CM club- confused over numbers of children over 8yrs

[mazzed42]

me and my sis are both childminders, i am registered for 4 under 8 and she can have 5 under 8 or 6 under eight with her assistant. but how many over 8 can you have if you are at your max under 8.
does that make sense? i thought you could only have a max of 6 children, even if some of them r over 8. is this right?

AFAIK its up to your abiliaty and resources..so if you are full, then one-two over eights would be more than enough as you have to maintain the quality of care with the younger ones..thing i once read somewhere it was up to ten all in all?

oh right, i have asked ofsted before but they didn't give a very clear answer. just wondered what the max is that anyone should have at once. i didn't know it was 10.

Do ofsted ever give clear answers?

10 in dependant upon your personal ratios..i am allowed 6 children under 8, and 'think' 2 more up to ten...if you were not allowed 6 under 8, you may not be allowed the ten, gos on space, abiliity to care for so many little nes(not questioning your ability mind) thats just what they say.

i asked CIS few months ago and they said as many as i could sensibly handle/care for and that i must put the younger ones forst...you could always ask for an assistant from local college to help?

yes i thought about that a while ago so i got my mum registered as my assistant. sometimes in school hols i do have more and some are over 8. ok well im not going to go mad and have a house full anyway as we dont have a huge house.
And hennipenni, no i don't think ofsted ever do!!!lol

PinkChick - I've never been told that before about certain numbers to do with ratios? I thought it was just you're allowed your limit of under 8's as per certificate but then you're allowed as many over 8 as long as it's not affecting the care of the younger children. I do however remember something about the public liability insurance.....let me check mine...........right, I'm with NCMA and it says that the insurance covers the number of under 8's as stated on certificate, in addition, cover is provided for children aged 8-15 years old, maximum number of children the policy will cover is 12, 2 reg'd childminders working together can have a max of 18 children in total.

Can anyone else confirm the over 8's as far as Ofsted are concerned as I've never heard of that. I've never had loads of children but just want to know because I hate not knowing things! lol

Good to know what the NCMA insurance says, I had thought 10 was the limit on the NCMA insurance - but seems as though it's 12 (for a single childminder).

The 10 figure I think comes from some local authority Town Planning departments, who consider that once you have 10 children on the premises, then they will count you as a nursery with regard to planning permission approval. Have not found this in writing anywhere, and I suspect it will vary a lot between Town planning departments. Anyone else heard anything regarding planning permission affecting number of minded children?

Me

Planning only allow me 12 - with 3 staff I could have 18 - but planning say no