Making the assumption that the current law on unregistered childcare is wrong/bad/evil etc: How do the authorities differentiate between unregistered (not needing registration) childcare & registered?

[Katymac]

Assuming that:
registration is needed for tax credits
the current law is abolished

What criteria is to be used in future to decide whether someone should be registered or whether they can care for children without registration

This is not intended to be an argument about the current system - I want it to address what the system should be for the future

What do people think should happen?

Wouldn't it be more useful to allow Ofsted to demonstrate a bit of flexibility in their enforcement of the law? As someone has said earlier, the line is drawn where it should be, in the only place it can be, but they should be allowed to use some judgment in their application of it.

So the policewomen - clearly a case for a light touch. But an unregistered childminder taking money and minding in an unsafe home - time to throw the book at them.

No?

totally agree with the above post..commen sense should prevail.

I've just read in The Times on page 11 that Ed Balls has told Ofsted not to pursue parents (well, mothers) who look after each other's children and don't register as child carers.

There were parents at my daughter's school who were (and still are) refusing to collect other people's children after school because they were afraid of being prosecuted.

In light of the two policewomen being prosecuted for looking after each other's children, is there any likelihood of as big a fuss being made about this U-turn so that some semblance of normality can be resumed in the playground and mothers can stop feeling so paranoid?

Nattie the policewomen weren't prosecuted - they were told to stop the arrangement or theoretically Ofsted could have prosecuted them if they'd carried on after being told not to. Childminding without registration is not an automatic offence, you have to be given an "enforcement notice" first and only if you carry on and breach the notice can any legal action actually be taken. The policewomen were just given a notice and told to stop the arrangement, which they then did.

"playing out in the street"

Playing out in the street? Whatever next? We'll be sending them up chimneys next!

Isn't playing out in the street how we all learned to socialise and grow up not that many years ago? How did the human race manage to get as far as it did without the EYFS? How did children manage to grow and learn to cope with life without the 69 early learning goals and constant supervision?

And as for the policewomen, I hope that Ofsted apologise and quickly withdraw their notice to desist, allowing the WPCs to continue with their very sensible arrangement.