Ofsted said no to our childminder having our twins

[strawberrylace]

Hi Everyone
I have a 3.5 yr old and 9 month old twins. I have to return to work at the beginning of September, and had been planning to have my childminder (who looked after my eldest) look after the twins - she is great, and I really trust her.

However, Ofsted have said no to her application to look after the twins. She has her husband registered as her assistant, but because she will have another child, from a different family, who is also under one, they've said she can only have one of the twins.
Obviously I am really upset about this. As soon as they are one, Ofsted have said she can have them both. Which means for 6-8 weeks I have to find some other arrangement, which possibly means splitting them up, or settling them elsewhere and then moving them (I really want her to have them longer term).
Has anyone else had any experience of this? Can I get Ofsted to change their mind?
Any help you can provide me is much appreciated

Not really the answer you're looking for but could you take parental leave? You're entitled to 13 weeks per child (upto their 5th birthday) so although you wouldn't be getting paid, you could possibly delay your return to work so that you could only go back when the childminder is allowed to have them both?

I think most childminders are generally only allowed one child under 1, there is an exception to that in certain circumstances which allows them to have 2, but I think your chances of getting OFSTED to agree to her having 3 babies under 1 are remote.

I hadn't thought of parental leave, so that could be a possibility if all else fails. Am going to look at a nursery which has spaces in the short term, and my mother in law is seeing if she can re-arrange things to help. So I think we'll be able to get something sorted - was feeling very stressed about it all yesterday

They probably would have given dispensation for her to have two under 1s if twins.. the issue is she already has an under 1