Number of children childminders can have

[LeZa]

Hi, my children have been going to a childminder for a while now...mostly it is fine...my concern is the number of children the childminder has in her care. Last week I collected my children from her...they were in her local park and I counted that she had 13 children with her (she was the only adult)...4 of the children were under 5 (my 2 included in this) and the other 9 children were primary school children (1 of which was her child)...is this allowed? Thanks

hi she can have 3 under 5 (but could have 4) but no more than 6 under 8. And as long as she does a risk assess she can have as many as she wants over 8 s but normally my insurance only insures you for 12 kids .

Thank you

She can go over the under 5 ratio by up to 6 children....however she must be able to demonstrate that she can meet everyone's needs and it reduces the 5 to 8 year olds she can have ....so never more than 6 aged 0 to 8. In practice she would struggle to prove she could do this and would be unwise to risk it unless an emergency. It should not be a permanent thing and you should be informed if she goes over 3 under 5.

Jannier...thank you that's really helpful. My childminder regularly has 4 or 5 under 5's....we have made the decision to take our children out of her care as there are constantly so many children and my oldest one is really unhappy there...there have been a number of issues. Thank you so much for your help.

I think that the 4 under 5 is only for siblings and continaulty of care - or something like that

As in can’t have 4 different families for the under 5

Siblings is one reason to make an exception to the ratio, but childminders can make an exception for lots of reasons - it could be 4 different families.

5 or 6 under 5s is pushing it to be able to offer a good level of care to all children though even if technically legal.

What other reasons ?

I’ve only heard of siblings so same family

Childminder having a baby, existing child changing or increasing days, parents on a shift pattern, wraparound for a child doing 30 hours at preschool, just a crossover of a few hours/day between two children's hours. Could be lots of circumstances where a childminder wants to vary the normal ratio.

Oh wow. A lot of reasons then. So surely if so many reasons that they could have 4 under 5 instead of 4

Why don’t they make it usual policy

Seems silly a nanny can have as many under 5 but a cm can’t

It is 'usual policy' - it's in the EYFS which is the legal framework ratios. 6 under 8s is the legal limit. Childminders can make exceptions to the 3 under 5s ratio.

Thanks all for your help....it all seems very complicated!

To complicate matters further .....

Under the regulations, under 5s who are normally in full time education are counted as over 5s when assessing the numbers and ages a CM can care for.

IOW any 4yo's who are normally in school do not count against her pre-school-age quota.

Don't forget that 3 year olds in school nursery (not any private nursery) getting 30 hours at school can also be taken as over 5,

The reason that this change has been made is to increase sustainability now that so much business is the lower paid funding. Nobody wanted it to become the norm when Truss proposed an increase in EYFS ratios with 'I think 10 to 1 but now its a necessity for some to keep open. Government policy to blame again.