never both. Ofsted is explicit: if you register with an agency you cannot register with Ofsted.

With Ofsted you are the individual registered person. Ofsted carries out the suitability checks, the registration visit and inspections, and publishes your details. Agencies register childminders and childcare on domestic premises and can also provide training, business support, advice and help finding parents. Agencies themselves must register with Ofsted and are inspected by Ofsted.

The practical consequence that most prospective childminders are not told: an agency-registered childminder does not receive an individual Ofsted grade or report. Ofsted visits a sample of an agency’s providers to assess the quality of agency support, and those visits last one to three hours and expressly do not result in a judgement or feedback. Agencies are judged effective or ineffective overall, on leadership and management, the quality of services, and their impact on providers’ education and care. After two ineffective judgements Ofsted will always consider cancellation.

Before you apply

Ofsted’s published list of what to do first:

• An enhanced DBS check with barred lists, via the Ofsted DBS service or the DBS Update Service.
• A training course — the published wording is to check with your local authority for details.
• A first aid qualification suitable for the ages of the children you look after.
• A healthcare declaration completed by your doctor.
• A risk assessment of your home.
• Public liability insurance, needed when you start looking after children.

A nuance worth knowing: the EYFS childminder framework contains no statutory pre-registration training requirement other than the paediatric first aid certificate. The training course above is guidance set locally, so its content and length vary by local authority.

On the criminal records check specifically: it must be enhanced, with children’s barred lists, for the child workforce, plus a "home based" check, and must have been issued in the last three months unless you subscribe to the update service. Ofsted checks anyone aged 16 or over who lives or works on premises where childcare takes place. Childminders must also provide details of two referees, a full employment history, and a health declaration completed by a GP.

Fees, as published: childminders joining only the Childcare Register pay £103. For childcare on domestic premises, the Early Years Register fee is £220, with the Childcare Register free to join at the same time, or £114 for the Childcare Register alone, with a reduced £35 Early Years Register fee for providers working fewer than three hours a day, five days a week, or 45 weeks a year. The same annual fee is payable on the registration anniversary.

The ratios

From the EYFS childminder framework:

• Paragraph 3.50 — a maximum of six children under the age of eight, including the childminder’s own children and any other children for whom they are responsible.
• Paragraph 3.51 — a maximum of three of those may be young children, and there should only be one child under the age of one.
• Paragraph 3.52 — care provided for older children must not adversely affect the care of children receiving early years provision.
• Paragraph 3.53 — exceptions are permitted for siblings, for the childminder’s own child and for continuity of care, but the total number of children under eight being cared for must not exceed six per person.

Note that children aged five to seven fall within the overall six, with no separate cap, and that the exceptions do not lift the six-per-person ceiling.

Assistants

Assistants must be cleared as suitable by Ofsted or the agency before starting, under paragraph 3.14, and the childminder must obtain a reference for any assistant they recruit. It is the childminder’s responsibility to check the initial and ongoing suitability of an assistant. Paragraph 3.18 prohibits allowing an assistant to begin working or volunteering until the enhanced criminal records and barred list check is received.

Paragraph 3.55 permits children to be left in the sole care of a childminder’s assistant for up to two hours in a single day, with parental permission. Paragraph 3.57 prohibits anyone aged under 17 from caring for children unsupervised at any time.

On training, paragraph 3.39 requires childminders to ensure assistants receive induction training covering emergency evacuation, safeguarding, child protection, and health and safety, with supervision arrangements at paragraph 3.40. Paragraph 3.20 requires a referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service if an assistant is dismissed.

Inspection from September 2026

Ofsted’s early years inspection approach was replaced for inspections from 1 September 2026, and the changes are substantial.

• First inspection normally within 18 months of registration.
• Thereafter normally at least once in a four-year window, with the window starting in April 2026 and phased in over four years, with full implementation expected by March 2030.
• Next-inspection timing depends on the outcome: within four years if all evaluation areas are at the expected standard or above; within 12 months if any area needs attention; within six months if any area requires urgent improvement.
• The grading scale is expected standard, needs attention, or urgent improvement. Overall effectiveness is no longer part of grading — settings are graded per evaluation area, with inspectors considering whether children achieve, belong and thrive.
• There is no fixed advance notice period. Inspection begins with a notification call followed by a planning call of about 30 minutes later the same day. Unannounced inspections remain possible, and Ofsted may inspect sooner where there are concerns.
• Inspection length for childminders is about three hours.
• The draft report card normally arrives within 18 working days of the end of the inspection; the setting has five working days to comment on clarity and accuracy; the final report card normally follows within 30 working days and is published five working days after being sent.

Childcare Register-only providers are subject to separate compliance inspections, with about 10 per cent inspected each year.

The November 2024 flexibilities

A set of changes took effect on 1 November 2024 that materially widened what a childminder can do:

• A new provider category of childminders without domestic premises, working solely from non-domestic premises such as a community hall, who cannot work from any home at any time.
• The number of people working together under one single childminder registration increased from three to four.
• The requirement that at least 50 per cent of the childcare be provided in a home was removed.
• Home-based childminders may seek approval to also work from non-domestic premises, but must still spend some time at domestic premises; the time may be divided hourly, daily, weekly or monthly.
• New registrations of childcare on domestic premises after 1 November 2024 need a minimum of five people, with existing providers continuing at a minimum of four as a legacy group.

Childminders without domestic premises working with five or more others must register as childcare on non-domestic premises instead.

Frequently asked questions

How many children can a childminder look after?

A maximum of six under eight, including their own children, of whom no more than three may be young children and only one under the age of one.

Can I register with both Ofsted and an agency?

No. If you register with a childminder agency you cannot register with Ofsted.

Do agency-registered childminders get an Ofsted report?

No. Ofsted inspects the agency and visits a sample of its providers, and those visits do not result in a judgement or feedback.

Is pre-registration training a statutory requirement?

Only the paediatric first aid certificate is required by the framework. The training course referred to in guidance is set locally, so check with your local authority.

How long is my DBS check valid for the application?

It must have been issued in the last three months unless you subscribe to the DBS Update Service.

When will I first be inspected?

Normally within 18 months of registration, with inspections lasting about three hours for childminders.

Keeping the training evidence straight

The statutory training obligations for a childminding setting are narrow but absolute: paediatric first aid held continuously, safeguarding training renewed every two years, and induction for any assistant covering evacuation, safeguarding, child protection and health and safety. The full picture of the framework sits in our guide to the EYFS statutory framework from September 2026.

For the content itself, see our guides to safeguarding children, to designated safeguarding lead training, to safeguarding training for volunteers, and to first aid training. To see what Learnsignal offers, explore our CPD courses or see pricing for teams.